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The Beginning of the End
was ever asked to endure. In a night vision, he was directed to offer
his son as a burnt offering on a mountain that God would show him.
Abraham had reached the age of one hundred twenty years.
The strength of his youth had passed. In the health and energy of
manhood one may courageously meet difficulties and afflictions that
would cause the heart to fail later in life, but God had reserved His
most trying test for Abraham until the burden of many years was
heavy on him and he longed for rest.
Abraham was very rich and was honored as a mighty prince by
the rulers of the land. Heaven seemed to have crowned his life of
sacrifice and patient endurance with blessing.
Abraham Commanded to Offer Isaac
In faithful obedience, Abraham had left his native country and
had wandered as a stranger in the land he was to inherit. He had
waited long for the birth of the promised heir, and at the command
of God he had sent Ishmael away. And now, when it seemed his
hopes were about to come true, a trial greater than all others was
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before him.
The command must have wrung that father’s heart with anguish:
“Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, ... and
offer him there as a burnt offering.” Isaac was the light of his home,
the comfort of his old age, the inheritor of the promised blessing,
but he was commanded to shed the blood of that son with his own
hand. It seemed a fearful impossibility.
Satan was there to suggest that he must be deceived, for God’s
law commands, “You shall not kill.” God would not require what
He had forbidden. Going outside his tent, Abraham remembered
the promise that his descendants were to be as countless as the stars.
If this promise was to be fulfilled through Isaac, how could he be
put to death? Abraham bowed upon the earth and prayed as he had
never prayed before for some confirmation of the command if he
must perform this terrible duty. He remembered the angels who
were sent to reveal God’s purpose to destroy Sodom and who gave
him the promise of this same son Isaac. He went to the place where
he had met the heavenly messengers, hoping to receive some further
direction; but none came. The command of God was sounding in