Blog

by Logan Ames

How do you like being told to wait for something you desperately want or need? That’s a dumb question, right? I mean, who enjoys waiting? Some of you might be thinking that you don’t mind it, but I would guess that means you’re just better at dealing with it than most people. Plus, if you think you’re a patient person, you’ve probably never had to wait multiple decades for something promised to you for which you had literally changed your entire life. The better question than whether or not we like waiting is to think about how we handle it. What do we DO when we are waiting? Do we sit on our hands and do nothing? Do we get frustrated and try to obtain what we’re waiting for a different way? Do we just try our hardest to forget about it and settle for less? These responses were all part of the waiting process for Abraham and Sarah.

Last week, we dug into the first part of Abraham’s story in the Bible, which took place when he was still known as “Abram." We looked at his faith in leaving his family, native country, and everything he knew to go to a place God had not yet even revealed to him, all because that is what God told him to do. However, we also looked at the fact that, after he and his family set out with his father to go where God was sending him, they settled in a different town and stayed there for a long time. Abram, like many of us, learned how to settle from his father and needed a little extra motivation to get his behind moving. God promised him great things, but we saw last week that his decision to finally follow God was much more about what he needed to leave than where he was headed. Once he and his wife began the journey of faith, there was no turning back, even though the tests and trials were only beginning.

Hebrews 11:8-12 tells us a little bit about their circumstances. When they were known as Abram and Sarai, they lived in tents in a foreign country and weren’t even concerned with having their own home or land because their focus was on the future home and city where they would reside in heaven (v. 10). But during that time, they also remembered the promise God gave to Abram, which was that he would be “made into a great nation." He may not have known exactly what this meant yet, but he had a pretty good idea that it had something to do with children. That being said, Abram was 75 years old when he left Harran where he had been settling (Genesis 12:4). He had zero children. So, if God was going to make this happen, it was going to need to be really soon!

Our Hebrews passage tells us about BOTH Abraham and Sarah, reminding us that unity is of utmost importance when a married couple is trying to walk in their faith. I’m sure there were times of bickering between them, but it was important that they both be on board with trusting God during their difficult circumstances. Going through hard times is tough enough on its own, but when there is disunity and dysfunction in the family structure, it virtually guarantees your faith won’t stand. Hebrews 11:11-12 tells us that Sarah’s faith enabled her to conceive a child long after she was past the age of childbearing, and that allowed Abraham to experience the fulfillment of the promise to become a great nation even though he was “as good as dead."

As it is with all of the heroes of our faith in Hebrews 11, the faith of this couple didn’t come without some major hiccups. To understand the journey they took, we need to be familiar with more of their story. About ten years after they obeyed God and left Harran, nothing had changed. Could you wait ten years for a promise from God to come to fruition? We read nothing about Abram complaining during that time, but in Genesis 15:1-8, God comes out of nowhere and appears to Abram to remind him that HE is Abram’s true reward. Abram had to be thinking, “Man, I was doing well with the whole unfulfilled promise thing until you had to go and remind me!” Abram then questions how the promise could come true since he has no children and his servant will get everything he owns, but that’s when God reminds him that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky. In other words, they will be too numerous to count.

At this point, Abram and Sarai do what many of us would do. They get tired of waiting and assume that God needs them to take action in order to accomplish the impossible. This would be a good time for us to be reminded that while God often wants us to take action steps in connection with our faith, he doesn’t NEED them. Also, he’ll never ask us to do something that contradicts his own Word. Sarai decided it was her barrenness that was preventing them from having a child, so she concocts a plan to have Abram sleep with her servant, Hagar (Genesis 16). Abram figures his wife is not only okay with him sleeping with someone else, but she requests it, so how can he say “no” to that deal? True leadership would’ve been to refuse to go against God’s command and to be patient even when his wife wasn’t. Their decision leads to Hagar becoming pregnant, and Abram is 86 years old when his son Ishmael is born. You can read the story for yourself to see the ripple effect of sin and the fact that God does not bless their sinful plan.

Then, another 13 years go by. Could you wait 24 years for a promise God gave you? Genesis 17 then records the conversation where God again reminds Abram of the promise and changes his name to “Abraham," which means “father of many nations." He challenges Abraham to “walk faithfully and be blameless” in order to receive God’s promise (vv. 1-2). He then requires Abraham and all the males in his home, as well as all future descendants of Abraham, to be circumcised as the sign of their end of the covenant. After he requires this, he finally, after 24 years, tells Abraham directly that his wife Sarah will become pregnant with the son who will be the heir of the promise “at this time next year” (v. 21). In case you had any doubts about Abraham’s faith, he then gets circumcised… at NINETY-NINE years old! I don’t even want to imagine it, but that’s what God said. If we want to receive the blessings of God, we must be willing to do what he says even if we don’t like it or it doesn’t make sense.

When Abraham hears the specific promise, he laughs, almost directly at God (Genesis 17:17). Sarah later does the same thing (Genesis 18:12). So God tells them their son’s name will be “Isaac," which means “he laughs." If we were in their shoes, we probably would’ve laughed too. What else can you do after the journey they’d been through? But the most important thing is that despite their frustrations, doubts, sins, and laughter, they chose to again be faithful. When Isaac was born with his dad 100 years old and his mom 90 years old, they gave him the name the Lord commanded. But this time, Sarah and Abraham thanked God for their laughter. Faith allowed them to go from laughing AT God to laughing WITH God (Genesis 21:6-7). They overcame their fears and human plans in the midst of waiting and received the promise they thought would never come. Friends, whatever you’re going through, don’t give up. God wants to bring you to a point where you can look back on it and LAUGH. Trust him to take you there.

This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration.  All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved.  Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.