If God knows everything, what was he doing "testing" Abraham in the Isaac sacrifice?

Question

Some people like to say that God was making Abraham test himself, so that he, not God, would know he had enouth faith. But this is silly rationalization dismissed by the bible text itself.

Gen 22:12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God.

Which part of the "NOW I KNOW" you don't understand?

Answer 1

God knows everything but Abraham did not.

Through the test Abraham learned that he was capable of following the will of God no matter how hard it might be. He (and we today) also learned that the true God does not want human sacrifices like the false religions of the time.

Context. Context. Context.

Abraham lived hundreds of years before the Ten Commandments were given to Moses and the Jewish people.

Abraham lived in a society where human sacrifice and child sacrifice was the normal thing to do.

God was just beginning to reveal himself to mankind and Abraham did not have the Bible or much of anything else to go on.

Abraham knew that his son was a gift from God. If God demanded that Abraham kill the son, then Abraham, although it broke his heart, would do it.

Under the same circumstances (context) would we be able to follow God's will?

Under the much easier circumstances that we live in today, can we follow God's will as Jesus revealed it to us?

With the Ten Commandments, the Prophets, and especially Jesus Christ as part of our current circumstances (context), God would not put us to this test.

But we do have similar issues to tackle, like abortion where we kill our children who are miraculous gifts from God just like Isaac was to Abraham.

In abortion we sacrifice our children to the gods of lust, convenience, economy, and selfishness.

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

This is the problem with people who tare the Bible apart and those that try believe the Bible is word for word accurate. First of all, it is just a story meant to teach about sacrifice. God's ultimate sacrifice being Jesus Christ. But God is teaching that men must sacrifice also, sometimes greatly. Don't be so picky about the words. In other languages, it isn't that specific.
Also, what would you have God say... "Good work Abraham, I knew what would happen and just enjoy seeing you suffer with these decisions. It is for your own good."
The fact is, we don't have the whole story, a lot is missing. Don't try to "figure out" what happened thousands of years ago from a poorly translated text, just learn from the general story.

Answer 3

I think he was actually partly using this to teach us about Jesus' crowning with thorns. He told Abraham to look over at the Lamb the Lord himself was supplying for the sacrifice and there he saw the lamb caught up in the thorn bushes by the horns or more directly the head -- thorns wrapped around his head that designates the sacrifice. Also too it is showing us that it not only takes faith but, it depends on what you do with your faith. Faith is suppose to lead to action. If you believe in God you also believe in what he tells you to do. This is interesting too because at the wedding in Cana when Jesus turns the water into wine Mary says to those waiting tables to "do whatever he tells you to do ".

Answer 4

This is a horrendously difficult text to deal with. Entire books have been written in the attempt (cf Soren Kirkegaard, Fear and Trembling). We struggle with it in our synagogue every time it comes through again in the cycle; the conversations are good, but we never find an answer.

How could G-d ask, how could Abraham agree?

You could say that our answer is that there is no answer. But in forcing ourselves to ask these impossible questions, we learn something more about being human.

Answer 5

God is not everywhere present, neither sees nor knows all things
Gen 11:5/ Gen 18:20,21/ Gen 3:8

Answer 6

God wrote the Old Testament in a way to symbolize what the NT would be like!

Answer 7

the point of the event was that abraham learned something about himself and about his relationship with G-d. whether or not G-d knew the result is irrelevant, since abraham could not have known, and therefore could not have gained new knowledge unless the event had happened.

Answer 8

You know, I was going to feature that passage in a question about parents who kill their kids because god "told them to". And use it as an example of how the bible is not healthy for some people to read. Cool.

Answer 9

there you go, asking another "bad" question..

The Doctor of the Atheist Revolution has Spoken!