Towards Moriah

We come now to the climax of the story of Abraham's life, what is sometimes called "The Binding Of Isaac." Abraham's happy existence in the the fulfillment of God's promise is brutally interrupted by God's instruction to him to offer his son as a burnt offering on a distant mountain. What is God doing? Why does God identify the the object of the burnt offering four different ways? What is the nature of our tests? Why does this narrative contain so many repetitions and seemingly unimportant details? What are three lessons to be learned from Abraham's struggle? How does this story relate to Jesus' words to Nicodemus in John 3?