If I were the director of a film telling the story of the life of Abraham, there is one scene that I would really want to get just right. The scene I have in mind is the time in Genesis when Abraham faced the greatest test of his life. This scene would be the high point of the movie, for it is the high point of Abraham’s life. To really understand the weight of this moment in Abraham’s life, though, we have to recall three prior events in his life that shaped him into the man we meet in chapter 22. Think of these three events as flashbacks that we see as Abram is walking up the mountain in chapter 22.

In the first of these flashbacks, we see Abram (before his name was changed) encountering God for the first time. The Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country… to the land I will show you” (Gen. 12:1). “So Abram went…” (Gen. 12:3). Abram was a man of obedience. God said “Go!” and Abram went. In the second we see Abram receiving an incredible promise from the Lord—that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky (Gen. 15:5). Abram didn’t even have one child at this point, much less a multitude of descendants. Despite the promise seeming unbelievable, “Abram believed the Lord…” (Gen 15:6). Abram was a man of faith. The Lord gave his word, and Abram believed him. Finally, in the third, we see the Lord appearing to Abram to make a covenant with him, reaffirming his promises to Abram. In response, he “fell on his face,” showing his honor for the Lord (Gen. 17:3). Clearly, Abram was a man of reverence. The Lord appeared, and Abram worshipped.

God’s command to Abraham in Genesis 22 was to go and sacrifice his promised son Isaac on Mt. Moriah. God did this to test Abraham. We’ve seen that up to this point in Abraham’s life, he was a man of obedience, faith, and reverence. But will Abraham be obedient, faithful, and reverent even when everything is on the line? Astonishingly, he was! God commanded “Go!” (22:2) and Abraham went (22:3); God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac (through whom Abraham’s descendants were promised to come) and Abraham believed that God could raise Isaac from the dead (Heb. 11:19); God tested Abraham’s devotion and it became evident that Abraham revered the Lord more highly than anything or anyone else (Gen. 24:12). The test proved that Abraham was still a man of obedience, faith, and reverence, even when everything was on the line. Like Abraham, we have formative moments in life, and then we have tests. Will we be ready for the test when it comes? Will we be obedient, faithful, and reverent even in moments of testing? God is worthy of our obedience, faith, and reverence, so let us give him our lives and our all.