Gen 22, 1-8 God put Abraham to the test

Genesis 22 (chosen pages)

(Gen 22, 1-8) God put Abraham to the test

[1] Some time after these events, God put Abraham to the test. He called to him, "Abraham!" "Ready!" he replied. [2] Then God said: "Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a holocaust on a height that I will point out to you." [3] Early the next morning Abraham saddled his donkey, took with him his son Isaac, and two of his servants as well, and with the wood that he had cut for the holocaust, set out for the place of which God had told him. [4] On the third day Abraham got sight of the place from afar. [5] Then he said to his servants: "Both of you stay here with the donkey, while the boy and I go on over yonder. We will worship and then come back to you." [6] Thereupon Abraham took the wood for the holocaust and laid it on his son Isaac's shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife. [7] As the two walked on together, Isaac spoke to his father Abraham. "Father!" he said. "Yes, son," he replied. Isaac continued, "Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the sheep for the holocaust?" [8] "Son," Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the sheep for the holocaust." Then the two continued going forward.

(CCC 1819) Christian hope takes up and fulfills the hope of the chosen people which has its origin and model in the hope of Abraham, who was blessed abundantly by the promises of God fulfilled in Isaac, and who was purified by the test of the sacrifice (Cf. Gen 17:4-8; 22:1-18). "Hoping against hope, he believed, and thus became the father of many nations" (Rom 4:18). (CCC 2572) As a final stage in the purification of his faith, Abraham, "who had received the promises" (Heb 11:17) is asked to sacrifice the son God had given him. Abraham's faith does not weaken (“God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering."), for he "considered that God was able to raise men even from the dead" (Gen 22:8; Heb 11:19) and so the father of believers is conformed to the likeness of the Father who will not spare his own Son but wiLl deliver him up for us all (Rom 8:32). Prayer restores man to God's likeness and enables him to share in the power of God's love that saves the multitude (Cf. Rom 8:16-21).