God often delays fulfilling His promises but He never forgets. Our patience and faith can weaken while we wait for God to act. This seems to be the case with Abram. Twenty-five years have passed since he came to Canaan but God’s promise “I will make you a great nation” isn’t developing as Abram expected. Please follow in your Bible as I guide you through this exciting part of God’s redemptive story.
As we left Abram in Genesis 15 he complained to God that since he had no son, Eliezer would be the heir to God’s promise. He remembers God’s promise but doesn’t completely trust how or when God will keep it. We will see this attitude in play again in Genesis 16.
How does God deal with Abram’s concern? He doesn’t scold him as an angry father might do with his doubtful child. No. Genesis 15: 5-21 gives us an intimate picture of the goodness of God as He patiently opens the future to Abram. He told Abram to look into the heavens and count the stars. He assured Abram his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. Overwhelmed by this visual vastness and majesty of God’s handiwork, Abram’s heart is renewed in God’s faithfulness. Genesis 15:5-6.
The remaining verses of Genesis 15 take us on a dizzying tour as God reveals to Abram events to come for God’s chosen people, including slavery in Egypt, the escape, and the return to the Promised Land.
Since Abraham would live to see none of this, why would God show it to him? I believe God reveals these future events to bolster Abram’s faith in God’s plan to carry out His promise. Although Abram will pass from the scene, his descendants will participate in God’s promise to him. Indeed, he will be the father of a great nation and many will be blessed through him!
As we’ve seen, human beings often complicate God’s plans. By disobeying, Adam and Eve disrupted God’s plan for them to live in innocence in the garden. Abram and Sarai also prove themselves prone to forgetting God’s promises and taking matters into their own hands. Look at what takes place in Genesis 16:1-2,
“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, ‘ Now behold the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Please go into my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children through her.’ And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.”
This action will frustrate God’s original plan but will not defeat it. While God will work around our disobedience, we should stay resolute and stubbornly focused when God gives us a direct promise or instruction. Adam listened to another voice and so did Abram.
Abram was eighty-six when Hagar became pregnant. Life gets very contentious between Sarai and Hagar and Abram tells Sarai to deal with it. Sarai gets nasty and Hagar takes Ishmael and leaves. But God intervenes and blesses Hagar and she returns to live under the authority of Sarai.
Abram and Sarai have crossed a line with God by trying to fulfill His promise their way. What does God do? Does He concede they are right and go with their plan? Thirteen years pass between Ishmael’s birth and God’s next visit with Abram concerning the promise. Look at the astonishing grace God shows Abram and Sarai,
” Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘ I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless and I will establish my covenant between me and you. And I will multiply you exceedingly.’ And Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him saying, ‘ As for me, my covenant is with you. And you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram but your name shall be Abraham; for I will make you the father of a multitude of nations.'” Genesis 17:1-5
Later in Genesis 17:18 we see that Abraham continues to be confused and pleads with God to let Ishmael be the heir to the promise but God says “No” and tells him exactly what will happen,
” And Abraham said to God, ‘Oh that Ishmael might live before you!’ But God said, ‘No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. And I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.'” Genesis 17:18-19
Doubtful Abraham and Sarah are about to get a big jolt. What they have hoped for, prayed for, and tried to arrange for themselves God will do. The promise is just a year away from fulfillment,
” My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year.” Genesis 17: 21
One thing you will discover about God from the Bible and your personal experience is that God always keeps His promise. God has a plan for His world and you, also.
He plans to save all who will put their trust in Him, to grow us to be like Jesus, to bring judgment on Satan and his followers, and to restore Eden and establish His heavenly rule on earth. Keeping God’s plan in mind helps us navigate the challenges we face in our brief time on earth. We have hope because God has a plan for us. He’s got this!
Remember this also; God has made many wonderful promises to us and they are all assured by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. God has a plan and His promises are connected to the plan!
We have seen God’s grace in the promise He made after Adam and Eve disobeyed, how He kept His promise to Noah and saved him and his family through the flood. Noah’s son, Shem, becomes the link to Abram and God’s promise that goes back to Eden. A Redeemer is coming. Piece by piece, promise by promise God is putting His plan in motion.
And so it happened as God planned, just as he promised, “So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him.” Genesis 21:2