The Medrash tells us that when Avraham was asked by G-d to sacrifice Yitzchak on an altar, he would have justifiably been able to protest G-d’s request.
Text 7
Avraham said before the Holy One blessed be He: “Master of the Universe! You clearly know that at the time when You told me, ‘Please take your son, your only one, whom you love, yea, Yitzchak, and go away to the land of Moriah and bring him up there for a burnt offering,’ I would have been able to say, ‘Did you not already tell me, “For in Yitzchak will be called your seed?!”’ I didn’t say that though, rather I held back my mercy and I didn’t question your desire.”
Bereishis Rabba 56:10
Avraham had already been promised that Yitzchak would be the progeny that would continue on his path of monotheism and inherit the blessings that Avraham had been assured. If Yitzchak would have been killed on the altar, that promise would have gone up in the flames of Yitzchak’s martyrdom. It was for this very reason that when G-d tells him to sacrifice his son, He says, “Please take your son.” G-d does not command him, but asks him to do so, as commanding him would have contradicted a previous promise that G-d had made to Avraham.
This is what is special about Avraham’s sacrifice, explains the Ikarim. It was the fact that he was not commanded to martyr Yitzchak, and his ability to protest, that sets him apart from the martyrs of all the generations that followed him.
