“Take your son,” he said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” Genesis 22:2 (CSB)
If you have time, read the rest of Genesis 22.
The Binding of Isaac is one of the wildest stories in all of the Old Testament, and that is saying a lot (There is some bonkers stuff in the first thirty-nine books). At least at first glance, I think it is so shocking because it seems to fall outside God's character. Yet upon closer reading, it is one of the most complete images of God we get in the Old Testament.
The account is seemingly so out of character for God that Moses lets us know in the first verse that this whole ordeal is a test for Abraham. Remember though, Abraham did not have this information. You see, Abraham was a pagan before he encountered Yahweh. Human and child sacrifice were regular occurrences in those cultures, but Yahweh was supposed to be different! You can imagine how it could have been shocking for Abraham to get this command from God. Not just to kill one of his sons, but his "only son." Not just his only son, but the "Son he loved." If you know Abraham's story, Isaac was the promised miracle child. When Abraham's wife Sara could not get pregnant, and it seemed like God's promise to make a nation out of Abraham would not come true, God miraculously opened her womb and she conceived a baby boy that they named Isaac (Which means laughter because it was such a crazy situation). Now God wanted Abraham to sacrifice this boy. This seems horrific.
But notice, Abraham does not argue. Not one word. And he is not against arguing with God (Genesis 18). He wake up, got the servants and Isaac together, and they went for a three-day hike to Mount Moriah. Over the past few decades, Abraham has changed. He went from a doubting scoundrel and schemer to a man of complete trust in God. We know this because as Isaac and Abraham walked up the mountain, Isaac asked a reasonable question, "Uh, Dad, where is the sacrifice?" (My paraphrase). Awkward right? Abraham could have said, "You are!" Or he could have ignored him. But he responded interestingly, "God himself will provide the lamb..." (v. 8). Abraham was filled with so much faith that he did not even question God. He never argued with God because he had come to know the character of God. Yahweh's promises always come true. Always.
This is not in the text, but it does seem to be implied. God knew the depth of Abraham's trust, so he wanted to push him even farther. Rather than providing a sacrificial lamb when they got to the top, he made Abraham build the altar. Every stone and every timber must have made his heart beat faster. I would be thinking, "Where is the lamb God? Any minute now......." Nothing. Altar built, no lamb. Then he tied up his only son whom he loved. Then he placed him on the altar. Then raised his knife. It is the moment the knife is at its apex that The Angel of the Lord finally steps in and commanded him to stop. Abraham's faith was shown to be complete.
But Abraham's faith was ever deeper than Genesis tells us. He would have gone through with the sacrifice. Hebrews tells us...
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He received the promises and yet he was offering his one and only son, 18 the one to whom it had been said, Your offspring will be traced through Isaac. 19 He considered God to be able even to raise someone from the dead... Hebrews 11:17-19a
In other words, Abraham's faith in Yahweh God was so deep and immense that he was going to kill his own son with full trust that God would resurrect him to fulfill his promises. That is uncanny faith. I think I would have failed the test. How about you?
This story is about Abraham's faith, but it's also about the gospel. And those two things are not all that different. You see, when God makes a promise of salvation he follows through. When Isaac was on the altar to be sacrificed (Seemingly willingly), God provided a lamb to take his place and die on the altar built for him. I hope you can see the parallels to Christ. I will spell it out. When the altar of judgment was built for us, the Father provided his one and only son whom he loved to take our place and give us salvation.
God is not asking you to do anything of this magnitude. This was a one time occurrence and we do not see anything like in the rest of the Scriptures. But here is the lesson. You can trust God. When life is good, trust him. When life is bad, trust him. When things get absolutely wild and you cannot see a way out of the situation, have the trust to say, "God himself will provide." Then keep going until he does. You know that Christ has already provided eternal life for you by taking your place on the cross. So many people trust God with their eternities, but don't trust him with their lives. If he can do that for sinners like you and me, we can trust him for everything else.