This Test Is Not Open Book - Genesis 22

Abraham’s Test: Trusting God When the Promise Is on the Altar (Genesis 22)

Genesis 22 presents one of Scripture’s most emotionally intense moments: God asks Abraham to offer Isaac, the son of promise. This was not temptation toward sin but a divine test designed to reveal and refine Abraham’s faith.

The Hebrew idea of “testing” implies growth through experience. God was not discovering something new; He was forming Abraham and teaching generations to come what real trust looks like.

Abraham’s obedience unfolds slowly and deliberately. Over a three-day journey, he continues forward, trusting that God’s promise cannot fail. His words reveal this confidence: “We will come again,” and later, “God will provide.”

At the climax, God intervenes. A ram is provided as a substitute, and Abraham names the place The Lord Will Provide. The story halts any notion that God desires human sacrifice and instead displays a God who provides the sacrifice Himself.

This moment points beyond Abraham. The “only son,” the wood carried up the mountain, and the substitute foreshadow the gospel — where God provides His own Son as the final and sufficient sacrifice.

Genesis 22 challenges believers today to examine what we hold most tightly. God may ask us to place good gifts on the altar, not to take them away, but to confirm that He alone sits on the throne of our hearts. Faith trusts that the same God who tests also provides.