While the youth brought over one last rock for the altar, the wood already being laid out on it, the old man secretly tied slip knots in the ends of the two straps that had held the bundle together. After the youth carefully place the rock and looked toward his father for approval, the old man quickly grabbed his hand and slipped the loop around his wrist.
The boy didn’t quite know what his father was doing as he grabbed the other hand and wrapped the band around both of them.The youth was staring at his bound hands in puzzlement when the old man pushed him onto the wood piled on the altar and slipped the other loop around one of his son’s ankles, quickly wrapping the strap around both ankles and tying it off, then swinging the boy around to lay full length on the altar. Now the youth looked toward his father in puzzlement, the questions in his eyes, but as yet unasked. So far he had not struggled against his father’s unexpected actions, but when he saw the old man draw his knife from the sheath, understanding began to dawn on him and then the struggle against his bonds began.
The old man was not able to stand the look of hurt and betrayal in his son’s eyes. He placed his hand over them so he would not see what was coming and also to hold him still. With tears blurring his vision and running down his cheeks, he looked at his son’s chest to pick out the best spot to kill him quickly and not make him suffer. Steeling himself, holding his struggling son still with one arm, he slowly raised the knife and raised himself on his toes to generate the maximum power when he plunged the knife into his son’s beating heart, just as his God had asked him to do.
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