The Testing of Abraham and the Binding of Isaac (Genesis 22:1-19)
The story of Abraham travelling to Mt. Moriah is one of the most challenging, and most gripping stories in all of Scripture. Can you imagine travelling three days with the son you love, the son you waited so long for, knowing the whole time that you were heading towards a place where you had been called to sacrifice him? What must it have been like to build the altar, to bind his hands, to come to the point where he even began to draw the blade that would take the life of this loved and promised son? Yet Abraham obeyed God, not withholding anything back from him. He obeyed God because he trusted in him believing that the merciful and just God he served would somehow spare the life of his son. In the end the story of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son, points us to the even greater story of God’s willingness to sacrifice his one and only son on our behalf and in light of how he proved his love for us in giving up his one and only son, it challenges us to consider why we wouldn’t trust him no matter what he calls us to.