In my first article we saw Abraham struggled with telling the truth but was considered a righteous man. This is an important nugget to grasp. Was Abraham perfect? The answer to that would be a resounding, “NO!” In the beginning of Genesis 12 we read Yahweh or the LORD calls Abraham/Abram1 to go away from all he knows…family/land to a place God would show him. BUT God does not tell Abraham where he is to go just to leave. Abraham trusts God and goes! Be honest here, would you leave not knowing where you were going to end up? The closest I’ve come to this was leaving Missouri to go to Fort Worth, TX without a confirmed room at the seminary I was to attend. I felt I was okay because I had received the canceled check (yes that ages me somewhat) telling me the check was received and cashed! My dad, however, was not at all comforted by that thought. He thought I was crazy. I trusted God I was to be there, so I went!
Also consider Abraham was 75 years old when he left his extended family and home…no spring chicken by our standards. People lived longer at the time of Abraham, and he lived to be 175! We know he had no children by his wife, Sarah from Genesis 15:3 “And Abram said, ‘Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.'” Yahweh tells Abraham what He will do about that as we read further. “4And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: ‘This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.’ 5And he brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.'” The next verse says it outright “6And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” Abraham BELIEVED what God told him would happen. Again, this did not mean everything went perfectly from there.
Sarah/Sarai was childless and did not have the same confidence in Yahweh Abraham did. She tried to force things by using her slave/servant to get offspring…that was a thing back then. Abraham could have stopped this path but chose to go along with it and it caused trouble. Both Abraham and Sarah faltered in their belief that God would give them one child. They were 100 and 90 respectively when they were given a one-year notice a child would come!
Genesis 17:17 tells us: Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”
Genesis 18:11-15 says: Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” 13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” 15 But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”
Sarah had passed the age of childbearing, so you can understand a cause for some caution or concern. But to laugh at God??? Not wise. And not only did she laugh out of disbelief, but she also lied to the omniscient Creator God!!! Again, not wise!
Yahweh knows our thoughts and our hearts. There is no lying to Him. God wants us to trust Him implicitly no matter what the circumstances may appear to be. He doesn’t expect perfection from us, but He does expect us to trust and believe. Genesis 15:6 makes that clear “6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”
The other nugget here is in Genesis 18:14 “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” I mean let’s just think on that a minute. We’re speaking of the very Creator of the universe!! I’m not saying it might be hard to believe, but as God has already delivered them from danger and kept them safe, more than once, shouldn’t it be a short walk to believe He can do as He says? BUT then again, do I always believe God will do as He says He will in my life through His words in black and white…maybe red if you have a red-letter edition of the Bible? Trusting and believing go together. The great Creator God who first created and put this earth into orbit, made everything on it, and holds it together by His will is asking us to trust and believe in Him. There’s no other who could come even remotely close to being worthy of our belief and trust. Abraham’s belief is talked about in Romans 4, Galatians 3, and James 2. This is part of that connectivity throughout the Bible. Keep reading His word and hope to see you soon at CultivatingFaith.org. Blessings. #CultivatingFaithOrg