Genesis 22:10

And Abraham stretched forth his hand.

His hand was now laid upon the sacrificial knife, and raised to strike the fatal blow. So far as his heart and his intent are concerned, he has shown the deed to be virtually done. Paul shows that it was so regarded by God--"By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. " "In the divine judgment the deed was done as truly as if the knife had been plunged into the heart of Isaac. There is, therefore, no such contradiction here as some critics pretend to find. God required the sacrifice, the giving up, of Isaac, and the sacrifice was not withheld. Instead of raising him from the dead, he arrested the hand in the act of slaying him."-- Jacobus.