<p>11:17 <i>By faith Abraham, being tested, offered up Isaac. Yes, he that had gladly received the promises was offering up his only begotten son</i>- The tenses here are important. Abraham was counted as having offered up Isaac; hence he figuratively received him back from the dead (:19). The language of effective resurrection in :19 leads me away from thinking that the mere act of placing Isaac on the altar was spoken of as Abraham having &quot;offered up Isaac&quot;. Abraham had done it in his mind. God counts our intentions as if we have done them; hence in the matter of generous giving, the desire to give is all important and counted all the same as &quot;giving&quot; (2 Cor. 8:12). We too are asked to give up our children; not to Molech, but to God. For our children are God's children whom we raise for Him and trust Him to use them as part of a wider purpose which we have to trust Him for.</p><p>&quot;Was offering up&quot; invites us to play Bible television with this verse. We are taken back to Abraham there on Moriah. He who was remembering how he had laughed with joy at the promise of the seed, rejoicing to see Christ's day (Jn. 8:56), and naming the little boy &quot;Isaac&quot;, 'laughter', to reflect his joy... was now fighting back those memories as he was offering up Isaac his son in sacrifice. &quot;His only begotten son&quot; emphasizes how this was all pointing forward to God offering His only begotten. Seeing Abraham had many other children, Paul may be rather forcing a similarity here, perhaps reasoning that Isaac was Abraham's only son by his legitimate wife Sarah.</p>