“And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.”
The angel says: do not lay a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son. The three commands — do not lay a hand, do not do anything — are the interventions of the rescuer arriving at the last possible moment. The theological declaration follows: now I know that you fear God. The test was designed to reveal something — not to God, who already knew, but to Abraham himself, and to the record of faith preserved in this text. Hebrews 11:17-19 is the New Testament's interpretation: Abraham who had received the promises was ready to offer his only son. The application: the tests you pass are not primarily about God learning something about you — they are about you discovering something about your own faith.
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