It can be very frustrating when we try to accomplish a feat but we are not able to finish it. How much more so, when G-d himself gives us a job to do but then stops us in our tracks, as if saying: you are unworthy to do this task. How insulting can that be? Well, that is exactly what Abraham thought to himself as we see when we read this week’s Torah portion, the story of the “Binding of Isaac.” You see, G-d told Abraham to take his son Isaac to the mountain top as an offering. Once there, Abraham was about to slaughter his son—but then he was told to stop.
We must keep in mind that up to this point Abraham had never questioned G-d, not even in his own mind. He never asked, “How could this be?” since “G-d promised that my offspring will come forth through Isaac.” He just followed orders. Once he was told to stop, his first thought was that perhaps he was unworthy of fulfilling G-d’s orders, and was being punished.
The angel of G-d calmed him down and said, “No, you did not fail at all! Just the opposite, you succeeded.” The angel made a powerful point: “The fact that you never questioned G-d shows that you are a loyal servant, even if you didn’t finish the task. It is not the end result that matters but the journey. More importantly is not probing to understand G-d’s way.”
Often in life we find ourselves disappointed with the way things turn out. A job, a project, whatever. We wonder, Was this G-d’s plan? I thought I prayed on the High Holidays for a blessing. Where is that blessing? Did I mess up? Am I being punished? The lesson that we take from the story of the binding of Isaac is that if we have trust in G-d and we don’t question G-d, then it is not a punishment, we did our job, our task just changed. What we thought we are meant to do, has shifted. Now we are on to our next task.