And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. (Genesis 22:1)
This “temptation” or test was about Abraham’s faith in God. The test was this:
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. (Genesis 22:2)
God gave Isaac to Abraham and Sarah as the child of promise:
And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. (Genesis 17:15-16)
God’s promise is clear, that this son, Isaac, will be the means by which Sarah will become the mother of nations. And now God tells Abraham to take the only son he has from Sarah, the only son of promise, the son of his old age whom he loves, and to offer him as a burnt offering.
Abraham had already lost one child, Ishmael. Abraham appeared to love Ishmael (Genesis 17:18). However, Ishmael was exiled at the request of Sarah. God instructed Abraham to listen to Sarah because it was through Isaac that Abraham’s descendants would be named (Genesis 21:12).
Now, God is requiring this child of promise to be a burnt offering. Interestingly, Genesis 22:2 is the first place in the Bible where love is mentioned. God asked Abraham to give up the son he loves, the son from whom a great nation would come according to God’s promise.
The verb tempt in verse 1 is the Hebrew word nasah, which means “to test or to prove.” When it says that God tempted Abraham, it does not mean that God was enticing Abraham to sin or to do something wrong. God often tests our faith. It is a way to prove our faith, to grow and refine it (James 1:2-4). However, God never tempts anyone to sin:
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. (James 1:13-14)
God often puts His children to the test to confirm their faith, their heart’s motives, and their commitment to Him (Exodus 15:25, 16:4, 20:20; Deuteronomy 8:12-16, 33:8; 2 Chronicles 32:31; Psalm 26:2). God tested Job even though he was “a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil.” God tested the children of Israel in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 8:3). Even Jesus was led by the Spirit to be tempted in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1).
God guided Abraham step by step, asking Abraham to follow and depend on Him. This really wasn’t anything new for Abraham. God did the same thing when He first called Abraham:
Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: (Genesis 12:1)
At that time, Abraham partially obeyed, leaving the land of Ur, but not leaving his father’s and his father’s house. Yet, eventually, Abraham obeyed fully, finally leaving the last of his father’s house when he parted from his nephew Lot. It took years for Abraham to get to full obedience, yet God was patient with him all along the way.
In this instance, Abraham obeyed God immediately. He seems to have learned his lesson that fully obeying God was in his best interest.
Here, God is leading Abraham to the land of Moriah. The word Moriah appears in 2 Chronicles 3:1 where Solomon built the temple. Many believe the location of Isaac’s sacrifice was the future site of the temple; however, there is no direct evidence this is the case.
In Genesis 22, Moriah is a region of mountains, and the specific site of Isaac’s sacrifice is on one of the mountains which God would tell Abraham to climb once he arrived in the region. Wherever the location was, it was a three-day journey from Abraham’s home (22:4).
Without hesitation, Abraham obeyed God’s command: