Abraham’s Informed Faith

by Clay Gentry

God’s command for Abraham to sacrifice Isaac is arguably one of the most staggering tests of faith in the Bible. How could he trust God in the face of such a shocking demand? Abraham’s obedience was not an act of blind, desperate loyalty, but a calculated step of faith, fortified by a history of God’s promises and unmistakable clues embedded within the very command itself. To gain a deeper appreciation of Abraham’s faith, let’s explore these clues.

The Tender Plea “na”

The command in Genesis 22:2 starts with a word that often goes unnoticed: “Please take your son, your only son, whom you love… as a burnt offering” (ISV). The Hebrew particle "I" is usually translated as “please,” but is often omitted when spoken by God (NIV, ESV, CSB), or translated as “now” (NKJV, NASB, LSB). Still, its presence here is significant. It appears in five divine commands, where God asks for something counterintuitive or offers His deep reassurance (cf. Genesis 13:14; 15:5; Exodus 11:2; Isaiah 7:3).*

This tender plea cushions the otherwise brutal-sounding command to Abraham. God’s use of "na" reveals His sensitivity; He is acknowledging the immense, staggering cost of what He is asking. From the outset, Abraham knew that God’s command was not arbitrary but was given with a profound acknowledgment of its personal toll. The heart of God was with Abraham in this ordeal.

A Faith Informed by Location

“Go to the land of Moriah...” The very name of the destination provided a subtle hint of salvation and deliverance that awaited Abraham and Isaac. The name Moriah is derived from the Hebrew root ra’ah, meaning to provide, to see, or to show. The entire narrative is infused with this concept of God seeing and providing, forming a chain of six wordplays on “seeing”: Abraham “saw” the place from afar (Genesis 22:4); He assured Isaac, God would literally “reveal” the offering (Genesis 22:8); After his hand was stilled, he “looked” at the ram caught in the thicket (Genesis 22:13); the name of the place is affirmed, “The Lord will see” and its explanation, “On the mount of the Lord He will be seen” (Genesis 22:14).

By sending Abraham to Moriah, God was subtly assuring him that this was a place of divine foresight and intervention. In the very place God was calling Abraham to a sacrifice, He was also giving him a linguistic clue that the situation was already under the control of a God who sees and provides. This deep textual assurance fortified Abraham's willingness to "go."

The Parallel Promise

The command to “Go… on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you” was not the first time God used this language with Abraham; it was a parallel of his initial calling. The first time God told him to “go” was decades earlier, when he was commanded to leave his home in Ur of the Chaldeans and his family to go “to the land that I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). That remarkable, life-altering act of trust was based entirely on the divine promise: “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing” (Genesis 12:2). Abraham could not have missed this deliberate echo. God was clearly reminding him of the promise of a “great nation,” even while commanding him to do what seemed utterly opposed to that very promise.

It’s in this tension that Abraham’s faith found its footing. If the promise of a great nation was contingent upon Isaac (Genesis 21:12), then God must have a plan to bring Isaac back. As the writer of Hebrews confirms, Abraham “considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead” (Hebrews 11:19). Abraham knew the faithfulness of the Promiser was greater than the severity of the command.

In all these ways, we see God’s faithful tenderness cushioning the startling harshness of the command to offer up Isaac. It’s as though God is saying to Abraham, “I’m testing your obedience and allegiance. You don’t understand, but in light of all I’ve done and said to you, trust Me. Not even death can nullify the promise I’ve made.” Armed with a faith that had been gently but deliberately reinforced by God Himself, the account closes with Abraham’s resolute action: “So Abraham [and Isaac] rose early in the morning… and went to the place of which God had told him” (Genesis 22:3). His immediate, early morning obedience testifies not just to his willingness to obey, but to his absolute certainty in the God who both commands and provides.

* For more on “Please…” see

• Nathan Ward, The Growth of the Seed: Notes on the Book of Genesis (Chillicothe, Deward, 2007), 235.
• Mike Willis, The Book of Genesis 1 Truth Commentaries (Athens, Truth, 2021), 684-5, n8.
• Paul Copan, Is God a Moral Monster? (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 2011) 47-8.