Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/197

XXIV.] The Lord answered, "I have come to ask of thee something. I have saved thee in all dangers; I delivered thee out of the furnace of Babylon; I rescued thee from the army of Nimrod; I brought thee into this land, and gave thee men-servants and maid-servants and cattle and sheep and horses, and I have given thee a son in thine old age, and victory over all thine enemies, and new temptations await thee, for I must prove thee, and see if thou art grateful in thy heart, and that thy righteousness may be manifest unto all, and that thy obedience may be perfected. Take therefore thy son——"

Abraham answered trembling, "Which son? I have two." The voice of God.—"That son which alone counteth with thee." Abraham.—"Each is the only son of his mother." The voice of God.—"The one you love." Abraham.—"I love both."

The voice of God.—"The one you love best." Abraham.—"I love both alike." The voice of God.—"Then I demand Isaac." Abraham.—"And what shall I do with him, O Lord?" The voice of God.—"Go to the place that I shall tell thee, where, unexpectedly, hills shall arise in sight out of the valley bottom. Go to that place whence once My Light, My Teaching issued, which My eye watches over untiringly, and where the smoke of incense shall arise to Me, to the place where prayer is heard and sacrifice shall be offered, where at the end of time I shall judge the nations, and cast the ungodly into the pit of Gehinom;— to the land of Moriah that I shall show thee, there shalt thou take thy son Isaac as a whole burnt offering."

Abraham.—"Shall I bring Thee such an offering as this, O Lord? Where is the priest to prepare the sacrifice?" The voice of God.—"I have taken from Shem his priesthood, and thou art clothed therewith."

Abraham.—"But in that country there are many hills; which shall I ascend?" The voice of God.—"A mountain on which shall rest my Glory; there shall it be told thee further what thou must do."

Abraham prepared to fulfil the command of God, but he dreaded the separation between Sarah and her son. If he took Isaac away secretly, then he feared that, in the excess of her distress, she would do herself harm. At last he decided on this course; he went to Sarah's tent, and he said to her, "My