“Take Your Son, Your Only Son . . . and Sacrifice Him” (22:2) - But what about the first son? Abraham has just lost Ishmael (21:8-21). So now it has to be “your only son.” Abraham is being commanded to sacrifice his remaining son. The lost of two sons, yet the providing for both of them.

• “Abraham Got Up Early” (22:3) - From Abraham’s perspective, the God who commands has also filled his life with promises; Abraham has walked with God enough to actually believe that God has Abraham’s best interests at heart.
• Sacrificial Language - “burnt offering” comes right out of Israel’s sacrificial textbook. The language places the story within the sacrificial system. Sacrifice is costly. “Inasmuch as sacrifice involves a vehicle in and through which God gives back what has been given, the hope against hope for Abraham would be that God would somehow find a way of giving Isaac-or another life-back."
• “Abraham / God Saw . . .” (22:4, 8, 13, 14) - Twice Abraham “looked up and saw” (4, 13) and five times the infinitive for the Hebrew, “to see,” is used of Abraham and God (4, 8, 13). Abraham begins by seeing from a distance-almost off the landscape chart, but the story concludes with Abraham seeing up close: a ram caught by its horns in a bush (22:13). It’s like God sees ahead and provides.

In school, how uptight did you get over taking tests? If you were to take a treadmill stress test tomorrow, how do you think you would do?

• What possession would be the hardest for you to give up?
• How does this story remind you of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
• What do you especially need to commit to the Lord right now?
• Double Risk - “God took the risk that Abraham would respond. Abraham took the risk that God would provide” (Eugene Roop).

Please refer to the DPS homily for this week which is based on this passage.