Can You Trust Him With The Promise?

Genesis 22:11-24

Genesis 23:1,2

Abraham has this huge experience with the Lord. He is called up to the mountain to sacrifice his son. Abraham takes this faith filled journey up the mountain with Isaac, believing that if he offers up Isaac as the Lord has instructed, the Lord will raise Isaac from the dead. (Hebrews 11:19). I can only imagine Abraham had a great deal of mixed emotions and scary thoughts, yet he is not deterred. He is confident he has heard from the Lord and up the mountain he and Isaac go. The Lord provided a sacrifice. Can you imagine the triumphant feeling, the exhilaration of seeing the promises of the Lord come to pass? Knowing you did hear the voice of God, the vision, the plan, the purpose you had was from the Lord? Ok. Hang on to that thought.

The next verses are promises that the Lord made to Abraham. Big promises. The kind of promises to hang your life on. “That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. “

Abraham received a promise about his offspring. The Lord tells him his children/grandchildren will be innumerable. Like the stars of the sky, the sands of the sea. All nations will be blessed because of his offspring. We read that and know that the lineage of Christ came from Abraham. We know that we are grafted into that because of Jesus. We know all nations are blessed because of the Seed that came from his lineage. We know the end of the story. It’s easy to look into Abraham and Sarah’s story and see the goodness, the fulfillment.BUT, right after this promise, right after the elation of hearing the promise, look at what happens right in front of Abraham.

Genesis 22:20-24 “And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah, she hath also born children unto thy brother Nahor;Huz his firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram,And Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel.And Bethuel begat Rebekah: these eight Milcah did bear to Nahor, Abraham’s brother.And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, she bare also Tebah, and Gaham, and Thahash, and Maachah.”

Right after a huge victory and ginormous promise from the Lord, everything surrounding Abraham reminded him of what he didn’t have and how the promise of the Lord was waiting. The promise tarried. He remained barren. Verse 20 says “it was told Abraham saying” so and so is having children and this one had a son and that one had another kid. Not only was Abraham seeing what was taking place, there were people all around telling him of the promises coming to pass in everyone else’s lives. People telling him how the Lord was doing so much in everyone else’s life. Constant reminders of how everyone else’s promises were being fulfilled while Isaac remains unmarried (now close to 37) and childless. Offspring everywhere. Except for Abraham. Then, Sarah dies. I’m sure with her death, Abraham felt like everything was done. The promise Finished. Nothing looks like Abraham had imagined. After all, Abraham had tried to have children without Sarah before and it was a failure, a disaster. To Abraham, I am sure it felt like he had lost everything. I’m sure it seemed impossible for Gods promise to ever come to pass.

But wait, look at Genesis 22:23 again. Bethuel was born and then Bethuel grew up and had children of his own. In the midst of everyone having children (for atleast 2 generations) Abraham did not have anymore children. Check out Bethuel’s child’s name. Rebekah. Isaac’s bride was born in the midst of Abraham’s barrenness. Part of Abraham’s destiny was being born and raised right in the middle of his barrenness, right as everything looked like nothing was moving forward and the promise remained unfulfilled. Right in the middle of Abraham’s seemingly unfruitful place, Bethuel was born and raised. Bethuels daughter, Rebekah was born and raised. (See Genesis 24:15) Right in the middle of waiting, Abraham’s sons’ bride was born and raised. The mother of his grandchildren was growing. Abraham’s promise was maturing right in front of him and he didn’t know it. The birth of Bethuel, the birth of Rebekah, were the very things the enemy pointed out as proof that Abraham’s promise wasn’t coming to pass and yet, it was the very thing God used to advance His promise.

Genesis 25:1-6 Abraham takes a new wife and has other children. Abraham has other children with concubines. Wait, didn’t Abraham have a child with Sarah’s concubine Hagar? Yep. Wasn’t it a disaster? Yep. So what’s the difference? Timing maybe? Perhaps Abraham having a child with a concubine was out of Gods timing and sequence. Perhaps Abraham doing this later in life, was more about right timing than right action? Maybe, The Lord had shown Abraham that he would have children with concubines and rather than waiting for Gods timing for this, Abraham put the proverbial cart before the horse and created the whole mess with Hagar and Ishmael.

This brings great peace and shows that the promises God has made to me will come to pass, even when it looks like everyone around me is getting what I have been promised. In the middle of everyone else receiving their promise, my promise is being raised, growing and maturing. Perhaps, I did hear from God and every attempt I have made to make that promise come to pass has failed because although it’s the right word, right promise, and right vision; it’s the wrong time.

Isaiah 60:22………..I, the Lord, will bring it about quickly in its time.”