Clearly it was at night that Abraham heard God's voice. It was now about 40 or 50 years since Abraham had left Haran in obedience to that same voice. He'd made mistakes when he'd thought the voice of his own desires was that of God. But by now he knew whose voice he heard.

God's request and Abraham's response.

Abraham – this was a message for him alone – something he alone could do. Here I am – the answer of the ready and obedient servant. Old as he was, he hadn't sought or expected retirement from serving God. As we age – is that our attitude? Are we like George Whitefield who said, I had rather wear out than rust out ?

Take your son. Here the Hebrew adds a word that turns the command into a request. It isn't as strong as a please – because God still makes his will plain – but he indicates he will understand if Abraham considers the burden of this request is too great.

Take your son, your only son. God knows the cost as he spells out his message. Abraham has already obeyed God in parting physically with Ishmael – he does indeed have only one son. Your only son, whom you love. But he loved them both! Isaac! Now there can be no doubt! Abraham's obedience was immediate – he rose early in the morning. Doing the will of God is not made easier by putting it off.

I think we may legitimately use our imagination as we picture that three day ordeal. I owe the following thoughts to a Jewish Christian commentator [H.L.Ellison, in 'Fathers of the Covenant'], as we now follow the four men on their 60 mile journey northwards from Beersheba, along the old road that ran from Egypt to the Euphrates.

Moriah is only mentioned once more in the Bible (2 Chron 3:1). There it is identified with the site of Solomon's temple – so we take it as being in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. It is very possibly a local word meaning, The king's land – but Abraham will name it, The mountain of the LORD (Gen 22:14).

We may picture Isaac and the two other young men happily exchanging news with every passing caravan. They were young, without a care, and on the high road. They will hardly have noticed Abraham's silence. A pause during the midday heat, and then on northwards till they camped for the night.

The young men would be soon asleep, while the aged Abraham tended the fire, kept burning to frighten off wild animals. I wonder – did he hear a voice that had dogged him all day? Abraham, you poor fool. Didn't I warn you in Ur, in Haran, that you shouldn't trust El Shaddai? You thought you had everything, when you had Isaac – but in a few hours you will have nothing. Poor fool! Or did Abraham look up at the stars, trying to remind himself of God's promise – but find them so cold, far away and mocking?

The night passes, a new day dawns and they are soon on the road again. They pass through Hebron, with its well-known faces. Probably Abraham had to stop and introduce his son to old friends – while his heart bled! And so at last the second night, and once again three sleep and one stays awake. This time Abraham sleeps and Isaac watches.

New thoughts had come to the old man during the day. As he looked back over all the events of his life, he had to confess the faithfulness of God. He'd always been as good as his word – so why should he be different now? After all, Isaac was a miracle baby. If God was the author of life – hadn't he the power to restore him to life again? As the writer to the Hebrews expresses it, Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead. (Heb 11:19). So Abraham slept with a lighter heart.

I think for Isaac the novelty of the journey had worn off – and he had time now to think about its purpose – and of his father's strange silence. Sacrifice was a time for joy and fellowship with God – but there was no joy here. All that was necessary for the offering had been prepared – except the victim. True enough, they could have bought one at several places they had passed. We can picture, perhaps, a strange feeling stealing over Isaac that he was destined to be the offering.

Human sacrifice was not unknown at that time – but it was not common. (Lev 18:21;20:1-5; Dt 18:10; Josh 6:26+1 Kngs 16:34; Jdg 11:30f; 2 Kngs 3:27; 16:3; 23:10; Mic 6:6) God must have some very special reason, to have asked for it. I wonder if Isaac prayed by that camp-fire – such words as these? O God, God of my father Abraham. You gave me life. You have promised to pass on blessing to the world through me. I don't know you as my father does. I haven't served you as he has – but I must trust you and obey you. If I'm to be the sacrifice, I don't understand why. I'm afraid – yet I'm willing, if only for my father's sake.

And so the third morning came. They crossed the hill where later Bethlehem was to stand, and before them lay the little Jebusite town of Salem where once Abraham had been greeted by Melchizedek. Then God said, You are nearly there, Abraham. As they mounted the Kidron valley, Abraham said to his servants, This will do, lads. The sacrifice concerns only Isaac and me. Stay here with the donkey while we go up there. Perhaps there was a pausebefore Abraham added, in words of victorious faith, We shall come again to you.

