Avraham did not receive any commands until the end of Parashat Lekh-Lekha, when he was commanded to perform berit mila. Until that point, his relationship with God was a “one-way street,” with God promising wealth and greatness and demanding nothing. But God’s plan was for Avraham to create a nation that would represent Him in the world. And for a nation, voluntary service of God does not suffice.
God’s command to Avraham to leave his homeland and relocate in Canaan is issued with the famous words, “lekh lekha” (“Go forth”), which, as many have noted, are also used years later, when God commands Avraham to sacrifice his son (“lekh lekha el Eretz Ha-Moriya” – 22:2). In truth, however, these two commands are very different from one another. Rashi, citing Chazal, comments on God’s command to Avraham to “go forth” from his homeland, “Le-hana’atekha u-le’tovotekha.” Meaning, God was not actually commanding Avraham to leave, but rather promising him that he would receive great blessings if he relocated in Canaan. Indeed, after telling Avraham to go, God makes no demands and imposes no obligations, and instead describes the blessing he would receive in his new land. And thus Rashi understood that even the instruction of “lekh lekha” was less of a command than a promise, offering Avraham the opportunity to bear children and earn wealth and prestige by leaving his homeland and going “to the place where I will show you.”
When viewed from this angle, the “command” of “lekh lekha” stands in stark contrast to the command of the akeida. There, quite obviously, Avraham stood to receive no benefit whatsoever. And, God made no promises, simply and plainly issuing His command without any explanation or guarantee of reward, instructing Avraham to act in opposition to the most basic human emotions and conceptions of morality, as well as in opposition to everything Avraham had taught, preached and believed.
In fact, when we examine God’s prophecies to Avraham, we see that Avraham did not receive any commands until the end of Parashat Lekh-Lekha, when he was commanded to perform berit mila. Until that point, his relationship with God was a “one-way street,” with God promising wealth and greatness and demanding nothing. Of course, as we know from the text and, even more so, from the Midrashim, Avraham was a faithful servant of God who worked and sacrificed on behalf of monotheistic faith and morality. But all this was done voluntarily. It was not until the command of berit mila that God imposed an obligation upon him. And it might be for this reason that Avraham, according to the Gemara (Chagiga 3a), was referred to as “nadiv” (literally, “the volunteer”), as for many years his loyalty to God was expressed solely through voluntarily commitment. (These observations are made by Rav Moshe Gantz of Yeshivat Shaalvim, in his Penei Shabbat, pp. 62-63.)
Why did this change when Avraham was ninety-nine years old, whereupon he was commanded to undergo circumcision?
The command of berit mila was issued a year before the birth of Yitzchak, which marked the establishment of a nation. Until then, Avraham worked as an individual. And as someone driven by a sincere desire to serve his Creator, his volunteerism and ambition led him to great accomplishments. But God’s plan was for Avraham to create a nation that would represent Him in the world. And for a nation, voluntary service of God does not suffice. Avraham’s descendants, the Nation of Israel, could only carry out its mission by receiving and obeying God’s commands. If avodat Hashem remained strictly voluntary, we could not survive as a nation, as each individual would follow the path that he subjectively finds appropriate, and there would be no cohesion whereby we could be defined as a nation working together to serve the Almighty. Undoubtedly, the commands of the Torah leave plenty of room for voluntarism and individual areas of emphasis and specialization. But what brings us together as a nation of God’s servants is our compliance with His commands.
And thus just before Avraham the individual becomes Avraham the patriarch of a large nation, he receives his first command from God, ensuring that the legacy he leaves to his descendants includes not only the quality of “nadiv,” of voluntary commitment to the Almighty, but also that of strict compliance with the divine command.