"Avraham didn’t have a good answer to what had happened to the promise that Yitzhak would succeed him. He pit his knowledge of Hashem’s promises about Yitzhak against the command to kill him—and decided it was none of his business what would happen with the promises. Once it was clear to him that Hashem did not want him to protest, that He did not want a debate as He did in the case of Sedom, he accepted the command without further explanation.
But how did Avraham know Hashem didn’t want him to protest? Maybe Avraham really failed the test—perhaps the real test was whether he would blindly commit an immoral act, failing the test by sacrificing his son, or stand his moral ground and pass the test by refusing to murder Yitzhak! (Rabbi Shlomo Riskin has suggested this a number of times.)
In order to understand how Avraham knew not to debate with Hashem about killing his son, we must take a step back to Sedom. How did Avraham know that in that case, he was indeed expected to protest, bargaining for the salvation of the damned cities? Avraham took his cue from the relevance—or lack thereof—of Hashem’s revelation. Hashem appears to Avraham one day and says, “Guess what, Avraham, I’ve decided to do away with Sedom.” Avraham says to himself, “Why is He telling me this?” and immediately realizes that since there is no particular reason for Hashem to have told him of Sedom’s fate Hashem is hinting to him that He wants Avraham to engage Him in debate. He wants Avraham to challenge Him.
In the same way, later on in the Torah, we find that Moshe often challenges Hashem: Hashem, infuriated by some Israelite act of disobedience or outright rebellion, turns to Moshe on several occasions and says, “Stand aside and let Me blast them to smithereens!” This is Moshe’s cue to stand directly in the way at all costs and prevent Hashem from destroying the people. Moshe asks himself the same question Avraham asks himself: “Why does He need to tell *me* this?” He concludes that Hashem does not really need him to stand aside in order to pulverize the people; he understands that what Hashem is hinting is that He wants him to intercede, to beg for mercy, to resist the decree.
When Hashem commands Avraham to kill his son, however, Avraham has no choice but to take Hashem’s words at face value, since he cannot ask himself, “Why is Hashem telling me this”—for the answer is obvious: Hashem is telling him to offer his son because He wants Avraham to do it. [This is a very subtle point, so if you’d like to discuss it drop me a line!] If Hashem seems to be telling you something for no reason, or asking you to do something for Him which is transparently unnecessary (like moving out of the way so He can punish Bnei Yisrael, when it’s clear He can punish them without your moving at all), you know He’s hinting something else. But when He delivers a simple command to be obeyed, like a request for a particular sacrifice, the command must be understood and obeyed as voiced.
The lessons of the Akeida are difficult lessons to learn. Some Jews have a very strong to Hashem, sometimes to the detriment of a strong commitment to other people; they learned the lessons of the Akeida perhaps a bit too well. But others still need to learn the lessons of the Akeida, lessons of absolute commitment to Hashem. A Jew is not only a moral interpersonal agent, he or she is a being dedicated first to the service of Hashem."
