TL:DR God consistently delivers us from evil
Today the Lectionary (a reading scheme that helps us to read through the Bible) presents us with the challenging account in which God appears to instruct Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac ( Genesis 22:1-19 ). What kind of God demands such an evil thing, or plays such cruel psychological games? How we approach this text matters, because there are many people today who look at the state of the world and say, ‘Your God is either impotent or a monster.’
It needs to be noted that the Bible does not speak with one voice but offers a record of diverse communities encountering God. There is a (dominating) thread that emphases God’s greatness, to the point of making God the lone actor. This leads some to claim that God’s will is behind everything that happens, however monstrous it seems, and it seems monstrous because we do not fully understand the good God is bringing about through evil. There is another (subversive, counter) thread that sees gods (created bei