Questions

Still reading Genesis. 

Genesis 22 is the passage in which God commands Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.  I am struck by two conflicting responses:

1. It is abhorrent to me that God would command Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, and I believe my reaction is because God has created such a reaction in me.  To kill a child as an act of worship is unthinkable, and I believe I have been taught so by God.  So I am confused by his command to Abraham to do so.  Was it a test, and God knew all along that he didn't mean for Abraham to go through with it?  If so, it seems manipulative -- an in such as way that God would not condone.  So I have lots of unanswered questions.
2. In also seems to parallel in many ways God's sacrifice of his own son.  He (Isaac and Jesus) arrive on a  donkey, carry the implement of the sacrifice (wood and cross); and both would have been offered for sacrifice by their father.  The difference is that God allows for Jesus to be the sacrifice but not Isaac.

It is a puzzling passage.