Looking into all of these, or even one of them, would take more time than I have today, but maybe these questions also spark your curiosity. As my kids always say when I wonder aloud about something, “just search it up.”

Well, in the beginning, when the earth was formless and void, God hovered over the waters. He spoke light, order, and life into the watery chaos. Man and woman lived in the Garden of Eden, a place of delight where God walked among them. Then humanity decided to trust the serpent and themselves instead of God’s Word, ultimately choosing death over life.

Genesis chapter 6 begins with a description of the state of things on the earth after creation and the fall of humanity, but before the flood. It is summed up in Genesis 6:5 where God looked at the heart of mankind and saw that it was all evil.

The year was roughly A.D. 33. A man named Jesus, the Son of God, was hanging on a cross. God was up in Heaven, watching His Son be killed, knowing He must turn His face away for the sin of the world would be upon Jesus. Flash back a couple thousand years, and that same God is watching a man be obedient in the task of sacrificing his son. The voice of God called out, because He knows the feeling of Abraham in that moment more than Abraham could’ve ever known. God interceded on behalf of Isaac, in the same way that He would on that cross a few millennia later. God sees the faithful obedience of His servant and shows His love.

This is heavy Scripture to read emotionally. You can feel the tension and dread. What you see, however, is simple: A man is instructed by God to do something he can barely fathom and goes forward in obedience. Abraham believed that God would provide a lamb, but he behaved as though Isaac’s fate had been written.