The Offering of Isaac: Understanding God’s Will vs. Man’s Mistake

One of the most confusing stories in the Bible is Genesis 22, where it appears God told Abraham to kill his son. If God is love and the giver of life, why would He ask for a human sacrifice?

The answer is found when we look at the original language and the customs of the time. We discover that God never wanted Isaac dead; He wanted him dedicated. The confusion came because Abraham misunderstood God’s instruction, viewing it through his own cultural filter.

Here is the breakdown of what really happened.

1. God Does Not Tempt with Evil

The King James Version of Genesis 22:1 says, "God did tempt Abraham."

This translation creates immediate confusion because James 1:13 clearly says: "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man."

The Correction:

The Hebrew word used in Genesis is bachan, which means "to prove" or to test. God was not enticing Abraham to do evil (murder); He was testing Abraham’s commitment.

2. The Meaning of "Burnt Offering"

God told Abraham: “Take now thy son... and offer him there for a burnt offering...” (Genesis 22:2).

To us, "burnt offering" sounds like death by fire. But in the Eastern culture of the Bible, when this term was applied to a human, it often meant total dedication. It meant giving a person over completely to God’s service, not killing them.

Scriptural Example:

In Judges 11, Jephthah vowed to give whatever came out of his house as a "burnt offering". It was his daughter. He did not kill her; instead, she was dedicated to the temple service for her entire life, never marrying. She was a living sacrifice. This is what God wanted from Abraham: the total surrender of his son to God's will.

3. Abraham’s Mistake: "Sense-Knowledge"

If God only wanted dedication, why did Abraham take a knife and wood?

Abraham added to God's Word because of his "sense-knowledge".

• The Command: God said, "Offer him" (Dedicate him).

• The Mistake: Abraham looked at the pagans around him. The Canaanites actually did burn children to their gods. Abraham filtered God's command through what he saw in his culture and assumed God wanted the same thing.

• The Addition: The Bible never says God told Abraham to take a knife or wood. Abraham gathered those things himself because he misunderstood the method of the offering

  
  

4. God Stopped the Act, Not Just the Test

Abraham was about to make a terrible mistake based on his misunderstanding.

• Genesis 22:11-12: "And the angel of the Lord called unto him... Lay not thine hand upon the lad.".

  
  

God had to intervene immediately. If killing Isaac had truly been God’s will, He would not have stopped it. God stopped Abraham because He does not accept human sacrifice. He accepted Abraham’s heart (his willingness to give up his most precious gift), but He rejected Abraham’s method (death).

Had this been God’s will, as Abraham thought it was, there never would have been an angel needed to suddenly terminate the action because God cannot contradict Himself (2 Timothy 2:13, Titus 1:2, 1 Corinthians 14:33); He cannot change His will (Malachi 3:6, Numbers 23:19, James 1:17). It was not God’s will to literally burn and kill the young man. This was Abraham’s idea. Yet, even though Abraham went beyond God’s request and was wrong in so doing, he proved his utter willingness to relinquish his son. Therefore, the angel of the Lord could make the following declaration in Genesis 22:12, not because Abraham went beyond God’s request, but because he was committed to total relinquishment of his son.

Genesis 22:12:

for now I know that thou fearest [has awe or reverence for] God, seeing thou hast not with-

held thy son, thine only son from me.

5. The Lesson: Be A "Living Sacrifice"

God wants us to live for Him, not die for Him. He wants our lives to be "burnt offerings"—totally dedicated to His service.

Romans 12:1 sums this up perfectly for us today:

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.".

God is not the author of confusion or death. He is the God of life. He asked for Abraham's trust, and once that was proven, He provided a ram for the physical sacrifice and preserved Isaac for the spiritual dedication.