Genesis 22 is troubling for many. It comes up frequently in conversations with my atheist friends. I have heard many helpful readings of this story as you probably have as well. It is a story that is an ultimate example of not holding too close the things that God gives us. It displays how Abraham has become a new man ready to trust in the promises of God no matter how bizarre. It is also a victorious example of how God tests us to mature our faith (as opposed to old Satan who tests us to destroy our faith). Yet, the big question that still haunts is 'why would God ask Abraham to do something that is against his character?' Not to mention issues around child sacrifice.
To this question I respond 'he's not (asking us to do something against his character)'. He's asking us to do something that seems to us to be against his character. When we read this story through the eyes of the original audience we see the story in this light. It is my position that Moses is writing Genesis to the Israelites to encourage them to 'man-up' and enter the promised land, believing that God will give them victory over those who currently inhabit the land.
The reader is told at the very start that God is not going to ask Abraham to really murder his son ('God tested Abraham'). The story is read all the way through that Isaac will the be fine and it will be a tremendous example of faith.
This is how the story reads. It reads this way because it identifies with how the Israelites must have felt. The call to enter the promised land would have felt like a call to sacrifice their young men in war. While Genesis 22 doesn't tell us the age of Isaac, he is old enough to carry all the wood for the sacrifice, but young enough to be called a young man (so, a good age to join the army). The story is told then to these fathers, that while it may seem like you are going to lose your son, God will preserve the descendants of Abraham and give victory securely.
At the end of the chapter is some information about Abraham's extended family, from which Isaac's wife Rebekah comes from. This further showing how God is working beyond what we know to ensure his promises are fulfilled.
We too are asked to do things as Christians that seems foolish in the eyes of the others, but the things we do have promises attached to them by God. Our focus here is not on why God is asking us to do (pray, give to the poor, speak against immorality, take communion, etc) but on how he works mightily in what we are doing.
"Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God" 1 Corinthians 3:18-19
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