The Patriarch Abraham is presented in the Old Testament as one of the first men to have made a covenant with God. The father of faith believed that God could give him a son while he and his wife were very advanced in age. The story of Abraham and Isaac is the story of one father’s faith that God rewarded by giving him the Son of promise. However, why did Abraham have to sacrifice Isaac ? Read on to learn about the Biblical passage that describes the Sacrifice of Isaac and understand why God asked him for that sacrifice!
1 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied.
2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded 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.
4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.
5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together,
7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.
10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied.
12 “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.”
13 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. (Genesis 22:1-13)
Isaac was the son that Abraham had been waiting for all his life; the son that he so cherished! In our lives, Isaac can represent the job that we've wanted for so long, the education we have finally been accepted to, or the person we match and get along with better than anyone else. Would we be ready, like Abraham, to detach ourselves from these things if God asked us? The Lord Jesus tells us: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:16). To be a disciple of Jesus is to trust him and not be afraid of having to give oneself up if he asks us.
The example of Abraham shows us that what God wants is for us to love him more than anything else. He is the only one worthy of worship and he does not want anyone or anything to compete with him. The book of Hebrews reveals to us that it was not by force that Abraham decided to offer his Son, but it is by faith. Indeed, it is written: “Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.” (Hebrews 11:19) Thus, when we offer God something precious, which holds us at heart, we must believe that God rewards those who trust him and so we will give him with joy.