The offering of Isaac

“Then God said, ‘Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.’” Genesis 22:2
Genesis 22 gives us the famous account of how Abraham was instructed by God to sacrifice his son Isaac. As we know, at the last possible moment, God called it off and showed Abraham a ram to sacrifice instead. But this episode is about much, much more than a test of the depth of Abraham’s faith and his loyalty to God.
There is great symbolism contained within this chapter. In verse two there are two interesting points to note about what God says. Firstly, He calls Isaac Abraham’s ‘only son’. But as we know, Ishmael was thirteen years older than Isaac. However, as far as God was concerned, Isaac was the son He had promised to Abraham (Gal. 4:23), and thus was his ‘only son’. Secondly, we note the phrase, ‘whom you love’. This is the first mention of the word ‘love’ in the Bible. Together, these aspects are very reminiscent of John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son”. Thus the offering of Isaac was prophetic of how God the Father would sacrifice His own Son.
And Abraham knew this. He named the place so, “The Lord will provide” (Gen. 22:14). And indeed, it was on that very same mountain that Jesus was crucified.
Abraham had faith in God through all of this. He had faith that God would provide a Messiah through his own family line. He had faith that God would fulfil His promise. He didn’t argue with God for being contradictory: saying that through Isaac he would be the father of many nations, and then asking him to sacrifice him. Instead, he “reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death” (Heb. 11:19).