it and invites other and more subtle
tests in its place.

We must not suppose that Abraham found the command an easy one. From the
narrative in the Book of Genesis we should infer that he expected God to
provide a substitute for Isaac: "And Abraham said, My son, God will
provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering; so they went both of them
together."[276] But the Apostle gives us plainly to understand that
Abraham offered his son because he accounted that God was able to raise
him from the dead. Both answers are true. They reveal to us the anxious
tossings of his spirit, seeking to account to itself for the terrible
command of Heaven. At one moment he thinks God will not carry matters to
the bitter end. His mind is pacified with the thought that a substitute
for Isaac will be provided. At another moment this appeared to detract
from the awful severity of the trial, and Abraham's faith waxed strong
to obey, even though no substitute would be found in the thicket.
Another solution would then offer itself. God would immediately bring
Isaac back to life. For Isaac would not cease to be, nor cease to be
Isaac, when the sacrificial knife had descended. "God is not God of the
dead, but of the living, for all live unto Him."[277] Besides, the
promise had not been withdrawn, though it had not yet been confirmed by
an oath; and the promise involved that the seed would be called in
Isaac, not in another son. Both solutions were right. For a ram was
caught in a thicket by the horns, and Abraham did receive his son back
from the dead, not literally indeed, but in a parable.

Most expositors explain the words "in a parable" as if they meant
nothing more than "as it were," "so to speak;" and some have actually
supposed them to refer to the birth of Isaac in his father's old age,
when Abraham was "as good as dead."[278] Both interpretations do
violence to the Greek expression,[279] which must mean "even in a
parable." It is a brief and pregnant allusion to the ultimate purpose of
Abraham's trial. God intended more by it than to test faith. The test
was meant to prepare Abraham for receiving a revelation. On Moriah, and
ever after, Isaac was more than Isaac to Abraham. He offered him to God
as Isaac, the son of the promise. He received him back from God's hand
as a type of Him in Whom the promise would be fulfilled. Abraham had
gladly received the promise. He now saw the day of Christ, and
rejoiced.[280]

FOOTNOTES:

[258] 1 Pet