Genesis 17:1-7,15,16, Romans 4:13-25, Mark 8:31-38
God made a series of staggering promises to Abraham.
The promise of a son
He was 99 years old and had no children from his marriage with Sarah. Sarah herself was 90 (Genesis 17:17). Yet God told Abraham he would be a father and his wife would have a son. Imagine making such a promise to an old man. If it were anyone other than God making the promise it would seem cruel and a joke in bad taste. Even Abraham and Sarah saw the apparent absurdity in v17. Their laughter gave Isaac his name.
The promise of nations of descendants
Abraham was in a marriage without children yet God went further. He would not just have a son. He would be the father of nations, even many nations and he would have numerous descendants. The astounding scope of this promise is that it affects the entire world – all the people who ever live come into the scope of this promise to one old couple. Imagine making such a promise to a couple who as yet have no child. It would seem like fantasy land. In order to confirm this promise God changed Abram’s name. He became Abraham. Abram (father) became Abraham (father of many).
The promise of kingly descendants
Abraham was a kind of wealthy desert nomad. Yet God said that kings would come from him (v 6). A crown is not the usual headdress that is associated with a wanderer. If it were anyone other than God making the promise it would seem preposterous that someone who travelled around with goats and camels and with his relatives should be the ancestor of a king. God promised he would be the father of kings. As a token of this, Abraham’s wife Sarai was renamed Sarah, meaning princess, a royal name suitable for the mother of kings.
The promise of God’s personal commitment
Abraham lived a life of movement and uncertainty. Yet God said he would be his God and would be the God of his descendants after him. This is another staggering promise. The God of the world and the nations was interested in, and committed to, a nomadic person called Abraham.
These were four great promises: Abraham would be a parent with Sarah, but more than that, a father of nations, and more than that, the ancestor of kings, and even more than that, he would have a personal God. Why should Abraham believe this? It is because it was not just anyone making these promises. It was God. Moreover God revealed himself as God Almighty. Almighty God. Sometimes that phrase is used as an insult or swear word. But it is a true description of the true God. He is God Almighty, and with him there is no power shortage.
It is one thing to make promises. It is another thing to keep them. And God kept these staggering promises to Abraham.
1. Abraham and Sarah had a son called Isaac. The Lord did as he had promised (Genesis 21:1). Abraham became a father.
2. Through Isaac, Abraham became the ancestor of the nation of Israel. And Abraham has become a spiritual father to millions of people. Whenever and wherever we trust in God and have faith in him we are sharing in the family characteristic of Abraham. The apostle Paul pointed this out in Galatians 3:7: ‘Those who believe are children of Abraham.’ This is a relationship based upon promise, not what Abraham can do for God but what God will do for Abraham. Abraham simply had to believe. (See Genesis 15:6 and Romans 4:3,22.) Likewise, we trust in God’s promises.
3. Abraham’s descendants include the kings of Israel such as David and Solomon. Abraham’s descendants eventually included the King of kings, Jesus (Matthew 1:1-16).
4. God is the God of the world and cosmos yet he proved to be the God of Abraham. In the same way God is the creator, the God of the stars, yet he is my God and your God.
It is the last promise that is ours too – the one about God being the God of Abraham’s descendants. As Paul says we who have faith in Almighty God are Abraham’s children. We relate to God in faith as Abraham did. We too, trust God’s promises. Paul explains how Abraham pleased God. It was not because he kept the Jewish Law, which did not exist in Abraham’s time. It was because he was a person of faith. He trusted totally in God and in the promises of God.
Genesis 15:6 is crucial to Paul’s argument in Romans 4. In the previous three chapters he has demonstrated that God has no favourites; neither Jew nor Gentile can consider themselves righteous before God. Paul then shows that this has always been the case. Some Jews had seemed to think that they were considered to be righteous before God on the basis of obeying the Law of Moses. We cannot be sure that they all thought this, but certainly some did. This is likely since human beings tend to seek to justify themselves. For Paul, Abraham was a crucial example. He lived hundreds of years before the Law was given to Moses and it was clearly his faith that pleased God, not what he did as such. God’s promise was simply based on Abraham’s faith (Romans 4:13). God’s promise, based on his grace, operates by means of human faith (v 16). So Abraham’s descendants cannot only be those who possess the Law (the Jews) but everyone who is able to exercise faith (v 17) – many nations, huge numbers of descendants. God’s promise includes all today who exercise faith in that way (vs 23-25).
We need to have faith. Not theoretical but every-day in our very real-life situations. For us as Christians, throughout life, we trust in God Almighty as he guides us through the obstacles and challenges that we face. Sometimes that may mean a lot of waiting. But Abraham knew all about that! He had to wait a very long time. In so many ways, God is fulfilling this promise in my daily experience.