The Worst Bible Story Ever... Or So I Thought

Have you ever heard the Bible story where God tells Abraham to offer his only son, Isaac, as a sacrifice?

Brutal.

I'm not a Biblical scholar and I make no claim that my interpretation is wholey accurate, so go to Genesis 22 and read it for yourself. This story, it’s not warm or cozy. It’s difficult and unsettling. It hits you like a railroad tie across the face and, relatively speaking, it’s basically at the introduction of the Bible.

I could never wrap my head around this story. The whole thing felt grotesque. Why would a loving God propose such a test to a faithful servant? Especially after promising Abraham descendants as countless as the stars (Genesis 12:1–3; Genesis 15:5)? I’ll be honest: after having my own son, this story went from confusing to unbearable. I didn’t just dislike it, it made my stomach churn. I avoided it. I just could not reconcile a God of love with a God who would say: “Kill the boy you waited your whole life for, the son that you love so much.”

But the other day, I was blessed with an a-ha moment, and something shifted. Suddenly, the text was reframed and I saw a layer to this story that I had been missing.

Abraham Didn’t Obey Bitterly

I had always assumed Abraham trudged up that mountain resentful, angry, heart shattered, bitter, and pleading. I imagined how I would feel, and filled this story with my own reactions and emotions. I read between the lines to instill something that was never there.

Scripture doesn’t say Abraham was bitter. It never says that Abraham hesitated, argued, or complained. Not once. Instead, it says he did what he was told, no delay, no bargaining, no drama. No ifs, ands or buts (Genesis 22:3).

And you know what, he didn't do as he was told because he had to; he had free will. He did what he did because he had faith! He acted because he believed.

I had also *wrongly* assumed that when Isaac asked where the lamb was, that Abraham had lied to spare Isaac’s feelings, to spare them both the torment of honesty. But nope! Wrong again. He said: “God Himself will provide the lamb” (Genesis 22:8).

Abraham wasn’t being reckless. He was convinced that God would provide; Abraham expected provision before he ever saw it.

I did a further deep dive and found Hebrews 11:19, which takes it even further and says: “Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead.” It is important to note that nothing like that had ever happened before; Abraham had no reason to believe in resurrection. He walked up that mountain not expecting tragedy but expecting the impossible!

Can you imagine faith like that? Faith that acts before answers arrive. Faith that moves mountains because it knows Who moves them.

God didn’t test Abraham to learn something about him. He already knew Abraham’s heart. The test wasn’t informational for God, it was transformational for Abraham, and thousands of years later, for me.

Isaac Wasn’t a Prop on the Altar

Here’s the part that blindsided me: Isaac wasn’t dead weight in this narrative. He wasn’t a passive child. He was an instrumental participant and an active lead!

Abraham was well over 100-ish years old, and Isaac wasn’t a toddler. Many scholars estimate Isaac to be anywhere from late teens to early 30s. But we at least know that he was old enough and strong enough to carry the wood himself (Genesis 22:6).

In other words, a young, strong man versus an elderly father.

If Isaac didn’t want to climb that mountain, he wouldn’t have. If Isaac didn’t want to lie on that altar, Abraham surely wasn’t able to physically put him there.

So, Isaac cooperated, he submitted. Isaac trusted God just as much as his father did. *Mind blown*

Impact of Generational Faith

Here’s the thing, Isaac didn’t learn this kind of faith from lectures or being preached at. He learned it from seeing it lived out, every single day. He learned it by watching his father acting out faith.

Kids don’t know theology, but they do emulate what they see. They watch and will imitate how they see us act when we’re anxious or afraid, and what we do when plans fall through, how we treat others, and whether we turn to God in prayer as a ritual or in relationship.

Isaac’s faith wasn’t blind. It was inherited through exposure. And our kids won’t become what we tell them to be. They will become what they watch us be.

Whether we know that God will show up, even before there’s evidence to prove it; whether we trust that God will provide, even if it’s hard in the waiting. Cause faith isn’t believing just when it’s easy, nor when we're desperate; Faith is trusting that God is faithful in the easy, the hard, and the impossible, always.

Talk about convicting.

So, it matters that we:

• Trust God when money is tight; so, our kids learn that security isn’t found in bank accounts.
• Repent when we blow it; so, they learn that grace is real.
• Obey when obedience hurts, so they learn that God is worth it.
• Wait when answers to prayer seem to take forever, so we teach that delay isn’t denial. And sometimes, that “no” is the answer, even if we can’t understand why in the moment.

We think love equals safety, comfort, and insulation. But Abraham taught the opposite; he taught that even when God’s path is terrifying, that He is still trustworthy. That sacrifice is normal and that provision comes after obedience, not before.

Isaac didn’t climb the mountain because Abraham forced him to. He climbed because Abraham’s life preached: “If my father will follow this God anywhere, then this God must be worth following.”

Our kids don’t need perfect parents. They need parents whose decisions preach louder than their words.

The Story I Hated Became the Story I Needed

My question used to be: “What kind of God asks a father to sacrifice his son?”

Now I see: “God provides the sacrifice so we don’t have to.”

Sound familiar?

What Does This Mean 

Every single one of us has something on the altar, whether it’s the outcome we insist on, the plans that we have made, the timeline we demand, the way we think things must go. God leads us to the same emotional edge Abraham faced to give us opportunity to lay it down, trusting that what God has for us instead is so much better.

The Legacy I Want for My Child

I don’t want to raise Little Man to be a religious kid, to do right out of a sense of legalism. I want to raise him to trust God even when life doesn’t make sense, to have hope even when circumstances seem dire, to obey even when it costs something, because he knows that God loves him. And finally, for him to believe that God is faithful, not because I told him, but because he saw it.

I can’t control Little Man’s future, and I can’t force him to take the path I would want him to walk, but I can walk my mountain in front of him. I can surround him with people who set examples I want him to see. Abraham did and Isaac saw, and that faith traveled generationally. Abraham set the example for all of his descendants, which are, as promised, as plentiful as the stars in the sky, and include myself and my family, and my children, and their children, and their children….

This was reinforced to me again last night, when we had dinner with a lovely couple who have been faithful believers for decades, and have raised their children, not just telling them how to live faithfully, but showing them. And that in turn has been passed down not just through their own lineage, but through the lines of everyone they meet. It is a real blessing to know them.   

And maybe that’s the real point of Genesis 22: Not a father almost losing a son, but a son, and the generations to come, gaining a God worth following.