St. Michael's Lent 2026 - Reading #30 - Lineage
Reading
Abraham on the mountain with Isaac — not a test for God’s curiosity, but probation for the world to see.
"Among other things, of which it would take too long time to mention the whole, Abraham was tempted about the offering up of his well-beloved son Isaac, to prove his pious obedience, and so make it known to the world, not to God. Now every temptation is not blameworthy; it may even be praiseworthy, because it furnishes probation. And, for the most part, the human mind cannot attain to self-knowledge otherwise than by making trial of its powers through temptation, by some kind of experimental and not merely verbal self-interrogation; when, if it has acknowledged the gift of God, it is pious, and is consolidated by stedfast grace and not puffed up by vain boasting."
Temptation reveals whether the line of faith holds when the promise seems to die.
Augustine adds, "Of course Abraham could never believe that God delighted in human sacrifices; yet when the divine commandment thundered, it was to be obeyed, not disputed. Yet Abraham is worthy of praise, because he all along believed that his son, on being offered up, would rise again; for God had said to him, when he was unwilling to fulfil his wife's pleasure by casting out the bond maid and her son, 'In Isaac shall thy seed be called.'"
Faith trusts the promise even there.
Reflection
Every father eventually stands on some version of that mountain — the moment when obedience to God appears to cost the very thing you love most, and worse, the things you were sure God Himself had given: the career move conscience forbids, the child released to a vocation you didn't choose, the control surrendered over an outcome you would die to secure.
Abraham's lesson is not that God wants your son's blood; the whole passage points to the Father who would spare Abraham's son and not His own. The lesson is that faith trusts the Promiser past the point where the promise seems to break.
Hold nothing back from God. He has already held nothing back from you.