God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac as a test of faith, obedience, and reverence. It was not about bloodshed but about whether Abraham trusted God completely, even with the son of promise. This test also served as a prophetic foreshadowing of the ultimate sacrifice God Himself would make through His Son.
“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…’”
(Genesis 22:2)
Isaac was not just any child, he was the child God had promised miraculously in Abraham’s old age. To command Abraham to give up Isaac was to ask for everything. Yet Abraham obeyed:
“So Abraham rose early in the morning… and went to the place of which God had told him.”
(Genesis 22:3)
Hebrews explains what was in Abraham’s heart:
“By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac… concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead…”
(Hebrews 11:17–19)
Abraham believed that even if he sacrificed Isaac, God would keep His promise by raising him. His faith was not in the act, but in the God who gave the command.
At the last moment, God intervened:
“But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said… ‘Do not lay your hand on the lad… for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.’”
(Genesis 22:11–12)
God never intended for Isaac to die. The request was a test, not a demand for human sacrifice. Instead, God provided a substitute:
“Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket… So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up… instead of his son.”
(Genesis 22:13)
This foreshadowed Christ, the only begotten Son, offered by the Father, yet not spared, but given for the sins of the world.
“And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide…”
(Genesis 22:14)
The account teaches that faith obeys without full understanding, and that God provides when obedience is complete. Abraham proved that nothing (not even the promised son) was more important to him than the Lord.
