We all know of Abraham's faith and obediance to God, so much so, he was willing to sacrifice his only son. After reading the scriptural account in Genesis many times, I questioned if Abraham truly believed he would be killing Isaac. Wouldn't Abraham think God was breaking his covenant with him by asking him to do such a thing? If so, how could Abraham trust God anymore, or was he obeying out of fear? That sounds like many of the people in the churches today who worship God for no other reason than fearing him.
As a JW, this was one of the accounts in scripture that people I met going door to door, used to try and show God was diabolical in his actions with man. I couldn't see the different layers to this account at the time, so all I could offer was we must have faith even if we don't understand, because God's ways are not like our ways. That's true of course, but as I've come to see, God always gives us answers to why he does these things that seem wrong to us. Some have suggested Abraham might have thought God would have resurrected Isaac, but I'm not convinced that was the case, because Abraham had never witnessed such a thing.
These scriptures seem to suggest Abraham did not believe he would be sacrificing Isaac.
Genesis 22
5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.
Notice, Abraham tells the servants, WE will worship, and then WE will come back... Not we will go worship and I will come back. Then Isaac asked his father where is the lamb for the sacrifice?
8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
And it was just as Abraham had told Isaac, God would supply the lamb...
We can also consider God would never ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, as child sacrifice is a detestable thing to him.
Leviticus 18:21
You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.
Deuteronomy 12:31
31 You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
This of course parallels the story of God's sacrifice of his son Just as God provided the ram as the sacrifice for Isaac, he provided his son as a sacrifice for all mankind. Isaac was a type of Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God. He also was the only son of Abraham and Sarah, and was called Abraham's "only begotten son"
It's obvious it was God who made the ultimate sacrifice, and not something he would ever ask of us.. Perhaps I'm making too much of this, but I feel there is something more that I'm missing from this account, so if anyone has any additional thoughts I would welcome them.