DOES GOD APPROVE OF HUMAN SACRIFICES?

Genesis 22:2  And he (God) said (to Abraham), Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. (KJV) Judges 11:30-31  And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. (KJV) II Samuel 21:8-9  But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite: And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill before the LORD: and they fell all seven together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest. (KJV) Deuteronomy 12:31  Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. (KJV)

God disapproves of human sacrifices, as said by Deuteronomy.  In Genesis 22, God was testing Abraham's faith by ordering him to do something which Abraham knew God disapproved of.  He wanted Abraham to learn to trust God even when God didn't seem to make sense.  And, reading on, you see that God did not allow Abraham to carry through with the sacrifice of his son.  In the Judges passage, God neither accepted or approved of Jephthat's offer, and in fact punished him for it.  In the 2 Samuel passages, an execution, not a human sacrifice, is being described here.  Not a contradiction. Update: I received a letter from a reader regarding whether God approved of Jephthat's sacrifice.  To read it, go here.