Mesha, the king of Moab, heard the story of the Binding of Isaac and drew exactly the wrong conclusion. He learned that Abraham, the father of the Israelites, had been willing to sacrifice his own son to God — and that this act of devotion had earned Abraham the greatest blessings heaven could bestow. Mesha decided to do the same.
But Mesha missed the entire point of the story. Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac, but God stopped him. The binding was a test of faith, not an instruction to kill. The angel called out from heaven at the last moment: "Do not lay your hand upon the boy" (Genesis 22:12). A ram appeared in the thicket as a substitute. The lesson was that God does not desire human sacrifice.
Mesha heard only the first half of the story. He took his own son — his firstborn, his heir — and sacrificed him on the walls of his city as a burnt offering to his god Chemosh. There was no angel to stop him. There was no ram in the thicket. The boy died.
The Rabbis told this tale as a warning about the danger of learning Torah improperly. A sacred story, misunderstood by a man without proper guidance, led directly to the worst possible sin. Abraham's act of faith became, in Mesha's distorted imitation, an act of murder. Good intentions guided by bad understanding do not lead to merit. They lead to catastrophe.