What was the purpose of GOD asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac?

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So, a friend asked me and I was having trouble answering.

GOD asked Abraham to sacrifice another human being.
And Abraham was going it. It’s wrong to kill another human, but would it be wrong (at least to prepare to) in this circumstance?

But at the same time, GOD told Abraham to do something that He didn’t really want him to do. Can we say that GOD was testing Abraham? If so what was the purpose, since GOD is omniscient and knew what Abraham would do?

Thanks,

J. S. Sebastiano P.
 
God was depicting what He would do with His own Son. The Old Testament understood in light of what was to come completes the significance of those OT events. I see the OT much like a Church in “infancy.” So like if you are raising a child, you might spank the child or inflict punishments as a loving father that you would not do when the child is more mature. So it seems God is Father to His people. His actions might “seem” strange, but there is love behind them all.

Also, check out the Litteral’s Christian Library sometime if you want to see what Early Church Fathers had to say on the passage you reference.
 
I believe God was simply testing Abraham (I thought it said that in the scropture itself?)
As to why God would test him, seeing as God knows everything, and knew what his response would be, I believe God was simply giving him the choice (God does that a lot) because it is no big deal to say that “he would have done it anyway guys, I promise.” God wanted the people to know of Abraham’s virtue, and also give Abraham’s virtue the chance to actually be used and practiced, so that it could grow, instead of just leaving it be to be perhaps mediocre. Anyway, that’s just my opinion, I’m not sure if that’s how it really went down, but it makes sense to me.
 
I believe God wanted Abraham, himself, to know to what length he would go to show his love and faithfulness to God. Abraham was willing to sacrifice his most loved son, the son who was to be Abraham’s chance to be the father of a huge nation, as God had promised. Abraham was willing to sacrifice all for God. God spared Isaac. God did not spare His own Son from being the victim of a sacrifice. This gives us a chance to reflect on how we might answer God’s request for us to sacrifice all for Him. Abraham was willing. God, too, was willing. How willing are we to say “YES” to what God asks of us?
 
There are many places in the Old Testament that foreshadow Christ. Isaac, carrying the wood up the mountain on his shoulders, and Abraham saying that God will provide the lamb. (Genesis Ch.22) Abraham thought that even dead, God could raise him from the dead, to be the blessing that God had promised. God did provide the Lamb when Christ came, carrying the wood of the Cross and Christ, on His own power, rose from the dead. Every lamb that was offered as a holocaust pointed forward in time to when Christ would walk the earth, and John the Baptist yelled out, “There goes the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!”

You might enjoy listening to Our Father’s Plan
Host: Scott Hahn & Jeff Cavins

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Remember that Jesus summed up the commandments as loving God above all, and others as ourselves.
At some period during our lives we face the choice to love God above all.
Abraham proved that he could, that he was a true son of God.
He proved that he loved God even above what he loved most dearly…and God only required, not that he follow through in killing his son, only that this was how loyal he was to God’s will that he placed God above what was most dear.
It was a test, not an action that God desire to see fruition.

God bless you. 🙂
 
JSSebastianoP said:
GOD asked Abraham to sacrifice another human being.
And Abraham was going it. It’s wrong to kill another human, but would it be wrong (at least to prepare to) in this circumstance?

But at the same time, GOD told Abraham to do something that He didn’t really want him to do. Can we say that GOD was testing Abraham? If so what was the purpose, since GOD is omniscient and knew what Abraham would do?
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When I read the account, it makes me pause because it is such a difficult thing to comprehend. Here is what I am thinking about it at the moment:

God asked Abraham to do something that went against what Abraham wanted to do - and against what Abraham thought would make sense. But, he elected to do it out of obedience and trust in God.

We are called to be obedient and to trust. Maybe it’s just me, but I do NOT do such a great job at obedience. For example - birth control - I didn’t listen when it mattered. I regret that now. I should have been obedient to the teaching of His Church. I should have trusted God. I didn’t.

I’m trying now to live a life that more closely emulates the obedience and trust of Abraham.

God shows us through Abraham how the graces will flow if we will be obedient to Him and will trust in Him.
 
We also have to remember that at the time that Abraham was asked to do this, there was no written law. The other religions were indeed sacrificing their first born children, and these God’s could do nothing… here is a God though who says come on up the mountain and worship me like the others do… but instead of that God not even responding, this God doesn’t require the sacrifice of the child… he instead provides a lamb. It shows all of those other people who are sacrificing their children to gods who never intervene, never bless, never respond… that God is the true God, a God of action, a God who provides.
 
