The road to friendship was the road of trust.
The dictionary defines trust as the “firm belief or confidence in the honesty, integrity, reliability and justice of another person or thing.” Abraham trusted in the character of the God who called him and took care of him from the moment he first left Ur. He trusted that God was able to fulfill the promise He had given him even if his son was dead. It was only Abraham’s absolute trust and confidence in the sovereignty and nature of God that caused him to follow at all costs.
I am sure that if God had asked Abraham to sacrifice 10,000 sheep or 5,000 bulls, he would have surely done it. That type of sacrifice would have been easy and mean very little to Abraham. It would have been a sacrifice that cost him nothing. David echoed Abraham’s attitude concerning this in 2 Samuel 24:24 (NIV) saying, “No . . . I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” Abraham chose to obey God even when it was very costly.
As a result, in Genesis 22:16–18, we hear God telling Abraham,
‘By Myself I have sworn,’ says the LORD, ‘because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son—blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice’ (emphasis added).