Explaining the Isaac Sacrifice story to kids

[AL]

My son was pretty troubled by the Abraham sacrificing his son story we read tonight. He's asking why God would do that? Any advice on what I should say?

[Josh]

That has also been a tough story for Justus as well. I think it’s supposed to be a really hard story. I’d love to talk to him about it- I ‘ll check in with him on Sunday. But the best way I found to explain it to Justus was that God knew all along that He (God) was going to give his OWN son to die as a willing sacrifice for our sins because he loved us so much. He knew all along that he wasn’t going to make Abraham go through with killing his son but it was an intense way of showing Abraham the pain such a thing would cause a Father. And also Isaac, who seems to have trusted Abraham through the whole thing, is like Jesus, who was a willing sacrifice who trusted his Father even though it didn’t seem like this course of events could somehow end well.

Another thing to say is that in the New Testament the author of the book of Hebrews said:

Hebrews 11:17-19

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." 19Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.

which seems to indicate that Abraham’s trust in God assured him that somehow his son would not die or remain dead- that God could not possibly let him stay dead (God had already promised Abraham that through Isaac he would “father a great nation”)

If it weren't for Jesus this story would just be plain sadistic. I think if I was a modern day non-messianic Jew it would simply disgust me.