Maybe we don’t get the whole picture. Maybe we only see in part. Sound familiar (1 Corinthians 13:9-13)? I was reading in Romans 4:20-22 where it talks about Abraham, “he did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised, He was also able to perform. And therefore, it was accounted to him for righteousness.” This made me want to go back and read these chapters in Genesis about Abraham. I’ve been working through surrendering my desire to plan and know the future lately. So, I wanted to see how one of the “greats” handled all of this.
In Genesis 12 we see God give Abraham a blessing, but it was somewhat vague, basically “bless you and your family and generations”. Which is fantastic! But still, a little vague. God began to give a little more information in verse 7, though, He tells Abraham that He will give his descendants the land, a lot of land. Moving on we see God give a little more information in Genesis 14 saying that Abraham’s descendants will be “like the dust” and as many as grains of sand on the shore.
At this point, Abraham didn’t have children of his own. How would his descendants be as many as the sand of the shore when he didn’t have any kids? So, he brings this up to God. God responds with a promise of a child then more information about this blessing, your descendants will be so numerous, like the stars of the sky that you can’t count. Here’s where I would like to have a little chat with Abraham. Did he just say “okay, cool” and that’s it? If it were me, I’d be like “that’s amazing! I love that! So, when do we start? By the way, I don’t have any kids, so I’m going to need help with this, my wife (Sarah) is barren, so can you fix that? Also, how am I going to feed these kids? Do you mean I’m going to have a lot of kids or is this a generational thing? Can you give me some more information?”
We don’t see Abraham’s questions or thought process, that’s probably a good thing. If you saw all my thought processes, you’d run. Further on, in Genesis 15, we see God give Abraham a dream and a reminder of what He said back in chapter 12, descendants and land.
Moving on to Genesis 16 Abraham is now 86 years old, it has been 10 years since that first blessing we talked about. Yes, 10 years. No visible drastic changes, I’m just saying… In this chapter, Sarah gives her maidservant, Hagar, to Abraham to bear a son. Was this Sarah’s way of trying to “help God along”, I don’t know, the Bible isn’t clear about that. But does it give us something to beware of? Yes. God is God and I am not. He knows His plans and I can not “help Him along”.
In Genesis 17 Abraham is now 99 years old, it’s been another 13 years. Now, God makes a covenant with Abraham and gives him the full picture of what’s to come (Genesis 17:1-9). God also says that Sarah will have a son, makes a covenant, then in chapter 18 visitors announce her pregnancy.
Genesis 21, Abraham is now 100 years old, Sarah is now 90 years old, and Isaac is born! He is the son of promise, and the couple is thankful and filled with joy.
This isn’t where the story ends (clearly, since this is just the first book of the whole bible…). Genesis 22 God tests Abraham. All this time, all of this trusting and faithfulness and promise, all of this waiting, now God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son, his only son with Sarah. Abraham obeys the Lord even when it’s difficult and doesn’t make sense. God provides, Abraham’s faith is confirmed, then God reminds Abraham of the blessing and covenant because of his obedience.
That’s a great story, right? But what does it mean for me? How does this apply to my life and why is this brought up in Romans 4?
We see in part. We don’t see the whole picture and we don’t know the entire plan of what God has set out before us. We see what He needs us to see right now. For those of us who like to plan, that can be frustrating, but it’s building our faith and trust in Him. So, when I’m annoyed by the current circumstances or lack of future plans, I need to remember to ask myself, what am I only getting pieces of? What has the Lord promised me? Has He added to this promise, has this promise been fulfilled? Also, maybe the promise won’t be fulfilled the way we think. We can’t put God, His promises, or His blessings in the box of what makes sense to our minds.
I need to walk, trusting that the Lord knows what He is doing. Abraham lived his life daily. He traveled, had animals, built alters, built wells, took care of the people around him. All the while, God had a plan for his life, he just needed to obey and be actively listening. That’s what I need to do. Obey and be actively listening. I can’t get so stuck on the future and trying to figure out God’s plan or “help Him along”. No. God knows what He is doing. Even when it seems crazy, like sacrificing his son of promise or having a baby at the age of 90 (Sarah) or saying your descendants will be so many like the sand of the shore when you don’t have any children.
We need to trust the Lord, let Him be God, have “unwavering faith” believe in Him and trust His process.