@moonbus said
… think that an angel had authority to contradict a prior command given directly by God? [Gen. 22] Especially considering that another angel had once tempted someone to disobey one of God's commands and it had dire consequences, not only for the person so tempted, but for all mankind for all time. Hard to trust an angel, after that.
Comments?
(1) God did not allow Satan to appear as an angel, but he appeared as a snake.
(2) Abraham had faith that he would be prevented in the end, I believe, as he went through the entire process. It was a long, elaborate process, and not a short one, which I think was going to make evident what was happening.
It is also often stated that he believed that Isaac would be raised up through the dead, because another promise was actually made to Abraham: that he would have countless descendants through Isaac.
There's really a lot happening in this story and many people have tackled it over the centuries.
My favorite that I have come across that tries to cover it from an emotional and "existential" perspective would be Soren Kierkegaard's bit.