Is a test a test if you know it’s a test? If Abraham had known it was a test, he wouldn’t have been tested.
Far from curious eyes, alone on the heights of Moriah, like those Two who met there behind a veil of thick darkness, Abraham prepared to do the deed. I confess my heart quivers as I think of any one of my seven beloved children in such a predicament. But here are the words: “And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son” (Gen 22:10). This was not some horrible pagan ritual where dark savages thought they might give “the fruit of [their] body for the sin of [their] soul” (Mic 6:7). No, the holy, righteous, loving and merciful God, the true God, had asked the patriarch to do this. But of course it was a test. Did Abraham know it was a test? Have you ever seen school boys during a fire drill? Do they take it seriously? Of course not; they know it’s just a test! It isn’t a test if you know it’s a test. As far as Abraham was concerned, this was REAL! He actually had sacrificed his son the moment he mounted up at Beersheba, and, no doubt, had excruciatingly sacrificed him in his mind a thousand times over on the journey north. But, as the riddle goes: What was commanded by God, but never intended; it was started, but never completed? The answer is the Big Moment in our story—the blessed interruption from heaven: “Abraham, Abraham!” called out the Angel of the Lord. Good thing Abraham had learned instant obedience, wasn’t it! And whenever I read this story, I try to understand both the joy of Abraham and the relief of Isaac. You see, I was the one deserving the sword of Jehovah’s justice at Calvary. But listen! A cry from heaven! “Deliver him from going down to the Pit; I have found a ransom” (Job 33:24). Can you take a moment to enjoy again your sweet deliverance today?