Rabbi Manis Friedman gives a great lecture on the reasons the patriarchs were all holy men, yet all lived in different ages with different moral norms. One of the reasons Abraham had to begin the sacrifice of Isaac with not a glimmer of a moment of a question was to show that his obedience to G-d wasn't jkust for "the good times", the good deeds. Abraham was famously kind and good in his time and day. G-d saw that he also was so devoted to G-d that when he was told "Sacrifice your son", he didn't ask G-d "Can you repeat that? I'm not sure I heard you correctly.". He did it. Obvs, G-d stopped him and the whoel thing was a chance to demonstrate to the world and people around them that human sacrifice was OFF THE TABLE.

There is more to this story and to its interpretation, but that is a taste of it.

Thanks for reading and commenting, and for making me think.