• Newsprint, markers, and tape

• Write these questions on newsprint and post:
• Why is this story preserved?
• What were they trying to teach with this story?
• What is it that we can learn?

Invite participants to discuss the questions posted on newsprint. Use some of these questions to provoke, guide or further the discussion, as needed:

• What is God like in this story?
• Is there a single picture of God?
• Did God have a change of mind or heart?
• How is this God different from or the same as the God in the story of Hagar and Ishmael?
• If we compare the stories of David and Goliath (Workshop 1), Ishmael, Hagar, and Isaac (Workshop 5), are there any observations we might make about what God thinks of children?
• This story is a remnant of a time when child sacrifice was common in the Middle East. Why do you think it has been preserved in oral tradition and in scripture?
• How do we valorize or honor the sacrifice of young people today?
• In our own time, when do we view human life as less important than loyalty to an abstraction or cause?