by Dennis Gladden, By Green Pastures, ©2025
(Nov. 7, 2025) — Abraham amazes me.
One ordinary day in the thousands of his 113 or so years of living, a voice interrupted with a disturbing command:
Abraham! Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and offer him as a burnt offering.1
This is shocking enough, but Abraham’s response is even more so.
He rose early the next morning, collected Isaac and supplies for the journey, and headed out.
Abraham didn’t bargain, as he had when visitors confided that God was going to destroy Sodom.2 He didn’t protest, as he had after waiting 25 years for God to deliver on His promise about having a son, and asked, “Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless?”3
No, without hesitation, Abraham wasted no time in obeying the order that would undo that very promise. He rose early in the morning.
How could he do that?
Would I?
The moments of that 3-day trial have lessons for us about knowing when God speaks. I wrote in my last post, “Learn to discern God’s voice,” and immediately thought we need to explore how we learn. Abraham’s experience, among others, came to mind.
Abraham had heard God before.
This was the seventh time God is said to have spoken to Abraham (Genesis 12, 13, 15, 17, 18, 21, 22).
We are not told how Abraham knew the first time the true and living God spoke, telling him to pack up and leave home.4 His family was serving other gods,5 which leaves us to surmise God distinguished Himself from the other gods, much as He did 400 years later in Egypt.
By the time of this test about Isaac, some 40 years later, however, Abraham could say, “I have heard that voice before.” At least six times previously. God had trained Abraham’s ear.
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In the spirit of confirming truth by two or more witnesses, let’s look at another experience—Samuel’s.
Samuel was born in an era when “the word of the LORD was rare.”6 The first occasion God spoke to Samuel, even the High Priest Eli didn’t realize God was calling the lad. God called three times before they surmised who was speaking.
Fast forward several years, when God rejected Saul as the king of Israel and told Samuel to anoint a son of Jesse to succeed him.7 Jesse brought out his oldest son—a good-looking, royal sort—and Samuel readied the anointing oil. “He’s the one,” Samuel told Jesse.
God interjected. “I have refused him. Move on.”
Jesse introduced six more sons, and God declined them all.
Was that it?
Jesse confirmed he had one more son and summoned David from the pasture. “This is the one,” the Lord said. “Anoint him.”
Imagine the dynamics of that encounter. Samuel didn’t have a prayer meeting before each introduction. Moment by moment, he knew who was and wasn’t God’s choice.
I’m sure his discernment went back to the previous occasions when God had spoken. “I’ve heard that voice before,” and Samuel knew to set aside his choice for king and to wait for God’s.
Abraham and Samuel learned by experience to discern God’s voice from the voices of others and from their own thoughts. God trains us as well.
God prepared Abraham for the ultimate test.
Closely aligned to the idea that God trains our ears is the idea that God prepares us for the greatest question.
Telling Abraham to sacrifice Isaac was not the first command God put to Abraham, but it was the ultimate. This is the only time God tested Abraham.
Why test someone who had proved faithful for decades, whom God considered a friend?8 What did He want to know?
Read the rest here.