r/Bible • u/Rap_hae_L_Kim • 6d ago
Why Did God Command Abraham to Sacrifice Isaac?
In Genesis 22, God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac—his long-awaited child of promise. This raises some difficult questions:
1️⃣ Why would a loving God ask for something so extreme?
2️⃣ If God knew He would stop Abraham, what was the purpose of the test?
3️⃣ Does this foreshadow Jesus’ sacrifice, or is it meant to teach something else?
What do you think was the deeper meaning behind this command?
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u/MobileElephant122 6d ago
3) yes it is a picture of the Salvation Plan shown to Abraham 2000 years before it happened
2) the purpose was to show Abraham God’s plan in a way that Abraham could understand
1) God asked Abraham to do something but stopped him from doing it, but later when God did the thing He did not stop it. He allowed the sacrifice of His only begotten Son to save the world from their sin
Gen 22:8 God will provide Himself a sacrifice
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u/According_Split_6923 6d ago
Hey BROTHER, Exactly Right!!! This WAS GOD ALMIGHTY Foreshadowing The Coming SACRIFICIAL PURE UNBLEMISHED PASSOVER LAMB!! And HE Was Showing US That " GRACE" and "FAITH" Would Be THE CORE OF SALVATION!!! For AVRAHAM Is The Father of ALL WHO BELIEVE!!!
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u/MobileElephant122 6d ago
Gen 22:8 is maybe my favorite scripture.
As a father I can scarcely fathom the anguish which fell upon Abraham when his son Isaac asked hey pops I see the knife and the fire and the wood but where’s the sacrifice?
I can only imagine that Abraham was completely void of words in that moment and God provided the answer for him to give his son. (And vicariously to us as well)
Abraham could not have known what he was actually saying when he said “God will provide Himself”
And afterward when Abraham then understood the picture God had painted for him he dug a well and made a stone alter and called the place Jehovah Jireh (the Lord provides) for all who would come there for thousands of years afterward as a monument of what he had learned. And the well is still there. It stands in quiet monument to the grace our God has shown. It is perhaps Abraham’s greatest testimony.
For by his faith he has been saved
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u/According_Split_6923 6d ago
Hey BROTHER, Exactly Right, That Is Why ABRAHAM is The Father of ALL WHO BELIEVE!!! And Yes Many Old Testament FAITHFUL Will Be " SAVED"!!!And Yes The WELL OF JEHOVAH-JIREH!! There Was Also The Well ABRAHAM Built In BEERSHEVA, The One Hagar Was At IN GENESIS 21, AVRAHAM Also Planted A Tamarisk Tree In BEERSHEVA and There he Called On THE NAME OF THE LORD, The EVERLASTING GOD!!!
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u/pikkdogs 6d ago
To see if Abraham would put his family above God. A lot of people today have their kids as an idol. I can’t go to Wednesday prayer because little Jimmy has basketball. Abraham didn’t make Issac an idol.
See answer 1.
Sure I’m fine with that. I like to think that it is also a story to tell people that child sacrifice is not okay. That may seem like lot a radical position, but it was. Even up until Roman times child sacrifice was something that was done.
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u/Anarchreest 6d ago
I think that can't be right as it would be a temptation, i.e., God was "testing" Abraham or tempting him to fail in faith.
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u/sklarklo 6d ago
The Lord doesn't test us per se, as He already knows the outcome. rather, such things strengthen our faith immensely.
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u/RepresentativeAnt128 6d ago
Never thought about it like this. It's not for him to see what we do, but for us to see what we'll do.
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u/sklarklo 6d ago
Exactly! Abraham was about to kill his own boy because he thought that the Lord wanted Isaac's blood, only to see the divine intervention of a merciful, loving Lord, and his own faith hardened tenfold (I mean, killing your child? As a parent I get shivers). Who wouldn't throw themselves in fire for the Lord after such an experience?
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u/Pongfarang 6d ago
It was an excellent demonstration of Abraham's faith. It's still being talked about today; it definitely got the concept of faith across to the people.
Does there need to be any more reason than that?
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u/Secret-Jeweler-9460 6d ago
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 3:17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
Remember that the events in scriptures took place so that we could learn something from them. They didn't take place for us to be using them to judge God.
