Genesis 22

Genesis 22 opens with After these things God tested Abraham — the narrator tells the reader it is a test, though Abraham is not told. The command is precise and graduated in its emotional weight: take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you. Abraham rises early in the morning, saddles his donkey, takes two young men and his son Isaac, cuts the wood for the burnt offering, and sets out for the place God has told him. On the third day Abraham looks up and sees the place from afar. He tells the young men to stay with the donkey — we will go and worship and come back to you. The plural we has been read as faith, or as deception of the servants, or both.

Abraham puts the wood on Isaac and carries the fire and the knife himself. Isaac speaks: my father. Yes, my son. Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? My son, God will provide the lamb for the burnt offering. So they went both of them together — the phrase appears twice, on either side of that conversation, as if the walking together past the unanswered question is what the chapter costs. At the place Abraham builds the altar, lays the wood, binds his son, lays him on the altar. He stretches out his hand and takes the knife to slaughter his son. The angel of the LORD calls from heaven: Abraham, Abraham. Here I am. Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. Abraham looks up and sees a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. He offers the ram. He calls the place the LORD will provide. The angel calls again and reaffirms every element of the covenant: because you have done this and not withheld your son, I will bless you and multiply your offspring like the stars of heaven and the sand on the seashore.