10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.
11 But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I."
12 He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me."
Right at the very moment that Abraham was about to prove his faith by sacrificing his only son Isaac, God stopped him. It was never God's intention to allow Abraham to carry out the sacrifice of his son. This narrative tells the reader just how important Abraham was to God, and how important we should think Abraham to be. The dramatic events should make us sit up and take notice.
Their relationship shows us that God can have relationships with man which gives us a sense of the closeness we can have with God ourselves.
God's covenant with Abraham resulted in the sacrifice of Jesus, the son of God. Through these events, Abraham showed that he was just as willing to make this ultimate sacrifice, though from the distant past, Abraham did not know of the sacrifice God would make. There's a lot to reflect on with these clearly parallel events!