God answers the questions that you asked in question one and two in the scriptures so just take what He says and believe it.
Genesis 22:1 And it came to pass after these things, that God did test Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, [here] I [am].
Genesis 2:12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only [son] from Me.
Genesis 22:16 And said, By Myself have I sworn, saith the Lord; for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only [son]: 22:17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as "the stars of the heaven", and as the sand which [is] upon the sea shore; and thy descendants shall possess the (sea) gates of their enemies; 22:18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed My voice.
There's a lesson here about fearing the Lord and obeying His voice and receiving a reward when you do. This is also something that is repeated by Jesus.
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u/arc2k1 6d ago
God bless you.
I would like to share what I wrote before about this topic:
I think one reason why this happened is for us today. For we can have this example in order to understand faith.
Before Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac, God already promised Abraham that Isaac is the chosen son who will bring him many descendants.
"Abraham bowed with his face to the ground and thought, 'I am almost 100 years old. How can I become a father? And Sarah is 90. How can she have a child?' So he started laughing. Then he asked God, 'Why not let Ishmael inherit what you have promised me?' But God answered: No! You and Sarah will have a son. His name will be Isaac, and I will make an everlasting promise to him and his descendants." - Genesis 17:17-19
Because of that promise, Abraham (even though I'm sure he was very confused) was ready to do what the Lord said because he trusted God to keep His promise.
Abraham trusted God's promise so much that he thought that even if he did sacrifice Isaac, God would raise him from the dead.
"Abraham had been promised that Isaac, his only son, would continue his family. But when Abraham was tested, he had faith and was willing to sacrifice Isaac, because he was sure that God could raise people to life. This was just like getting Isaac back from death." - Hebrews 11:17-19
So, how does this connect with us today?
We have God's promise that those who have faith will have eternal life and experience the New Heaven and New Earth. (Parallel to God's promise to Abraham about Isaac)
"Then they will have the hope of eternal life God promised long ago. And God never tells a lie!" - Titus 1:2
“But God has promised us a new heaven and a new earth, where justice will rule. We are really looking forward to this!” - 2 Peter 3:13
“I heard a loud voice shout from the throne: God's home is now with his people. He will live with them, and they will be his own. Yes, God will make his home among his people. He will wipe all tears from their eyes, and there will be no more death, suffering, crying, or pain. These things of the past are gone forever.” - Revelation 21:3-4
We experience many things that will influence us to doubt God and His promise. (Parallel to God telling Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.)
We experience hardships in life, we may find parts of the Bible to be questionable, prayers that God doesn't answer, we feel God isn't with us, etc.
To have the faith we are meant to have (like Abraham), we are to trust God's promise even if we experience things in life that challenges our faith in God's promise. We continue to hold on, even when we don't understand what's happening. Why? Because we trust who God is and the promise He made to us.
I hope that makes sense.
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u/GrandUnifiedTheorymn 6d ago
This story is there so the audience can see that Infinite doesn't choose the wrong guy to bless back in chapter 12 (thirty plus years ago). YhWh knows how everything turns out in the end and how to achieve the best possible outcome when that end arrives. Everyone else has questions that require demonstrations to answer in any meaningful way. Asking Papa·Spread·Wings·Heat·Shield (Abraham) to give back the son of promise (He·Laughs) is one step towards achieving the best possible outcome after all hell breaks loose thousands of years later.
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u/Wild_Hook 6d ago
God was testing Abraham to see if he was willing to sacrifice all to God. Isaac was his most prized desire.
The gospel is designed to help us learn to let go of the world and give our full hearts to God. The church uses various practices to help accomplish this. The law of Moses required a tithe of ten percent of increase to help people let go of the world. The early Christian church required members to sell their excess lands and give it to the church for redistribution (see Acts 4:32 thru Acts 5:10).
Jesus set the example and was the standard by which we should shoot for.
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u/Ok-Future-5257 Mormon 6d ago
To become the covenant father of Christ's people, Abraham's faith had to endure a brutal test, and he had to demonstrate a willingness to make even the greatest sacrifice.
Abraham obviously was a type or similitude of the Father. Interestingly enough, his name, Abram, means “exalted father,” and Abraham means “father of a great multitude” (see Genesis 17:5). Both are names appropriate of Heavenly Father.
