The whole Abraham-Isaac thing though, it's another case of reading words and taking the face value (I know, I know, why did God not make it more obvious etc etc 
) - but we need to use the tools of biblical criticism.
For one, it's evident Isaac was not, actually, a 'small child', but at the least an older teenager and the most a grown man. Not someone to lie on his back and let dad kill him, possibly? The biblical narrative on this one is sketchy - in reality, would there not have been more dialogue between father and son? Abraham also says to the servant, very clearly that we will go and worship and we will return. Earlier on God had given the promise that through Isaac Abraham's family would go on forever, so what was Abraham to make of God's request? And what did Isaac know about it? We don't know any of these things, but we need to think about them, at least.
It's evident throughout the OT that God 'abhors' child sacrifice - it's one thing that very strong language is used about. So therefore, why is God doing this? Possibly to firstly test Abraham's faith in him, and then to throw into stark relief how child sacrifice is not to be entertained? That God wanted Abraham to have faith, but showed him through this act that child sacrifice would never, ever be something he would actually ask of someone?
Pondering, really. The main points are there, though, that Abraham trusted completely that God would not kill his child (and that Isaac went along with it, being of an age), and that elsewhere child sacrifice is roundly condemned.