when mankind has no hope. And when God speaks to Abram, he provides “the seed” necessary to begin his progressive plan of redemption. The seed is a promise and quite the promise it is! This seed is the embryonic promise that will germinate, grow, and blossom throughout the entire world! In this seed, God makes six different promises. We will focus on two in particular (highlighted below in italics) because they summarize everything else in the Bible.
• I will make of you a great nation
• I will bless you
• I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing
• I will bless those who bless you
• Him who dishonors you I will curse
• In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed
God tells Abram that he will take him and do two things. Firstly, he will make a great nation of him and from him. This unfolding promise comprises scene one of act one. Act one runs from Genesis chapter 12 through the end of the books of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. Secondly, God promises that all of the earth will be blessed through Abram. This unfolding promise comprises act two (the second volume in this series) and will eventually lead us to the goal: “All the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God.”
What do we need in order to start a nation from one man? First, we need a wife for the man. Abram has one and her name is Sarai. However, there is one problem, a frequent one in this narrative of progress. Sarai is barren; she has never had a child (Gen 11:30). We might also add that Sarai is quite old. To make a nation, God chooses one man with a barren wife! Why? Because God said, “I will do this!” (Gen 21:1). History is God working. When God gives the “seed promise” to Abram, he is seventy-five years old. Abram waits and waits and waits. After eleven years of waiting, Sarai suggests that Abram take her Egyptian servant, Hagar, and have a child through her. Abram is now eighty-six years old. Galatians 4:21–31 tells us that this was an effort of the flesh (or human works), and that Hagar’s son Ishmael is not the son of the promise. Abram, therefore, continues to wait. In Genesis 17, he is still waiting and has done so for almost twenty-five years; he is ninety-nine years old. He has been given reminders of the promise (covenant) twice, in Genesis 15 and again in Genesis 17.
Genesis 21:1–2 is, in many ways, the climax to Abraham’s story. “The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him.” At the age of one hundred, along with a wife who is at least ninety years old, the child of the promise enters the world! It is unbelievable! When I was a boy growing up, my home state of South Carolina had a senator who served in public office for close to seventy years, including as a state senator for almost fifty. His name was Strom Thurmond. When he was sixty-six years old, he surprised the state by marrying a former Miss South Carolina, who was only twenty-two years old on their wedding day. At the age of sixty-eight, he shocked the state as his wife gave birth to their first child. Everyone made jokes about his virility, but Senator Thurmond had the last laugh when he and his wife added three more natural children to the fold. The fact that Thurmond could father children at such an advanced age was both improbable and doubtful. Yet it was not impossible and the record shows that it did happen. However, for Abraham at age one hundred, and his wife Sarah at age ninety, to conceive a child was, quite frankly, impossible. Impossible, except for the reality that God had promised such and was able. He could give his word and he has the power and ability to do miracles. Thus, a son is born. Remember the words, “I will!” They are words of promise.
Naturally, we are led to ask the question: “Is this progress?” Yes—finally we see progress. We are celebrating this event like Pentecostals! We are excited and we should be! The Lord has been gracious. The promise is fulfilled and a son named Isaac is born. 1+1=2! That is progress. Is this birth the fulfillment of the promise that Abraham will be a great nation? No, but it is the seed of a nation. However, immediately (it seems, although many years have passed) Genesis 22 poses us with an unlikely scenario. God asks Abraham to sacrifice his one and only son, now grown and mature (probably not a young boy). It appears that the years of waiting for progress are about to terminate in one stunning event. 1+1=2-1=1. But God is testing Abraham. God is asking him, “Who do you love more—me or the son of the promise? Do you love the hope of bearing a nation more than me?” Abraham proves both his love for and his faith in the Lord with his willingness to give up his son. God provides a substitute sacrifice. We continue with the two—father and son—remaining alive. But in Genesis 23 we are told that Sarah dies at the age of 127. There will be no other “children of promise.” The story now shifts to the son, Isaac, child of the promise.
Genesis 24 is a very unique and lengthy chapter. Abraham gives specific instructions regarding the search for a wife for Isaac. I once heard a sermon by Dr. Charles Stanley in which he said, “God gave us thirty-one verses explaining creation and sixty-seven verses for ‘how to find a wife’.” Getting the right wife must be very important! The chapter tells us that Isaac does obtain a wife from Abraham’s relatives: Rebekah. Once she is procured, the scene shifts in Genesis 25. In verse 8, we are told that Abraham dies at the age of one hundred seventy-five. We have fourteen chapters in the book of Genesis describing his life, most of which covers around one hundred years of his existence. Seventy-five years and he has only one son and no nation. Now he is gone, and 1+1=2–1=1! Is this progress? The answer must be “yes” because Abraham does have a child of the promise. But God’s progress can be very, very slow. We must learn to practice patience when it comes to the plan of God! We wonder—when will the next child appear?
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