And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only [son] from me.
Geneva Bible - Then he said, Lay not thine hand upon the child, neither do anything unto him; for now I (f) know that thou fearest God, seeing for my sake (*) thou hast not spared thine (♣) only son.
(f) That is, by thy true obedience thou hast declared thy lively faith.
(*) Or, and hast not withholden thine only son from me.
(♣) Hebrew: thy son, the only son.
My commentary: God prevents Abraham from commiting the sacrifice, as God abhors human sacrifice of any kind (This is what would cause the destruction of the peoples of Canaan when the Israelites are entering). God was TESTING Abraham, to see if he would believe and trust God (Faith), that even though he promised him his seed would be the heir (Isaac) of the promise by God, that he would believe and trust him and sacrifice his son. Once Abraham passed the test, God stopped him.
As to whether people today believe God was merciless or cruel in doing this, please consider that God Himself, would offer up his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who entered this world through the seed of Isaac, as the last blood sacrifice to rid the world of sin forever. That Son would be the perfect, unblemished lamb of God, who would take on all the sin's of the world and all the agony it entailed, and be tortured and hung on a tree, ending once and for all the requirement of a blood sacrifice for the reproachment of sin.
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