Genesis 22:2: And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
7: And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
8: And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering:
The anti-religionists bring blasphemy to new heighths with their ridicule of "G"od in "H"is omnipotence. But the sad thing is these people totally miss the significance of Abrham's willingness to obey God.
Abraham and Sarah waited many many years to have a child. Even they doubted God. Who could blame them? But God did bless them with a son. My how they must have loved that child.
Then God requested Abraham to sacrifice the boy. Abraham was torn by his own love of the child. He was also torn Sarah's love of the boy and how that might have affected her feelings for himself, and even God. Then there was the love for the boy and seeming betrayel of that boy. What a serious devistating position Abraham was put in. For all of his faults, Abraham saw it through.
Contrary to some people's comments on this tread, Abraham was blessed for his adherance to God's commands, not cursed for not rejecting them. God rewarded Abraham by telling him that his offspring would sire many tribes and nations.
There are many lessons in Abraham. Perhaps the most telling is that he was falible. Abraham was like us in that he suffered the human failties of character that we do. Despite this he was truly beloved of God, and blessed. Surely we can be too if our hearts desire it.
But as Anna has stated, Abraham and the near sacrifice of his son brought home to all who truly seek to understand God, that His sacrifice must have been so very painful. But beyond that there are aspects of Jesus' sacrifice that should be considered.
Jesus gave up His heavenly body to become one with us. Although concieved through immaculate conception, Jesus genes were mixed with the human race. For the sacrifice to take hold and the object lessions to have significance, it had to be.
Therefore Jesus gave up His heavenly perfect body in exchange for one that suffed all the negative effects of four thousand years of sin. Life spans had shrunk from nearly 1000 years to around fifty. I think we're kidding ourselves if we think that man's mental capacity hadn't suffered as well. The fact that Jesus in the human state of deminished capacities was able to devote Himself to perfection through His life and then yield up His life for us, is the seminole event of the ages.
Jesus carries the scars from his sacrifice. He always will. Throughout the ages He will inhabit the body that he was born into on this earth. His heavenly body will never be returned to Him. Jesus and the inhabitants of this earth who devoted their lives to Him will live forever as testaments to the effects of evil.
It is sad that some people are so easily confused. They think that evil comes from God. They feel that Abraham was no different than the Aztecs. What they fail to see is that without the account of Abraham and his devotion to God, our experience would be deminished. How easy it would be for us to reason that with our human frailties, we could never find the strength to follow God. But after reading about Abraham, we can see that errors are consistent with those who strive to follow God. It is only through faith in Him that we gain redemption. We do the best we can, and we fail constantly as Paul tells us. And yet because we strive to live the best life possible and ask Jesus to interceed on our behalf and forgive us our frailties, and because we accept his sacrifice and promises to reclaim us unto Him, we can be certain of our salvation.