The story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22 is one of the most difficult stories in the Old Testament. After all the trouble Abraham endured to receive his one son, Isaac, now God is asking Abraham to sacrifice his child as an act of obedience. In the rest of the Old Testament, child sacrifice is perhaps the most abhorrent sin a person can commit. There is nothing worse than killing an innocent child for the benefit of someone else. So why does God here ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac? In some ways it seems like a very cruel test of Abraham. For the text itself the lesson is clear: Abraham names the mountain to which he takes Isaac, “God will provide.” More than anything else, God is a giving, providing God that Abraham can trust. This is an important question—what is God’s character? The truth is that, at one time or another, most of us experience circumstances in which there is a lot of pain and sorrow. And we wonder, “Where is God’s love in all of this?” We can trust God. How do we
