What if God was trying to get at something else?

In the story of Genesis:22, Abraham is commanded by God to go to a mountain in Moriah and offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. Abraham obediently does this, and just as he is about to kill his son, God stops him and praises him for his obedience.

I've often wondered if there wasn't a different message that God was trying to convey-- one that was missed by Abraham. The neighboring non-believing people practiced forms of human sacrifice, which God said were abhorrent to him-- why didn't Abraham question God as to why He suddenly desired a human sacrifice? Was God actually administering an intelligence test, one which Abraham failed? It's good to be obedient, but shouldn't a servant of God also have discernment? Shouldn't Abraham have realized that the requested sacrifice of his son was totally out of God's character, and should be questioned to make sure that it wasn't coming from an entity other than God?

This question has been on my mind since I read an article about a mentally disturbed woman who stoned two of her children to death and permanantly damaged her surviving child. She claims that God told her to kill her children... I wonder if her familiarity with Genesis:22 gave her the idea that God might ask her to sacrifice her sons. The Bible is a complex book, often misused by deluded people to justify their criminal behavior-- it would be a great public service if pastors would carefully explain to their congregants the importance of seeking counsel before acting on anything 'commanded' by God.