In the early morning light father and son climb the hill together in silence – Isaac bowed under the weight of the wood, Abraham carrying the knife and the fire. Isaac decides the time has come for certainty. Father? Yes, my son? The wood and fire are here – but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? God himself will provide the lamb.. my son. Did they just exchange looks, or did Isaac say, I understand and I'm ready? They were so close, that father and son, it seems they didn't need to say more. But the hardest burden must have lifted from Abraham's heart.

The final preparations would not have taken long. Rough stones would soon have made an altar to put the wood upon. Then Abraham bound Isaac's legs together. The word bound is used only here in the Bible – but it seems to have been a technical word for binding an animal for sacrifice. Isaac was treated exactly as a sacrificial animal would be – which shows he was a willing victim. For he could certainly have resisted, had he chosen to.

Abraham picks up the knife – and concentrates so hard on what is about to do – that it takes God's double call, Abraham! Abraham! to arrest his action. Do not touch him! Now I know you are a God-fearing man. God had always known it – but now Abraham knows that he knows – as did all heaven as well!

I expect Abraham could scarcely see for tears to undo Isaac and let him go. As they fall into each other's arms, perhaps it was Isaac who first sees the ram caught by its horns. Do you see what I see? Didn't I tell you God would provide the lamb?! And so it was offered up instead of Isaac.

The lessons we are to learn: Why did God test Abraham?

What are the lessons we should draw from this story? Let's first try to answer the question, Why did God test Abraham in this way? For we are plainly told that this was a divine test, not some demonic temptation. But we might be tempted to ask, Did God really have to be so cruel? What we should ask instead is, What was God's intention?

1. Bringing him to a place of greater assurance

God doesn't tell Abraham – but plainly he brings Abraham into a place of greater assurance and blessing – knowing God's ability and willingness to rescue him from every extremity. God desires that each of us goes on growing in faith – getting to know him better – and rejecting all that hinders that growth. When we are young Christians, God usually treats us very gently and gives us much joy in our new-found faith. We are the young lambs of his flock. But as we grow, he exercises us with trials and difficulties, so that we may rely on him all the more – and distrust ourselves.

If we are to receive mountain-top experiences of God – we must expect that he will take us by rocky and precipitous paths. So, if we discover ourselves in some such place of great difficulty and trial – don't interpret that (in the absence of other evidence) that that is a sign that matters are amiss in our lives. Rather interpret it that we are very much in God's hands of love. Or to change the metaphor, that we are in the hands of the master potter, who wants to make of us a thing of beauty and usefulness.

Of course, it is right to examine ourselves, to see if we've left God's way for us – but if, after prayer, our conscience doesn't condemn us – take it that God intends a work of grace in our lives!

2. Demonstrating Abraham's faith.

Another reason why God tested Abraham. It is engineering practice to test materials to see how far we can rely upon them. And a claim made about a person requires proof, before we rely upon them. Abraham was to be the father of all who believe (Rom 4:11,12) – and therefore the reality of his faith had to be put beyond doubt. If our faith in God is really genuine – it will be seen by the things we do, and by the way we respond to suffering.

Paul, speaking of himself and his fellow apostles, says, We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men. (1 Cor 4:9) and of us all he says, God's intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms (Eph 3:10). There are spiritual beings who do not have merely to take God's words about men and women – but who see them borne out by their behaviour. The painful testing and great suffering of God's people here on earth have a wider meaning than we can possibly know now.

3. Foreshadowing God's sacrifice

Finally there was another purpose behind this test – although Abraham was not to know it here. It has given us a foreshadowing of a greater Father's willingness to give up his only Son to die for us all.

Other lessons...

I will return to that – but there are other lessons for us to learn and put into practice. Abraham believed God and his word – and acted upon it. This was a trust that overcame his inability to resolve the contradiction between the two words God had spoken concerning Isaac. The promise, I will establish my covenant with Isaac as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him... it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned (Gen 17:19; 21:12) – and the request, Take your son Isaac and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering... (Gen 22:2)

4. Living for a future yet unseen.

Abraham lived for a future yet unseen, and reckoned that obedience was the path to it. He recognised that God was greater than his own understanding, and also that God was faithful to his word and promise. He chose the way of trust in God, rather than the self-seeking, self-trusting way of the world.

