Believe God

Genesis 17:15-19; 18:10-15; 21:1-5
Related Sunday School Lesson, Family Bible Series, May 8

Everyone needs someone whom they can believe and trust. Yet we live in a world of broken promises. Husbands and wives sometimes break their promises to each other. Parents fail to keep their promises to their children. People sign contracts and then search for ways to break those contracts. Advertisements make false claims about products.

It is little wonder that we struggle to believe promises even when we find them in the Bible. In this study we are reminded that God is a God who can be believed. He is faithful and able to keep all of his promises. We can and should believe him.

The promise of God's provision, Genesis 17:15-19

God's appearance and dialogue with Abraham in Genesis 17 provides the most specific and complete presentation of the Abrahamic Covenant in the Book of Genesis. Those promises are recorded in 17:4-9. The sign of the covenant is given in 17:9-14.

It is in 17:16 that God revealed that the child through which God's promises to Abram would be fulfilled through would be through Sarai.

The promises would not be fulfilled through the servant Eliezer (Gen. 15:1-6), nor through Ishmael (Gen. 17:18-19), but through the child that his wife Sarai would bear.

It is also in this chapter that Abram's and Sarai's names are changed to reflect the promises of God that would be fulfilled through them. Abram was given the name Abraham, which means "father of a multitude" (Gen. 17:5). Sarai was given the name Sarah, which means "princess" (Gen. 17:15). It is fitting that she be called "princess," for she would become the mother of kings (Gen. 17:6).

The promise to Abraham and Sarah that they would have a child in those late years in life was an amazing promise indeed (Gen. 17:17). It must have been difficult for them to announce their new names when they were childless at that late time in life. However, they had a promise from God that they must believe and claim.

The promise that God made concerning the birth of a child was especially important to Abraham and Sarah because the purpose of God in Abraham's life depended on him having descendants who would become the nation of Israel, inherit the land of Israel, and be the nation through which Messiah would come into the world.

Many fine Christian couples struggle with the disappointment of not being able to have children. While we don't always have the answer to why this is the case, we should remember that being unable to have children is not a sign of God's disapproval toward that couple. Perhaps the principle that we should learn from this account is not that God gives children to all Christian couples, but that God will provide all that is needed for his purposes to be fulfilled in our lives.

The promise of God's power, Genesis 18:10-15

Sometime after the events of Genesis 17, the Lord appeared to Abraham and Sarah to tell them that the time for her conception of a child had come. The Lord appeared in the form of a man with two angels, also in the form of men, accompanying him. (The speaker is identified as the Lord in 18:1,13,22.)

The other two are identified as angels from the fact that they left Abraham and the Lord to journey toward Sodom (18:22) and two angels arrived in Sodom (Gen. 19:1).

The message to Abraham and Sarah was that by the same time next year she would have a child (18:10). Sarah reacted with laughter. This is easy to understand, for she was a very old lady (18:13) and had passed her childbearing years (18:11). The idea of her having a child at this point in life was certainly laughable, except for the fact that she and Abraham had a promise from God that she would bear a child.

Sarah struggled with the question that all of us sometimes struggle with. Is God able to fulfill his promise to me? She tried to deny her laughter of doubt, but she and the Lord knew that it was real (Gen. 18:15). Often the obstacles that prevent these promises of God from being fulfilled in our lives seem insurmountable. That certainly appeared to be the case in Sarah's life.

At this point the Lord asked a question that we should ask when confronted with seemingly insurmountable obstacles. His question was, "Is anything too hard for the Lord? (Gen. 18:14)"

The Hebrew word translated "hard" is also translated "wonderful" or "marvelous." Is anything too difficult or amazing for the Lord to perform? The answer is obviously, "No!"

If God spoke a world into existence, he can do anything that needs to be done in our lives. Mary was reminded of that when she asked about the possibility of her having a child when she had never been with a man sexually (Luke 1:37).

If we are going to believe God's promises, we must recognize his mighty power. We, too, must come to the place of faith that we find in Abraham who became convinced that God was able to perform what he had promised (Rom. 4:20,21).

The promise of God's faithfulness, Genesis 21:1-5

Does God keep his promises? Is he able to do all that he says he will do? The answer to both questions is a resounding "YES!" It is no wonder that Sarah named the child Isaac, for that name means "laughter."

God had turned her laughter of doubt into laughter of joy. God had demonstrated his faithfulness. It is stated three times in Genesis 21:1, 2 that the birth of Isaac was according to what God had spoken to Abraham and Sarah. He truly is a God who can be believed.