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Tim Maas
Jack Gutknecht
Richard Kean
Why did God have to test Abraham to see if he would sacrifice Isaac if He's omniscient and knows everything?
Genesis 22:1 - 24
ESV - 1 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I. 2 He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.
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Tim Maas
In my view, God ordered Abraham to sacrifice Isaac not because He Himself did not already know what Abraham would do, but to have Abraham grow and mature in his faith in a way that no other means could so greatly achieve by finding out for himself what he was willing to do, or how far he was willing to go, to obey God. (That is, Abraham's faith was just a theoretical concept until he had to apply it to this most severe concrete situation.) (As noted in Hebrews 11:17-19, Abraham -- even as he prepared to kill Isaac -- had such great faith that he believed that, even if he were to kill Isaac, God would be able to raise Isaac from the dead. And God rewarded him for that faith.)
Jack Gutknecht
I think God would "have to" test Abraham in this way to see if Abraham really loved Him and to show us that he did. God did not/does not hide the painfulness of surrender from us. I also believe it was analogous to God sacrificing His Son for us. However not all would agree as I once mentioned this to a precious Jewish elderly couple, Al and Ellie, probably deceased by now, but they disagreed because they did not believe in Jesus. See S. Michael Houdmann's wonderful article about this analogy at GotQuestions.org. Here's the link: https://www.gotquestions.org/Abraham-Isaac.html
Richard Kean
God doesn't give up his sovereignty by not choosing to know what humans will do. He was willing to take the risk of sin then to make Adam into a robot. If love is force, it's not love freely given. God didn't create love in Adam, but, gave Adam the capacity to love. Could God know? Of course, but he chose not to because, that would violate the principle of love itself. Look at it this way: You invite your friend to stay in your home, give them a room where they can sleep and put their things. They inform you they will be going overnight to see another friend, and would you mind if they left their things in the room you provided. Would that mean you have a right to search their luggage because, after all, it’s your property and the right is on your side? You wouldn't do that because there is a principle of "I ought not do that." This is what we're looking at: Can I? Yes. Should I? No.
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