“I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” (Gen 22,16-18)

God spontaneously blesses that which bears His character. This has just been demonstrated it in its fullness in Abraham, and therefore God pronounces upon him the greatest blessing He has bestowed on anyone in this life. It exceeds all previous ones - it no longer concerns only his offspring, the multiplication of the race and the formation of a nation; God will literally bless the whole world through him. It is, of course, a reference to the blessed seed, the beloved son of Isaac - Christ, who will be given as an eternal blessing to the whole world, not just Israel. 

Most of the time we assume that God blesses specific people and the motive is that he (so-called) loves them. We wonder how to make even a drop of his blessing rest on us. But often this is just a mental shorthand, corresponding more to a conception of love in the world around us that has nothing to do with spiritual reality. For God first and foremost blesses what is his, what bears his character, what has his essence. Such a person, work, or church receives God's blessing essentially immediately and without the need to scramble for it in prayer. The key is to be in harmony with God. After all, God wants to bless; it is one of the main characteristics of His heart! But alas, he often does not finds many to bless. For the whole of Scripture shows how he ceases to bless that which is contrary to his heavenly character, that which is out of his nature, that which is in rebellion to him. Why should he do this? For to what ends would it lead? 

The most important foundation for the way of blessing is therefore the word given to Abraham: "...because you have obeyed my voice". Let us add that not as someone who obeys, however, in essence disagrees with what he does. But as someone who acts from the heart because he is inwardly tuned in on the same wavelength with God. Such a person experiences his obedience as freedom.

And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. (Gen 22,12-13)

It is not written in the whole story with what heart Abraham walked those three days to Mount Moriah. Some see him as a broken man, crushed by the coming loss of his dearest offspring. But some (who do not like believers) may see him as a fanatic who regrets nothing if it pleases his god. Then he would indeed experience a loss, but on the other hand it would be compensated by a sense of elation, just as in the case of some parents who are able to take pride in their children's self-sacrifice in bombing the "infidels".

It's not written there - and yet it's the most important question for the whole story! For it is what determines whether Abraham stood the test.

When someone inwardly surrenders an issue to God, he usually experiences relief and deliverance. The ties that bound him to that thing are released. Was Abraham freed in this way, so that surrending Isaac did not burden him so much? We do not know from the text, and yet the answer is hidden there. The key is God's instruction to "take your only son whom you love". It is not true that Abraham acted out of blind bigotry or that his feelings were dulled. He had to fight his obedience internally and must have experienced great pain. However, once he came to the point where he would have actually done it, God halted him and gave him another scapegoat because he really didn't want a human sacrifice. But He wanted another thing.

God once created man in His image. But since the fall, man has alienated from that image, and what remains of it, if anything, is more or less just a broken mirror, fragments of what it once was. With a few bright exceptions, God had no longer seen his image anywhere on earth.

Until there appeared a man from Ur of the Chaldees. He who was willing to follow him, to trust his word and especially his character above all else. Who, for all his imperfections and faults, knew and loved God. And as he grew in this, he took on God´s character to such an extent that when God looked upon the earth during the three days of Abraham's journey to Mount Moriah - later Jerusalem - he saw in this man what he longed so much to see again: His own image of sacrificial love.

For it would be no one else than the beloved son of God whom God would give up centuries later to be sacrificed right here for the sins of man. But then no angel would come to stop this sacrifice. For God "so loved the world..."

Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. (Gen 22,3-4)

Abraham reached the place where Orthodox Jews believe the key events of spiritual history took place. Here Jacob would later have a vision of the open heavens; here fire would fall on David's sacrifice to mark the place for sacrifice; here Solomon's temple would stand; and "when the fullness of time is fulfilled" (Gal. 4:4) the beloved Son, the Lamb of God, would be sacrificed again on this mountain.

God made His will known to Abraham. From that moment on, it was up to him to obey and to what extent. He could still stop. He could turn around and go back. He could continue and look for another replacement instead of his son. Then he would have hold a grand sacrificial assembly on the mountain and presented to God a different version of worship than God wanted. Abraham did none of these things, but that doesn't mean that such things weren't on his mind as well. At the moment God spoke to him, he felt His nearness, but that experience faded and he was then left only alone there. He had to weigh how he was going to behave, and whether he would drink the bitter cup to the bottom.

He thought of many things, but he did not argue with God at all. It is clear that he no longer considered his or Isaac's life a private matter. God knows what I'm going through, and even whether Isaac is still alive I simply take from God's hand. He heard God again only after he had obeyed. This is the general principle of trial - after the trial is over, God draws nearer to man than ever before.

It was Jacob who later had a look into the spiritual world here. But he had a different attitude. That knowledge was certainly exciting and uplifting, but it was of little use to him; he saw many things but did not obey. Therefore God could not bless him yet; on the other hand, Jacob had a very hard life afterwards. Many people today are still trying to do the same thing - to come to a knowledge of the spiritual world without having to obey God. But it's futile. To obtain blessing, Jacob first had to be transformed, even broken. The blessing comes to those who obey.

Which sometimes means being ready to give God our most precious things, to get up early and walk the long road He has shown us. Until we hear His voice again.