The son of promise had grown to be a lad of sixteen or seventeen years of age, when the voice of the Lord called unto Abraham, saying, “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” It would seem that this message came to Abraham while asleep--in a dream as we would say--and therefore all the more trying as such a revelation, under such circumstances might well be questioned. Upon waking out of his sleep he might reasonably question the import of such a dream, especially since Isaac was his only child, and the son of promise. But it appears that Abraham did not stop to explain away this command, and we must believe that he did not even inform Sarah of this heart-crushing revelation, for neither she nor Isaac knew at the time the special object of the journey. Promptly Abraham made the necessary preparations, and set out on the three days’ journey. His obedience is absolute. There is not even a question raised as to his correctly understanding the duty required of him. To suppose that Abraham did not have the bleeding heart of a father in this great trial, would be to destroy the force of this testing of his faith. And the fact that he had three days’ time in which he could change his purpose, made the conflict within him all the harder. The lad and the mother could easily see from the wood, and the fire, and the knife, that he went not merely to worship, but to sacrifice. The testing was still more heart-breaking when, at the end of the journey, at the foot of Moriah, while Abraham is in the act of laying the wood upon the obedient Isaac, the heir of promise said, “My father, behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” How the bleeding heart of the father must have been touched afresh as he looked upon Isaac as “the lamb,” yet, as if the hour for the fuller revelation had not yet come, made answer, “My son, God will provide Himself a lamb.” And so the two, the father and the son, slowly climb the rugged sides of Moriah to its very summit, and Abraham built an altar, as he so often had done before, for, wherever Abraham had a tent, God had an altar, and in the building of this altar we may well believe the loving, obedient Isaac assisted. Then the wood was laid upon it. All was ready for “the lamb!” But God had not yet provided the victim.