Genesis 22King James Version
One of the hardest stories in Scripture. God tells Abraham to take his only son Isaac, the son he loves, and offer him as a burnt offering on a mountain. Abraham obeys without a word. He climbs the mountain, builds the altar, binds his son, and raises the knife. At the last moment, an angel stops him and a ram appears caught in the thicket. The text never tells us what Abraham was thinking on the way up.
God tests Abraham: take Isaac, your only son, to Moriah and offer him as a burnt offering. Abraham rises early, travels three days, tells his servants to wait, and walks with Isaac to the mountain. Isaac carries the wood and asks where the lamb is. Abraham says God will provide. He binds Isaac and raises the knife. An angel stops him. A ram is caught in a thicket. Abraham names the place The LORD Will Provide. God renews the covenant promises.
The ultimate test is not whether Abraham will obey but whether he trusts that God can give back what God asks for, and the chapter answers by providing a substitute at the last possible moment.
8: "And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together." Abraham may not know the outcome, but what he says to his son turns out to be exactly true.
Child sacrifice existed in the ancient Near East. Neighboring cultures practiced it. The point of the chapter may partly be God declaring clearly: I do not want that from you. The ram substitution is the answer. But the author does not make it easy. Three days is long enough to imagine everything. The fact that Isaac comes down from the mountain alive is the surprise.
Abraham, whose obedience is absolute and whose speech is careful; Isaac, carrying wood and asking the right question; the angel, who intervenes twice; the ram, caught in a thicket.
The Akedah, the binding of Isaac, is the most interpreted passage in all of Genesis. Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions each read it differently. For Christians it foreshadows substitutionary sacrifice. For Jewish tradition it is the ultimate test of faith. For Muslims, the son is Ishmael. Mount Moriah is identified in Chronicles as the site of Solomon's Temple, and later as Jerusalem.
For when you are being asked to lay down the most precious thing you have and you do not know if you will get it back. The three-day walk to Moriah is three days of silence. The text does not tell us what Abraham is thinking, and that restraint is itself a kind of mercy.
1And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.
2And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
3And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.
4Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.
5And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.
6And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.
7And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
8And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
9And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
10And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
11And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
12And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
13And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
14And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.
15And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,
16And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:
17That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
18And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
19So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.
20And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah, she hath also born children unto thy brother Nahor;
21Huz his firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram,
22And Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel.
23And Bethuel begat Rebekah: these eight Milcah did bear to Nahor, Abraham's brother.
24And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, she bare also Tebah, and Gaham, and Thahash, and Maachah.