Second, God demands everything from Abraham because Abraham must recognize that he is not in control of the covenant relationship. Thus, when Abraham passes the test, God’s own relief is palpable: “ Now I know. The book of Genesis as a whole does not support the common theological notion that God knows everything before it happens, every human response before it is offered. Only by demanding everything from Abraham can God learn whether he indeed places his commitment to God before everything else. First, this is a real test God does not know in advance how Abraham will respond. There are two grounds only on which God can be exonerated from the charge of sadism or tyranny here. How could a good God demand that Abraham kill his son? Eliot) that is the human condition on which the covenant rests. Abraham’s fear of God is a condition of complete vulnerability before God, “costing not less than everything” (T. The point of the test is to see whether Abraham trusts God even to the point of relinquishing the child on whom the blessing, the covenant, and his own happiness depend. So what is at stake is not obedience merely but total mutual trust. Twice Abraham has let his wife Sarah go into the harem of a foreign king ( Gen 12 and Gen 20) he did it to protect himself, evidently not trusting God to see them through their dangerous sojourns among foreigners. However, certain things have happened that give God reason to doubt Abraham, making it necessary to test him, to see if Abraham can bear the weight of that immense trust. God’s plans for bringing good to the inhabitants of the world depend on Abraham ( Gen 12:3). However, the opening words of the story suggest a different understanding: “ After these things, God tested Abraham” ( Gen 22:1).
The story is often said to be about total obedience, but we know that there is no virtue in unquestioning obedience to a tyrannical demand.
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