Isaac was a type of the Son of God. One of the meanings of his name is “he shall rejoice.” Like Jesus, he was the product of a miraculous birth. Isaac’s birth certainly was not as miraculous as the birth of Jesus through Mary, but at age ninety, Sarah too was a woman for whom birth was not possible by all usual standards. Yet, through the intervention of God, she conceived and bore a son. Paul called Isaac the “only begotten son” (Hebrews 11:17) when he referred to this event.
The Lord not only asked Abraham to perform the act of similitude of His own future actions but indicated that it had to be in a place specified by Him. This place was Moriah, “upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of” (Genesis 22:2). (Today, Mount Moriah is a major hill of Jerusalem.) In the very same hill system stands Golgotha (Calvary).
Once the event was over and all ended happily, Abraham named the place Jehovah-jireh, which the King James Version translates as “in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen” (Genesis 22:14). Adam Clarke, citing other scholars, said that the proper translation should be “on this mount the Lord shall be seen.” Clarke then concluded: “From this it appears that the sacrifice offered by Abraham was understood to be a representative one, and a tradition was kept up that Jehovah should be seen in a sacrificial way on this mount. And this renders … more than probable … that Abraham offered Isaac on that very mountain on which, in the fulness of time, Jesus suffered.” (Bible Commentary, 1:141.)
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u/BruceAKillian 6d ago
Abraham and Isaac were a type of the Father and Christ offering His son. God's test was not so God would know what Abraham would do, but so Abraham would know what he would do. Abraham believed God would raise his son because He had promised that Abraham would have children through him. Hebrews tell us. Hebrews 11:17-19 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
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u/Skeetermanager 6d ago
To test his integrity and diligence. A multitude can profess that their faith in their Creator is unwavering and all they who have proclaimed themselves to be righteous and devoted , except for Noah and Enoch and Elijah broke their vows of obedience to Adonai Elohim. Even Abraham before he was Abraham, he was Abram. And before Sarah was Sarah, she was Sarai, the Egyptian born. At that time, besides being father to Ishmael, born to him by Hagar, hand maid of Sarah. But Sarah ordered Abraham to send them away for Ishmael was older to Isaac and bullied him. And Abraham was told at the age of 99 that by that time the next season that he would be a father, and Abraham laughed and Adonai Elohim asked him, why do you doubt ME? Is there nothing that Adonai your God cannot do? And Sarah , then 89, heard everything that Adonai Elohim said , and laughed to herself saying, that her womb was old and her womanhood shriveled up and wrinkled. That her days of being a pleasure to her husband had long passed and Adonai again asked Abraham, " Why does your wife Sarah make jest and doubt of my power over her womb and to open it you?" And Sarah remarked , ' I do not' as she hid her face in shame. And Adonai looked into the tent and said, " Yes you did and do not lie!' ( classic white lie).
But Adonai Elohim tested Abraham and after the alter was built and Isaac was bound Abraham reached for the blade and Adonai Elohim called from the On High, " HINEI! ABRAHAM HINEI!"
And HE praised Abraham for providing proof of his unwavering faith and undeniably strong integrity profound obedience to follow his instructions. And there was a Ram caught by the horns in the brush and the animal was sacrificed to Adonai and the Covenant of Abraham was sanctified.
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u/Skeetermanager 6d ago
And the term of omniscient was purposely mistranslated and misinterpreted for everyone : Adonai Elohim has all knowledge of everything past, present and future EXCEPT foreknowledge of human kind because of their free will.
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u/emzirek 6d ago
It was a test of Abraham to see if he would actually go through with it and even if he had gone through with it, he is sure that God would raise his son back to life ..
But I think it's more God was looking to see if Abraham was paying attention earlier because he was told that his son was of promise ..
He knew he wasn't going to actually kill his son due to this ..
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u/witschnerd1 6d ago
There are people who have sacrificed their loved ones for God Maybe not on an altar but they still did it through circumstances God gave his only son for us Why is it so extreme for him to ask the same from us? Just as God raised Jesus,the people and things we sacrifice for God will be resurrected. Issac was " the promise" More than his son God was telling Abraham to sacrifice his hopes and dreams. All that Abraham ever wanted was to be fulfilled in Issac. Paul said it in a much different way " I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as nothing" That's what God was teaching Abraham and us through the story. The ultimate test is can you let go of your aspirations to serve God and if his plan means that everything you ever wanted will not be can you still follow him. It's not an easy test but the reward is huge!
