A simple question for theists

[Neo-Scholastic]

The story of Abraham and Isaac comes to mind immediately. IMHO it is the most puzzling and challenging story in all of Holy Scripture. Had I been Abraham, I don't know what I would have done. Thankfully, the Lord has not asked me to do any such thing and I doubt very much he ever will.

That was before the law was given. Now it would be a contradiction to be commanded to murder--even if you thought God would raise the person up again. I don't think we should consider a contradiction from God as a possibility.

I don't find that answer persuasive. It was still the age of conscience. God's command should have contradicted Abraham's divinely provided innate moral sense - the Law of the Heart, so to speak.

If I were speculating, which I clearly am, I would say that the key verse is Gen 22:8 in which Abraham says, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering." Now either, Abraham was merely lying to his son (the traditional view) or he was already in some sense aware that God would do just that, i.e. provide a suitable alternative.

Or alternatively, God knew that Abraham's mind was already warped by heathen culture and would have obeyed based on a common understanding that the god's occasionally demand child sacrifice. God then used that cultural evil to bring Abraham to a place where God could reveal to him the true nature of sacrificial offerings as a foreshadowing of Christ.

But as I said, it is a puzzle and I really don't know. Sometimes I think God has put these intractable dilemmas in the Bible just to make us think.