substitutionary atonement?

The story of Abram/Abraham is so much like our own stories.  God asks us to trust him and to follow him even though we do not know where he might lead us.  He says that he will bless us, but how do we know and what if he asks us to give up something that is really important to us?  God asked Abraham if he was willing to give up Isaac.....the fulfillment of the promise that his seed would be as the stars in the skies and the sands by the sea.  How could a God who is good even consider such a thing?  The loss of a child is the unspeakable tragedy, the thing that we can never understand, the thing that leaves a hole in our hearts and God would ask such a thing?  Abraham, who had hid behind his wife's skirts so often, who had played with the truth, finally walks in faith and trusts that God will keep his covenant and a ram is provided.  Finally Abraham begins to understand the height and the width and depth of God's love for him and we see it as well.  God did not demand Isaac as a sacrifice, but he sets the stage to illustrate his love for all of us as one day he sends the son to be our substitute; he gives his son that we might understand the depth of his love for us and how far he will go to help us gain access again to the father and the the blessings that he has reserved for us since before the beginning of time.

Many struggle with the Old Testament.  I am glad you are walking with me in it.  There will be much that we don't understand, but there will be enough that we do understand that it will illustrate to us again and again that God is pursuing us, loving us, seeking to make us his covenant people that he might bless us out of the abundance of his love and prepare us to be a blessing to the world.