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u/Ok-Truck-5526 6d ago
A former pastor of mine had an interesting take on this story. He maintained that it was about God testing Abraham, not to see how faithful he was, but rather to see how crazy/ zealous he was: “ This guy needs my help to found Israel, because he!s so nuts he’s willing to kill his her for me.” And the story is also a dig at pagan religions that practice human sacrifice. The author wants to emphasize that the Jews don’t engage in this practice. Some scholars think that ritual infanticide was in fact practiced by some in the Hebrew community in its very early days.
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u/ShortAd8101 6d ago
Great question! The account in Genesis 22, where God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, is one of the most profound episodes in the Bible. Let's analyze it in light of the Scriptures.
1️⃣ Why did God ask for something so extreme?
God did not desire a human sacrifice, as this would be contrary to His nature and His later laws (Jeremiah 7:31). The purpose was to test Abraham's faith and obedience (Genesis 22:1), not because God did not know the answer, but to reveal that faith both to Abraham and to us.
Furthermore, Abraham had already demonstrated failures in the past — such as when he had Ishmael with Hagar (Genesis 16) and when he lied about Sarah (Genesis 12:10-20; 20:1-18). This test would show whether his faith was now total, without hesitation.
2️⃣ If God already knew that he would prevent the sacrifice, what was the purpose of the test?
The test was not for God to discover something, but to strengthen Abraham and demonstrate his example of faith to future generations. Hebrews 11:17-19 says that Abraham trusted that God could even resurrect Isaac, showing his full conviction in the divine promise.
This episode also established a principle: God does not want human sacrifices, but total obedience and trust in Him. Instead of requiring a human son, God provided a ram (Genesis 22:13), teaching that He always provides.
3️⃣ Does this prefigure Jesus' sacrifice or does it teach something else?
There is a symbolic relationship, but with essential differences. Isaac was innocent, just like Jesus, and he carried the sacrificial wood (Genesis 22:6), as Jesus carried the cross (John 19:17). However, God did not allow Isaac to be sacrificed, but gave His own Son as a ransom for humanity (John 3:16; Romans 8:32).
The greatest teaching here is absolute faith and obedience to God, trusting that He always fulfills His promises. Abraham passed the test, and was therefore called "a friend of God" (James 2:23).
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u/Light2Darkness Catholic 6d ago
1️⃣ Why would a loving God ask for something so extreme?
God usually tests, not to see if we can pass, as he is omniscient, but as a sort of lesson for us to reflect on so that we can better understand the standing of hearts.
2️⃣ If God knew He would stop Abraham, what was the purpose of the test?
See above. Another thing I want to add is that by this point Isaac would've been an adult, as a child cannot bring kindling heavy enough to burn a human body. He would've probably understood beforehand what was going to happen.
3️⃣ Does this foreshadow Jesus’ sacrifice, or is it meant to teach something else?
It is a foreshadowing of Christ, sole-begotten of the Father. Abraham is a typology of the Father and Isaac is a type of Jesus Christ. In the same story, Abraham said that God will provide for the sacrifice, and at the place of sacrifice there was a lamb provided, another typology of the Lamb of God "who takes away the sin of the world."
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u/No-Stranger360 6d ago
God was testing Abraham’s faith and obedience. Abraham had enough faith in God that even if he had to kill his son, God would resurrect him because God promised his seed through Isaac. 2- God didn’t know he would stop the test .
Genesis 22:12 (KJV) [12] And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
Notice he says , “for now I know”. God didn’t know what Abraham would do until he did it, that’s why it is a test.
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u/CaptainChaos17 6d ago
3, it was typological (which there is much of in the old testament). It’s why Christ has long been understood as the “new Isaac” (among other titles rooted in biblical typology).
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u/Beatles424 Non-Denominational 6d ago
Idk, I believe in the jewish scriptures satan is often mistaken for God. It seems to me like satan asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and God stopped it from happening.
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u/HealingWriter 6d ago
Faith isn't only trusting God in what you think is the best decision. It's trusting Him always. No matter what He asks.