The story of Abraham's call to sacrifice his son is such an uplifting and redemptive story. Of course it illustrates our Father's sacrifice of His son, Jesus, but it also shows us that sacrifice is a part of the calling of all who follow in the faith of our father Abraham. For us, we get to present our bodies as "a living sacrifice", we get to "die daily". What a concept! We must die to ourselves, our will, to our fleshly lusts and desires in order to live by faith - not just of Abraham but of the Son of God (Gal:2:20). When we die to ourselves - when, by faith, we put ourselves on the Cross with Jesus (I used to see myself at the foot of the Cross, now I see myself on the Cross, dying with Christ, that I may also live with him), we may experience the power of his resurrection coursing through our souls. We must not therefore cling to this brief spark of life that is our flesh, rather we should wholeheartedly embrace the resurrection life Jesus died to give us.
But Abraham's story of sacrifice has one important difference from our own - Yes, we are called to sacrifice ourselves but he was told to sacrifice his son - which is far more difficult to do. Any good parent can testify - we will gladly lay our lives down on behalf of our children, indeed, may do that each day they labor to provide their children with a safe, happy and healthy childhood. We make sacrifices, large and small, on behalf of our children (like selling our entire collection of Beatle's CD's so the kids can have a decent Christmas). If necessary, we will die physically for them, if it would save them but it is unthinkable that we would take our own child's life - yet Abraham was willing to do just that because his faith and trust in his God was so unwavering that he truly believed if he slew his own son in obedience to the God who miraculously gave him that son to begin with, then God would raise him from the dead because God had promised Abraham "I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee" (both natural and supernatural kings have come from him, through his children of his flesh and his children of his faith). Indeed, when God said unto him "Abraham and he said Behold, here I am"- Abraham was reminded of God's promise to him for God himself had renamed him from Abram "exalted father" to Abraham "Father of a multitude". Awesome thing to call him considering he was childless at the time! So every time Abraham heard his name his faith was bolstered. When he went to plunge the knife into Isaac's heart he was doing so in obedience to the Word of God - just as Peter did when he stepped out of the boat and walked on water. In Peter's case it was his own life at stake, in Abraham's it was his son's but in both cases the trusted God completely. Even as the journeyed to the place of sacrifice (real sacrifice takes real effort on our part - it isn't sitting in an air-conditioned pew and giving our money, it's far more than that). Isaac was wondering "where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" Abraham's prophetic, faith-filled reply was "God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering". Hallelujah! In accordance to Abraham's word (his heart expressed verbally), they did indeed find a ram caught in a thicket by his horns, but Abraham's words could still be heard far into the future by all with ears to hear as they gazed upon the sacrificial lamb of God, given once, for all mankind, bleeding on the Cross of Calvary, caught in the thicket of man's treachery and sin - "GOD WILL PROVIDE HIMSELF - A LAMB - FOR AN OFFERING", Amen and Amen