After these things God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."

Genesis 22:1-2, RSV 

 

What would you have done? I've thought a lot about this passage over the years, and I still don't know. Maybe that's why God chose Abraham to be the father of this great nation - it was because Abraham loved God more than anything else.

 

I've also wondered why God would issue such a command in the first place. It is clear from the sequence of events that He never intended for Abraham to actually sacrifice his son as a burnt offering, but Abraham didn't know this. We can only imagine what went through Abraham's mind in the events that unfolded from the moment of that command, but there are some things that we don't have to wonder about. The first is this: These was no hesitation in Abraham when it came to fulfilling the LORD's commands. Here is the very next thing we are told, after the command was issued:

 

Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac, When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. Genesis 22:3, NIV 

 

Abraham got up early! He took his son! He cut the wood for the offering! And he set out for the place that God had told him about! We are soon told that when they arrived, Abraham left his servants behind and took his son, built the alter, arranged the wood, laid his son down on the alter and raised his knife to slay his son. I don't pretend to understand all that Abraham went through and I certainly do not pretend to understand all of the reasoning behind God's command, but I do know this: After Abraham did all of that, God stopped his hand from bringing down that knife, and He said the following words:

 

"Do not lay a hand on the boy," He said. "Do not do anything to him.

Now I know that you fear God,

because you have not withheld from Me your son, your only son."

Genesis 22:12, NIV 

 

"Now I know"! That's what God Himself said upon His seeing Abraham attempt to carry out one of the most difficult commands ever issued. We indeed know that God never intended for Abraham to actually sacrifice his son, but He did expect him to obey His commands. And while God will not likely ever ask any one of us to sacrifice our children on a fiery alter, there will be times in our lives when God will require us to make the difficult choice between those we love and obedience to Him.

 

And He will always require us to make the right decision! The good news is that He will always provide a way to acceptably fulfill all of His commands:

 

Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place "The LORD will provide." Genesis 22:13-14, NIV 

 

There is one other thing that we might want to consider: Some 2,000 years after this event, in the same region of those same mountains in Moriah, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son as a sacrifice for our sins. And though we may not understand everything there is about this situation, as Paul Harvey might have said, now you know the rest of the story. Today's reading is Genesis 21-24. May God richly bless your efforts to seek, understand, and obey His holy will!