Waiting said:
I believe God wanted Abraham, himself, to know to what length he would go to show his love and faithfulness to God. Abraham was willing to sacrifice his most loved son, the son who was to be Abraham’s chance to be the father of a huge nation, as God had promised. Abraham was willing to sacrifice all for God. God spared Isaac. God did not spare His own Son from being the victim of a sacrifice. This gives us a chance to reflect on how we might answer God’s request for us to sacrifice all for Him. Abraham was willing. God, too, was willing. How willing are we to say “YES” to what God asks of us?
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That agrees with what I have read/heard. God knows our faith and weakness; He tests us to show us our faith and weakness.
 
The answers above are really good, but I haven’t seen this one yet…

Our interaction with God is a continual exchange of gifts. God gives us something good. We should not hold on to it because God wants us to have an even better gift, and we must be willing to trust God and give up the first one (after having done something useful with it). Then he gives us a better gift.

(Think about the parable of the talents).

Ultimately, we are called to give up everything, and if we do, the God gives us the best possible gift - Himself.

In the case of Abraham, God gave him a gift. A wonderful gift, a miraculous gift. A son, Isaac, which he thought he would never have, by his wife who was way too old to have children. And a son in those days meant a lot!

But God had more in store for Abraham, he wanted him to have an even better gift. But Abraham had to be willing to give up this first gift, Isaac.

And as we know, Abraham in perfect obedience to the Father, was going to sacrifice his own son. He was willing to give up the most cherished gift possible - his son.

And what better gift did God give Abraham? He became not the father of one son but the Father of many many more - as countless as the stars in the sky.

This should be something we should all keep in mind! What gift has God given you lately, and what did you do with it? Something wonderful? And now that you have this wonderful thing, you must not become too attached to it, you must “give it back.”

I’m not smart enough to come up with the above explanation by myself - I read it in “The Gift of Faith” by Fr. Tadeusz Dajczer. It’s an awesome book, the best I ever read.
 
JSSebastianoP said:
So, a friend asked me and I was having trouble answering.

GOD asked Abraham to sacrifice another human being.
And Abraham was going it. It’s wrong to kill another human, but would it be wrong (at least to prepare to) in this circumstance?

But at the same time, GOD told Abraham to do something that He didn’t really want him to do. Can we say that GOD was testing Abraham? If so what was the purpose, since GOD is omniscient and knew what Abraham would do?

Thanks,

J. S. Sebastiano P.
Click to expand...
God gave man the gift of free will. To obey Him and choose to listen to Him, or to be disobedient and choose not to listen to Him. God was testing Abraham to see if he would obey His command and listen to Him and follow what He told him to do. Or, to see if Abraham would disobey Him and do as he [Abraham] pleased. God knowing that Abraham was a good and righteous person, stopped Abraham from sacrificing Issac, and instead offered an animal in Issac’s place to be sacrificed. And when sacrificing the animal, God knew He had an obedient and righteous person in Abraham. And because Abraham was obedient to God, willing to give his only biological son, he [Abraham] would be made the ‘‘father of many nations’’. I hope I have explained it so that you understand it.

Peace be with you!
 
JSSebastianoP said:
So, a friend asked me and I was having trouble answering.

GOD asked Abraham to sacrifice another human being.
And Abraham was going it. It’s wrong to kill another human, but would it be wrong (at least to prepare to) in this circumstance?

But at the same time, GOD told Abraham to do something that He didn’t really want him to do. Can we say that GOD was testing Abraham? If so what was the purpose, since GOD is omniscient and knew what Abraham would do?

Thanks,

J. S. Sebastiano P.
Click to expand...
We are not tested by God so that He will see what we chose to do. We are tested by God so that we may go through the experience of choosing Him and learn from that experience and increase our love for Him. Alternately we have the choice to not choose God and sin, this also can be a learning experience, like Peter’s denial.
 
MarcoPolo said:
God was depicting what He would do with His own Son. The Old Testament understood in light of what was to come completes the significance of those OT events. I see the OT much like a Church in “infancy.” So like if you are raising a child, you might spank the child or inflict punishments as a loving father that you would not do when the child is more mature. So it seems God is Father to His people. His actions might “seem” strange, but there is love behind them all.

Also, check out the Litteral’s Christian Library sometime if you want to see what Early Church Fathers had to say on the passage you reference.
Click to expand...
I agree with Marco Polo. The story does remind the reader of the death of Christ. And I checked Pope Paul VI’s Encyclical Dei Verbum. It says that “the New Testament is hidden in the Old,” This would be one of the hiding places.
 
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