God put Abraham to the test.
Genesis 22:1b-19
He called to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
Then God said: “Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love,
and go to the land of Moriah.
There you shall offer him up as a burnt offering
on a height that I will point out to you.”
Early the next morning Abraham saddled his donkey,
took with him his son Isaac, and two of his servants as well,
and with the wood that he had cut for the burnt offering,
set out for the place of which God had told him.
“And will you take the righteous with the wicked?” You had the courage, then, to question God. Before you see the ram caught in the thicket, you climb the mountain and you break your heart. You lay your only son upon the altar without a word of protest for his sake, prepare yourself your very soul to offer, and in your hand the sharpened knife you take. Where is the courage that could fight for Sodom? Where is the strength that dared a Pharaoh's wrath, the tears that fell for Hagar and your lost son? How has the hope within you turned to ash? Is it the test itself that makes you falter, to hear God ask you for the death of love? Or do you lay your faith upon the altar, let heaven witness as you call its bluff? Does even God look down this day in horror to see the rotten harvest of despair, and does he give you back again your courage to wrestle with him in the depths of prayer? Then pray for me, O Abraham, in my doubt, when I must bear the fire and the knife, that I may cling, through all the waves I ride out, to love as surely as I cling to life.

עקדת יצחק (1947) מאת משה קסטל. צבע על זכוכית, 46×45 ס”מ. מוזיאון קסטל. By Moshe Castel – Taken by Talmor Yair – שיחה), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17939939

