The Birth of the Promised Son

October 21, 2018 Background Scripture: Genesis 18:9 – 15; 21:1 – 7 Lesson Passage: Genesis 18:9 – 15; 21:1 – 7 One of the most remarkable promises God made Abram unfolds in today’s lesson. God had told Abram that he would have a son to be his heir. Perhaps out of guilt, Sarai had convinced Abram to father a child by her maid, Hagar. They both consented to it because they believed they were carrying out the will of God. God promised him offspring when he was seventy-five years old, so they conspired to help God ten years later. When he was eighty-six years old, Hagar bore Abram a son, Ishmael. Thirteen years later, God again appeared to Abram and reminded him that he was going to have a son as He had promised previously. Abram begged God to accept Ishmael as that promised son. God told Abram that Ishmael was not the son He had promised. However, God promised to bless Ishmael because he was Abram’s son. But Ishmael was not the son that God promised to give Abram. At this time, God changed Abram and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah. God promised that Sarah would bear Abraham a son and he would be the promised son. This was hard for the two of them to fathom. Sarah would give birth for the first time in her life at the age of ninety years old and Abraham would be one hundred years old when the promised son was born. This was God’s promise and it would require an absolute miracle of God to bring it about. God did not have to perform a miracle for the eighty-five-year-old Abram to father a child by the young maid, Hagar. On the other hand, Sarah had never been able to conceive and bear a child and she was now pass the child-bearing years at the age of eighty-nine. Only God could make it possible for Sarah to conceive at the age of eighty-nine and then give birth to her firstborn child at the age of ninety years old. First, Abraham laughed at the notion of this and then Sarah laughed. But the question was posed to Abraham: Is there anything too difficult for the Lord? In our heads, we know the answer to this question is always no. But, when we are faced with difficult situations, difficult people, difficult decisions, or just plain difficult days, we don’t always feel that the answer to the question is so simple. I believe the lesson in this for us is to resign ourselves to the position of accepting that God can do whatever He chooses to do whenever He chooses to do it. Sometimes, we need to stop looking for a “plan B” and accept that the outcome is in God’s hands. We know He can do it and therefore we should depend on Him to do it. God does not need our help. The more difficult the situation, the more we accept that it is only through the power of God that the outcome will be the seemingly impossible. God could have given Abram and Sarai the child thirteen years earlier when they were trying to help Him. I believe He waited until they had reached a point where they would not even try a “plan B”. Then God would not be competing with anyone or anything for the glory. The outcome would clearly be according to the will and power of the almighty God. While Abraham and Sarah laughed, God was moving their situation from impossible to hopeless. Then, God announced the birth of the promised son. Robert C. Hudson September 5, 2018