Abraham and Isaac

In all his life, Abraham had never faced a more difficult decision—to sacrifice Isaac in obedience to God’s command. He’d already been told to leave the only life he’d ever known to go to a place he had never heard about, and he went simply because God asked him to go. But not this, not now … Still, Abraham knew God’s voice and, regardless of his own feelings, he followed the Lord’s directions.

“Take your son … whom you love, and go the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering” (Genesis 22:2). Before they left, Abraham told the others in his family, “We’ll be back.”

He said it in faith, because God had assured him that it would be through Isaac that a new nation would rise up. As they prepared to climb the last stretch up the mountain, Isaac turned to his father to ask a simple question, “We have wood and fire, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

With a voice of trust, but trembling with love, Abraham answered, “God will provide.” After the two worked together to build up the altar, Abraham told Isaac God’s command.

In faith, Isaac didn’t wrestle the old man to the ground or run away. He willingly let himself be bound and laid on the altar. Father and son were in agreement and both obeyed the difficult plan. Just before plunging the knife into the heart of his son, a voice called to Abraham.

“Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” It was as if Isaac had suddenly been brought back from the dead (Hebrews 11:19). At that very moment, Abraham noticed a ram caught in a thicket, and he sacrificed that ram in his son’s place. As they walked down the mountain together, Abraham turned and named the place, “God Will Provide.”