That God could appear to want this destruction makes God indeed fearful and awesome. The ambiguous power of spiritual forces is proof that they are greater than any human strength, and we wrongly think they are therefore to be obeyed and believed. We are tested by good, but no less tested by evil. Most of us move in mixed motives, muddling into misery, but on occasion we are blinded by the grandeur of an absolute demand. We see our impure motives far too late.
Deception is on every side.
Blood is shed, and when we stare at the catastrophe, we find ourselves admitting, sick with guilt and horror, that we did not see any other path. We have fallen by our own hand. These are those moments when we are consumed with rage at our self and, if we are honest, rage at God. We demand an accounting, when we ourselves are the double-minded ones, divided against our self. In the story told in Hebrew Scripture, God not only probes Abraham, but has in fact built a world which has our testing at its core.