Abraham and Rembrandt

I went to University Presbyterian tonight, and Earl Palmer preached about the story of when Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac, but then God provided a ram instead. He talked about the painting by Rembrandt depicting this story. He also spoke about how child sacrificing was pretty much a worldwide practice at the time, except for the people of Israel. A point that he made was not so much that Abraham was faithful by offering his son to be sacrificed, but that God was gracious and gave Abraham something else to sacrifice so that his beloved son would not have to die. The painting shows that Abraham didn't have to be told twice to put his knife down so as not to kill Isaac, and it also shows Abraham covering his sons eyes, so he wouldn't have to see what might happen to him. Another aspect of this story that I hadn't thought about before was that there are clues that show that Abraham had hope when he went up the mountain to do the sacrifice that God would provide him another way, and his son wouldn't have to die. It was really interesting, and it was cool to see the painting as well.