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. Genesis 22:2.
In a vision of the night, in his home in Beersheba, when he was one hundred and twenty years old, Abraham received the startling command, “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.” His son, his only son, the son of promise, to be sacrificed. There was no more sleep for Abraham that night.... God had promised him that his name was to be perpetuated in Isaac, but here was a severe trial of his faith. Abraham had clung to the promise of a son from his own wife Sarah, and God had fulfilled His promise.... He left Ishmael out of the question, saying, “Thine only son, Isaac.” ...
God had already told him that through Isaac his seed should be as the sand of the sea for multitude. As he stepped out into the night, he seemed to hear the divine voice that called him out of Chaldea fifty years before and said to him, “Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them.... So shall thy seed be.” Can it be the same voice that commands him to slay his son? He remembered the promise, “I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.” Is it not the voice of a stranger that commands him to offer his son as a sacrifice? Can God contradict Himself? Shall He cut off the only hope of the fulfillment of the promise? Must he become childless?
But Abraham does not reason; he obeys. His only hope is that the God who can do all things will raise his son from the dead. The knife was raised, but it did not fall. God spoke, “It is enough.” The faith of the father and the submission of the son were fully tested. “Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.”
Abraham's test was the most severe that could ever come to a human being. Had he then turned from God, he would never have been registered as the father of the faithful. Had he deviated from God's command, the world would have lost this rich example of faith in God and victory over unbelief....
Nothing is too precious to give to God. Confidence in the divine Word will lead to a doing of that Word.—Letter 110, 1897.
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