The story of Abraham offering Isaac as a sacrifice to Yahweh presents Christians with a challenging portrait of God. If we are to believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God and contend that God is like Jesus, we do not have the liberty of dismissing or embracing the violent portraits of God.

Rather, we must find a way to interpret them in light of what we know about God through Jesus, who is the ‘radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being’ – Hebrews 1:3.