Focal Passages: Genesis 15:4-6; 16:1-5; 17:3-6, 15-19
It’s much easier to sing, “Have Faith in God,” than to put it into practice. Abram questioned God’s fulfillment of His covenant with him, because he had no son and appeared to be passing his estate to a household servant.
Despite appearances, God promised Abram he would have a son and descendants as numerous as the stars. Abram had two options – faith and sight.
Although he saw no basis for the fulfillment of God’s promise, Abram believed God and was declared righteous by faith.
The significance of Abram’s response can be clearly seen as Paul references it (Romans 4:1-3; Galatians 3:6-14) to demonstrate the doctrine of justification by faith.
Trusting God can become more difficult with the passage of time. After 10 years of waiting, Abram took matters into his own hands.
Although Sarai cooked up the idea to give her maid Hagar as a wife for her husband, Abram should have held tightly to God’s promise instead of attempting the quick fix set before him.
Instead of creating an heir, Abram created a rift in his marriage and set in motion an age-old conflict.
He mistakenly thought he just needed a son, but God purposed to provide an heir, the son of promise.
We shouldn’t be surprised when our attempts to fix things put us in a “fix,” instead of in the center of God’s will.
At the age of 86 Abram experienced the implosion of Sarai’s plan for a son. At the ripe age of 99 God reaffirmed His promise to Abram and changed his name to prepare for the miraculous occasion.
Abram (“exalted father”) was changed to Abraham (“father of a multitude”) to display God’s plan to birth nations and kings through him.
Even though Abraham laughed at the idea of Sarah giving birth in her old age and longed for Ishmael to be the son of promise, God fulfilled His promise through Isaac.
Whenever our faith wavers, and we go down dead end side roads, we can be sure that the straight and narrow path of faith always leads back to God’s plan.