It states (22:1) א ַבְרָהָם אֶת נִס ָּה וְהָא ֱלֹק ִים, "Hashem tested Avraham..." The Mishnah (Avos 5:3) states, וְעָמַד הַש ָּׁלוֹם עָל ָיו אָבִינוּ א ַבְרָהָם נִת ְנַס ָּה נִס ְיוֹנוֹת עֲשָׂרָה בְּכ ֻלָּם, "Avraham Avinu was tested ten times and he passed all of them." All this was to test Avraham Avinu's emunah (see Pri HaAretz from Rebbe Mendel of Vitebsk, Vayeira, דמלתא כללא ה"ד) to see if he would think thoughts of emunah.
For example, Hashem told Avraham to go to Eretz Canaan, and then everything will be good for him, שמך ואגדלה ואברכך, "I will bless you and aggrandize your name." But when he arrived (Bereishis 12:10) בארץ רעב ויהי, there was a hunger in the land. It was the only land that was struck with famine to see if Avraham would question Hashem and ask, "Why did Hashem send me here, and how is this for my good?"
Even the Akeidah, which required action (to bring Yitzchak on the Akeidah), was just a part of the test. The central part of the test was for Avraham to believe in Hashem and not question Him. Hashem told Avraham that the continuation of his family would come through his son, Yitzchak. Then Hashem told Avraham to bring Yitzchak as a korban. How is that possible? How can Yitzchak be a korban if he was to be the continuation and origin of the Jewish nation?
If Avraham had allowed himself to ask this question, he wouldn't have been able to perform the Akeidah. He removed the contradiction from his mind and followed Hashem's demand blindly, without seeking to understand.
When a person believes in Hashem, and he believes everything is for the good, he can always be happy, even during the most challenging times. Shem MiShmuel (א"תרע) teaches that even at the Akeidah, Avraham was joyous, with a simchah shel mitzvah, happy to perform Hashem's mitzvah. Shem MiShmuel proves this from the fact that he had a nevuah at this time. Chazal (Shabbos 30b) say, שמחה מתוך אלא שורה הנבואה אין, that nevuah only occurs when one is happy. At the Akeidah, Hashem told Avraham (22:12) אַל יְרֵא כִּי יָדַעְתִּי עַת ָּה כִּי מְאוּמָה לוֹ תַּעַשׂ וְאַל ה ַנַּעַר אֶל ָיָדְך ת ִּשְׁלַח אַתָּה א ֱלֹק ִים, "Do not stretch forth your hand to the lad, nor do the slightest thing to him, for now I know that you are a G-d fearing man..." At the Akeidah, Avraham received the message not to sacrifice Yitzchak. If Avraham wasn't happy at that time, he couldn't have heard the nevuah. Avraham’s simcha was due to his emunah and של שמחה מצוה. We can now say that the existence of Klal Yisrael is because of מצוה של שמחה, joy while performing a mitzvah.
He was saying, "I am lying in bed, alone, no one is coming to visit me, and no one can help me. But even so, I am b'simchah! That is my salvation." (In the end, he survived this illness; he lived to nearly one hundred years old.) Let us learn from this story the importance of being happy, even during the most challenging times. We must know that it wasn't only Avraham Avinu who was given ten tests. Many of our brothers of Bnei Yisrael are tested with "ten difficult tests", of various kinds. They shout out to Hashem, and their shouts go up to heaven. Consider those who are ill, or those drowning in debt. There is the person who cries ceaselessly because he wants to bear a child, and there are the parents who have older children at home, and they cry and pray for their shidduchim. Yet, another painful struggle is בנים גידול צער. They daven for nachas. They want to see their children go on the good path of Torah and mitzvos. R'l, there is sorrow and pain of those whose children were niftar young. This is a test, literally like akeidas Yitzchak. Each person has his own peckel, but the component that unites everyone is that they all have great distress, and don't know what Hashem wants from them. Go and tell them that Hakaodsh Baruch Hu wants them to accept His hashgachah. The Torah tells us about Avraham Avinu's tests to teach all future generations that just as Avraham was tested for his emunah, so does Hakadosh Baruch Hu test every Yid. Hashem tests us, and He wants us to believe and to pronounce that everything is just, everything is from Hashem, and everything is for the good.