What is our perspective? Will we trust God in situations to which we have no answer – whatever the cost of rejecting the world's estimate of that situation, or the choice it would make? Are our eyes on the future God has promised us – so that our values here are entirely coloured by that prospect? Will we respond in our day-to-day choices and decisions, with regard to our work, our family life, our sorrows and our joys – in ways that reflect such values? Or will we make the prudential, risk-free and self-pleasing choices that the worldly make? In a word, will we live for time, or for eternity?

5. Having no higher love than love for God.

Of course, this may prove to be very costly, as it was for Abraham. Because what God asked for was what Abraham valued above everything else – and that treasure was a person. However understandably and naturally we may love someone – that person may stand between us and God – between us and our doing God's will. But God asks to be in the very highest place in our lives – to be the very first love of our hearts. Are we willing to surrender other loves to him? It is the willingness that he asks for.

Parents may regard a child as a possession, rather than a stewardship that must end. We would like a son or daughter to be near us – but God is calling them abroad, maybe to the mission field. Or the one to whom we are engaged to marry – how ready are we to give them up, if God asks us? God may ask us to surrender our dearest companion, by yielding to him, when he calls home the delight of our eyes. (Ezek 24:16) He has a right to, for he has given us all we possess.

That was true for Abraham – for Isaac had been given by God in a very special way. Abraham had waited so long for Isaac – he was the very embodiment of God's promise to Abraham. As he'd watched Isaac grow up to manhood Abraham's sense of identity as a human being, his whole purpose and future had been summed up in this much loved son. This request of God's made no sense at all. How could he ever again trust God or call himself God's friend?

But God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts. He may call us to make sacrifices which make no sense to us. We Christians of the West are so used to using our minds to argue things through every time – that we find it hard to accept that we are no judge of what God wants. We have no right to demand, like Job, that God should justify his ways to us.

In our culture, where scientific explanation has taken away our awe at God's greatness and majesty (whereas it should have enhanced it!), and where the Enlightenment has so impressed a sense of man's rights and equality, as to remove a respect for others, and for their Creator – the result has been that God's utter sovereignty is resented all the more.

But God wants us to trust him when all is dark and painful. To trust that he knows, he cares, he loves us – and is utterly trustworthy. So that we give him what he truly deserves – all our heart's love. A burnt-offering had to be an offering made freely – and offered totally, with nothing held back.

6. Knowing God's love for us.

Of course, the proof that this is really the character of God, lies in what he has done for us in the person of Jesus Christ, his Son. I told the story of Abraham's offering of Isaac to bring out the cost of those three days. How much greater was the cost of those thirty-odd years for both Father and Son, as they went together to the Cross – knowing that it was to be no picture death and resurrection – but the grimmest reality?

Scripture makes it clear that we all.. have gone astray and each of us has turned to his own way (Isa 53:6) – and therefore we deserve only condemnation and everlasting destruction, shut out from the presence of the Lord (2 Thess 1:9). But – and it's so wonderful a but – that verse from Isaiah goes on, in effect, to tell us that the Father laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all.

Or, in Paul's words, God made him, who had no sin, to be sin for us.(2 Cor 5:21) What does that mean? It means that, in extraordinary love, God provided an innocent substitute for us. Just as the ram was substituted for Isaac – so Jesus took our place, and became instead of us the object of God's wrath and judgement, on account of our sins, and for our sakes.

The intention of that exchange, Paul says, is that, in him we might become the righteousness of God.(2 Cor 5:21) Does that mean, when we trust Jesus and commit our lives to him as Lord – that we become instantly righteous in ourselves? God knows, we do not! (although that is God's final intention). But God counts us straightaway as having the righteousness of Christ himself. He justly forgives us and accepts us as clothed in Christ's righteousness. (John 1:12;5:24; 1 John 1:8,9; Rom 4:23-5:1; 8:1; Gal 3:10-13,26,27; Eph 2:4,8; Col 2:13) That is the wonder of the exchange God offers us – his righteousness in place of our sin! That is the very ground of Paul's gospel appeal, Be reconciled to God! (2 Cor 5:20) The overwhelming grace and love of God which is offered to us – should take our breath away – and make all our suffering and sacrifices paltry by comparison!

And Paul surely alludes to this very passage in Genesis (for he uses the same Greek word as the translators of Genesis used) when he writes, He who did not spare.. who did not withhold.. his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (Rom 8:32) Will you not say with me, Now I know that you love me, because you have not withheld your Son, your only Son... ?

In the words of C.T.Studd, a great missionary of a former generation, If Jesus Christ be God, and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him.

                                                                                          Amen.