I heard the story of Abraham and Isaac the other day, and it got me wondering - is there any fiction out there that depicts Abraham refusing God? Or characters that are closely analogous in a similar conflict?
I’ve read Heinlein’s Job: A Comedy of Justice and really enjoyed it. I’m thinking there’s got to be something similar where an author has riffed on the relative morality of Yahweh and Abraham.
Idomeneus, King of Crete, was an example that said “no”. In reply for not sacrificing his son, Poseidon struck Crete with a plague, and Idomeneus’ people deposed him. Bummer.
http://amiralimodjarrad.com/myth/I.html
According to others, Idomeneus *didn’t * sacrifice hhis son, and still got in troubble. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t:
There are lots of other examples of the sacrifice of the child. As in the case of Abraham, in many of these the child gets a reprieve, but not always.
the bible gives us the story of Jephthah’s Daughter.
In Greek mythology we have Phryxis and Helle:
And Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamemnon. She got sacrificed, but as a result queen Clyte,nestra turned against her husband.
In ‘The Parable Of The Old Man And The Young’, Wilfred Owen uses Abram and Isaac as a metaphor for World War I. It doesn’t quite fit your question, because it’s the other way around - God provides the ram, but
Complete poem to be found here.
I can just picture the scene. Isaac is bound . . . Abraham raises the knife . . .
GOD: PSYCH! HAW! Got you good! 
Heh-heh-heh . . .
Ermm, Abraham . . . put down that knife . . . 
sigh Yes, I know I got you all worked up . . .
Come on, Abraham, I got plans for that kid, I got to squeeze twelve tribes out of his gonads . . . Your wife got pregnant at age 80, do you have any idea how hard that was to arrange?! :mad:
sigh Yes, I’ll tell him to eat his vegetables . . .
Stop chasing girls?!
Yeah, I know all about the daughter of Nehemiah the goatherd!
Yeah, I know sheep were good enough when you were his age! Why do ya think it took your wife 80 years to get pregnant?! :rolleyes:
I know you’re looking for alternate versions of, or stories analogous to, the “Abraham sacrificing Isaac” story. But I thought I’d mention the Bible story that shows Abraham haggling with God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, as an example of where Abraham says, “Hey, wait a minute, God; are you sure that’s a good idea?”
Not totally on topic but this sketch about Abraham and God is pretty funny. God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son and he’s more than happy to do it.
“They tried to make me sacrifice Isaac,
but I said no, no, no…”
Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited”:
Oh God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son”
Abe says, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on”
God say, “No.” Abe say, “What?”
God say, “You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin’ you better run”
Well Abe says, “Where do you want this killin’ done?”
God says, “Out on Highway 61”
God: “Abraham”
Abraham: <THWACK!> “What?”
God: “Never mind”
Or with the traditional ending:
Abraham: “You know, Issac, we don’t have to tell your Mother about this…”
I was flipping through my copy of Earth (the Book) today and saw this on their map of Jerusalem (pg. 157)
Dome of the Rock: “…marks the spot where Patriarch Abraham nearly sacrificed his son Isaac at God’s command.”
about three blocks away is the Ice cream Parlor of the Rock: “Site where Abraham took Isaac to apologise.”
I’m still laughing about that.