I haven’t been able to move past Hebrews chapter 11. I was examining Abraham and Sarah today and their faith victories. I saw some things I haven’t seen before. Follow me on this.
Genesis, chapter 12, the Lord tells Abram that “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed”. Abram was 75 years old. This gave him a glimpse of a promise.
Genesis, chapter 15, the Lord gives Abram a specific promise – “but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir”. Then God told Abram to look toward heaven and count the stars if he could number them and said, “so shall your descendants be”.
Genesis, chapter 16, they didn’t see it come to pass yet so they concluded that he would have an heir through Hagar, Sarai’s servant. So, they took matters into their own hands. They drew the wrong conclusion.
Nope. That wasn’t the promise. That was the opposite of Proverbs 3:5.
Genesis, chapter 17, the Lord repeats the promise – “you shall be a father of many nations”. The Lord goes so far as to change Abram’s name to Abraham, which means “father of the multitude or father of many nations”. He repeatedly refers to Abraham’s descendants. Then the Lord gets even more specific with Abraham. He says Abraham will have a son by Sarah.
Abraham laughs at the thought of a baby being born from his 90-year-old wife and his 100-year-old self! To which the Lord says “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son”. He gets even more specific. His name will be Isaac, and he will be born within a year.
Genesis, chapter 18, there is another reminder of the promise that Sarah shall have a son with Abraham. This time Sarah heard it from the Lord’s mouth. She laughs in her heart and says, “after I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord (Abraham) being old also?” The Lord asks Abraham why Sarah laughed at the promise. Then the Lord asks a rhetorical question with an obvious answer that should bring all questioning to a halt. “Is there anything too hard for the Lord?” Again, the Lord repeats the promise that Sarah will have a son.
At this point Sarah denies that she laughed because she was afraid. I believe she now knows in her heart that this is the Lord speaking.
This might not have been the first time Sarah heard about the promise because Abraham had told her about it. But I think this is the first time she really believed the promise.
Hebrews 11:11 says “by faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised”.
She believed God. Abraham believed God (see Romans 4). If they hadn’t believed God, there would be no Isaac.
For 25 years the Lord kept reminding Abraham of the promise and He got more specific with him as time went on. Romans 4:16 says “therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace so that the promise might be sure…”
Isaac, the promise, came by faith according to grace. Ishmael came by works.
What promise do you have from the Lord? Let’s judge Him faithful who promised!