"Man, you must be puttin' me on"

Word has it that the Lord told Abraham to take his son out and truss him up like a animal and prepare him for sacrifice. Which Abraham actually did, but at the last minute the Lord told him not to do it, not to kill Isaac. Apparently, Isaac wasn't supposed to be killed; that wasn't the point. The point was to see if Abraham would do this repellent thing if ordered to. It was just a test. I think Abe failed, thus introducing the line of defense later adopted by folks like Eichmann, Lt. Calley, and telephone customer service reps.