"Bedtime Bible Stories"

From the Book of Genesis
Chapter 22, Verses 1-19

One day, God wanted to make sure Abraham still loved Him and would obey him no matter what. He wanted to be certain Abraham still had his faith in the Lord.

The Lord God Jehovah spoke to Abraham. He said, "Abraham!"

Abraham answered immediately, "Yes, Lord?"

Then the Lord gave Abraham some terrible instructions. He said, "Take your son Isaac to the land of Moriah and sacrifice him to Me on an altar."

Abraham always worshipped the Lord by building an altar and offering sacrifices. He would take a prize lamb or some newly harvested grain and set it on fire. The smoke would rise toward heaven. In this way, Abraham could show the Lord that he would give up anything he owned to please the Lord. But now, the Lord was asking him to give up the thing he loved the most in all the world, his son Isaac.

Abraham did not hesitate. He packed his knife and his flint for making fire and headed for the land of Moriah with his son Isaac. On the way, they gathered wood to build the altar.

Isaac asked Abraham, "Father, we have the flint to make the fire and the wood to build the altar, but we forgot to bring a lamb to sacrifice to the Lord."

Abraham did not tell Isaac what God had told him to do. He said to his son, "The Lord will give us what we need."

When they arrived in the land of Moriah, they built an altar with the wood. Then Abraham tied Isaac up and laid him on top of the altar. Then Abraham pulled out his knife and lifted it high above his son.

Suddenly, the voice of an angel of the Lord said, "Abraham! Abraham!"

Abraham stopped. He looked up and said, "Yes, Lord?"

"Don't hurt your son," the angel said. "God has seen that He is first in your life. He has seen that you would even give Him you son if He asked you to."

Abraham put down his knife. He was so thankful that the Lord did not really want him to sacrifice Isaac.

He wanted to show the Lord how thankful he was, but he had not brought along anything else to sacrifice. All of a sudden Abraham looked at some bushes nearby and saw a lamb caught in the branches. He and Isaac captured the lamb and sacrificed it to the Lord on the altar.

The Lord was very pleased with Abraham. He said to him, "Since you have obeyed me, I will bless you with many blessings. The blessings I will give you will number more than the stars in the sky and more than all the grains of sand on the beach."

Abraham and Isaac returned home, praising the Lord.