Had he not loved him so dearly, God
would not have chosen him as a means of testing his father's religious
fidelity. Hence this oblation of his son was the best evidence of his
supreme love to God, and that all he had was consecrated to his service.
This act called for the subordination of natural affection to Christian
faith and love. "Take now thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get
thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering!"
What a startling command was this! How it must have stirred up the soul of
that parent, and for the time caused a bitter conflict between natural
affection and Christian faith! "Take thy son,"--had it been a slave, the
command would not have been so stirring; but a son, an only son, the joy of
his heart, and the pride and hope of his age,--the son he so much
loved,--oh it was this that harrowed up such a revulsion in his soul, and,
for the moment doubtless, caused him to shrink from the very thought of
obedience. But the command was imperious,--it was from God; and though the
parent shrunk from the deed, yet the faith of the faithful servant gained a
signal triumph over all the protestations of natural affection, and
silenced all its rising murmurs; for "Abraham rose up early in the morning,
and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with, him, and Isaac his
son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto
the place of which God had told him.
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