This didn’t happen at all like you may have seen in the movies. They show Abraham crying and begging God to change His mind. That’s not how it was. Abraham was a faith man. Once he’d heard from God, there was no argument about it. He just set out to do what God said.
When they got to the place God had specified for the sacrifice, Abraham said to the young men who’d accompanied him and Isaac, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you” (verse 5, "NKJV").
Did you get that? Abraham didn’t say he’d come back by himself. He said he AND Isaac would be back. He was confident of that because God had already given him a promise about the boy’s future and he fully believed God would fulfill it—even if it meant God had to raise him from the dead.
When Isaac (who didn’t yet know what the plan was) asked his father on their way up the mountain, “Where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham simply answered, “My son, God will provide himself a lamb.” And, of course, that’s exactly what God did. Just as Abraham started to sacrifice Isaac: “The angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and 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. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son” (verses 7-8, 11-13).
After the ram had been sacrificed, the angel of The LORD called to Abraham again. This time, to declare the oath of assurance we saw in Hebrews 6:14.
“BY MYSELF HAVE I SWORN, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: 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 seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice” (Genesis 22:16-18, emphasis mine).
BVOV : 7
