Will That Be On The Test?

Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!”

And he said, “Here I am.”

Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.”

So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!”

And he said, “Here I am, my son.”

Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together. (Genesis 22:1-8)

Abraham should have gotten the willies. God asked Abraham to do something outrageous that contradicts all that we know about God (see Jeremiah 7:31). In the end, God prevented Abraham from killing his son and heir. But why would God ask Abraham to do something so evil in the first place?

It was a test. In the time of Abraham, particularly among the people Abraham was living with, the sacrifice of children to the gods was commonplace (see Leviticus 18:21, 20:2-5). God wanted to see if Abraham understood yet that his God was different. Although Abraham’s faith that God could restore Isaac was commendable (see Hebrews 11:17-19 and James 2:21), it was obviously never God’s will that Isaac should be sacrificed. Abraham should have responded to God’s request as Moses did when God told him to stand aside so he could wipe out all the Israelites and start over with just Moses (see Exodus 32:9-14). What we see in this test is that Abraham still didn’t understand who God was or how much he differed from the false gods he’d grown up with and that surrounded him in his culture. Moses understood God better than Abraham did. But Abraham learned from this experience.

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