sacrificing children

Today's reading is Genesis 21:8-23:20,Genesis 11:32 and Genesis 24:1-67

It discusses Hagar and Ishmael being sent away. When Isaac is approaching the age of being weaned (3 years old) Ishmael is 17 and Sarah said he was mocking and insisted to Abraham that Ishmael and Hagar be sent away which according to customs at the time it is not accepted to send away slave wives and their children but God tells Abraham that it is ok. God in turn promised to "make him a great nation" in regard to Ishmael.
I'm sure that it would be hard to send away a child after 17 years. I can't imagine the tension and how different the lifestyles were back then to have slaves and their children and to then cast them away. Especially when servants who provided such children were supposed to be treated favorably. Although it doesn't say how the children were supposed to be treated.
In this reading Abraham offers to sacrifice his son Isaac to God. This was the ultimate gesture in faith in God to willingly sacrifice your only child.
Sarah died and was buried in a cave in the field of Machpelah. This made Abraham realize his death was soon approaching and he sent his servant to his homeland to select a bride for his son Isaac. His servant returns with Rebekah and it was interesting to me that when she was notified that the man in the field would be Isaac she immediately covered herself.

In the other summaries that I have read it mentions that Sarah is the only female in the bible whose exact age is mentioned. She lived to be 127 years old. Isaac would be 37 years old at the time of her death and around the time that Abraham sends for a wife for him.
This is interesting because I would have thought the ages of marriage; etc would have been much younger.

In my newest bible The Chronological Study Bible it mentions in one of the little side notes that "human sacrifice is regarded as one of the worse offenses against God and humankind. It was one of the reasons the Canaanites were condemned. Archaeologists have dug up urns with ashes and the bones of children from the sacred precincts of carthage. Apparently, the Carthaginians sacrificed children as part of their religion."

It is interesting in a way Abraham sacrificed one child Ishmael by sending him away because Sarah told him to and God agreed and then a short time later was told to sacrifice his other child which they refer as his "only son" to God.

Sacrifices of any type these days is at times laughed at and looked down upon in society. Even the minor "sacrifice" of giving up something for lent. Imagine all the types of sacrificing that went on then and how much times have changed.