1 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”“Here I am,” he replied.2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”“Here I am,” he replied.12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”15 The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”19 Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.REFLECTIONSWritten by Sam DarmoIt is hard for unbelieving people to understand that this story is not about Abraham and Isaac but about God and His Son Jesus. An atheist cousin of mine once verbally accused me of being a prompter of evil against children because of this story. Atheists love to use this story to attack our God, they ask “how can a good God ask a man to sacrifice his one and only beloved son?” They don’t understand that this is exactly what God did to save us. John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”God will never ask us to sacrifice our children for Him (Jer 7:30-34), as Muslims do through Islamic Jehad or as pagans did in the past. God specifically brought judgement on the people of the promised land because of this evil as we are reminded of in Deuteronomy 12:31“31 You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.”We are grateful for God who raised up Abraham and Isaac, so we can see and understand the love of God towards us. Abraham carried the fire and Isaac the wood (v 6) and this is to show us how God’s plan of redemption for us always involved His fiery wrath being poured out on His One and Only beloved