Throughout the Old Testament, God poses many challenges for people both in the sense of entire nations to individuals as well. In each instance there was a purpose for the challenges. Sometimes God was looking to see how people would act and follow laws and other times he wanted to test them. In Genesis 22 God posed a test for Abraham. He commanded him to travel to Moriah and offer his son Isaac to him as a burnt offering. Abraham obeys God and takes Isaac to the place God had told him. He brings with him two of his servants and on the way to the mountain Isaac asks Abraham why there is not sheep for the offering. It would seem that Isaac was catching on to what was happening and he still did not hesitate to follow his father carrying the very wood he was to be burned with. When Abraham was about to slay his son an angel of the Lord stopped him and told him that since he did not withhold his son he was the favored one.
I found that there is some controversy over what the source of Genesis 22 is. There is a theory that the source can be found by using mathematical formulas to find a pattern of syllables. The second of four Priestly (P) source writers composed Genesis 22 along with other chapters of Genesis . I did not completely understand the reasoning behind this but I thought it was interesting that there was a theory like this that added another possible source to the writing of Genesis 22. There is also speculation that Genesis 22 comes from the Yahwist (J) Source. This is the actual source that it wrote this chapter of Genesis . This is based on the fact that there I found more evidence supporting the J source rather than the P. The J source is mainly focused on themes of rewards and fulfillment. This is the basis on which we can say that this is the source from ...