Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt-offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” (Genesis 22:2)
On the surface, this verse contains one of the most perplexing commands in all of Scripture. Let me set the scene. About 20 to 25 years earlier, God had promised the 90-year Abraham that he and his wife, Sarah, would have a son (Genesis 15). Ten years later, Isaac was born.
Isaac is now 10 to 15 years old and the Lord tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. What’s wrong with this picture? God graciously gives this couple a son, and now He wants Abraham to kill him? Incredibly, Abraham obeys up to the point of actually raising a knife to kill his son. God suddenly intervenes and tells Abraham to stop. Abraham had passed the test. What test? In His own words, God told Abraham: “Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
What’s to learn from this? Children are gifts from God. But they really belong to Him.