Isaac is the fulfillment of God’s promise, the long-awaited and almost-despaired-of biological heir and heir of the covenant. Now God asks Abraham to sacrifice him.

Abraham and Isaac before the Sacrifice, Jan Victors, 1642. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Abraham’s ultimate call from God was to sacrifice his son Isaac. God had promised to bring him descendants “as numerous as the sands on the seashore” through Isaac.

As we know, the Lord did not let Abraham harm Isaac but provided a ram for the sacrifice (Gen. 22:12–13).

The moment Abraham is about to slaughter Isaac he is stopped, but not by G-d Himself who never requested this atrocity in the first place. At this point G-d is conflicted.

The perfect test and indeed the only test was to ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac while at the same time believing that God would not actually require him to go through with the sacrifice.

The perfect test and indeed the only test was to ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac while at the same time believing that God would not actually require him to go through with the sacrifice.

Admittedly, the story of Abraham, ready to sacrifice his son Isaac, seems to stand apart from any reasonable approach to Scripture.

There are versions in which Isaac’s mother, Sarah, stops the sacrifice, and versions in which Isaac runs away. Bob Dylan’s Abraham thinks God is putting him on.

The chronology of the Bible places the time of Abraham at around 1800 BCE, roughly 4,000 years ago. There is ample evidence that child sacrifice was common in many civilizations at that time.