“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai.” Genesis 16:1-2
The Lord appeared to Abraham and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” Genesis 15:1 When he was between the ages of 76 and 84 in the land of Canaan. And Abraham responded to the Lord, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!” [vs. 3] And the Lord said, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” [vs. 4] And the bible records the most fundamental verse, “And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” Genesis 15:6 At this point it is important to stress that Abraham and Sarah already knew Sarah was not able to bear a son. “But Sarai was barren; she had no child.” Genesis 11:30 And the bible makes this fact known to us even before they left their native land, Ur of the Chaldeans.
Another fact to take into account is that though he was already 75 years old, Abraham was faithful to Sarah and was not in any way contemplating to father a child by another woman. This point is made clear in the words he spoke to the Lord that he was already contemplating passing all his property to Eliezer, a servant that was born in his house. To which the Lord assured him saying “one coming from your body shall be your heir.” Then from this point forward for an undisclosed amount of time after discovering God’s promise Abraham and his wife Sarah must have tried to have a child. For her to finally conclude saying, “See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children.” Genesis 16:2 Now, we know of Sarah’s condition from the beginning and we also know God has seen the faith of Abraham because He has already attributed it to him for righteousness. So the question is, why did it take so long for Isaac to be born? If God had given them a son then, it would still be a miracle since we know Sarah was not able to have one. However God waited for quiet while before granting His promise to be fulfilled.
Now the point we want to make is that the issue was “Abram” himself. From the day the Lord told him he will have a son until the day came for the promise of God to be fulfilled, only one factor changed. That is both Abraham and Sarah had lost confidence in Abraham’s flesh. And the evidence that Abraham trusted in his own effort to bring to pass the promise of God is that, “he heeded the voice of Sarai” to take as wife Hagar her maid. Abraham had spent all his life being faithful to her and even prepared to pass his wealth to his servant. But NOW knowing the promise of God and Sarah’s unchanged condition, he considered the possibility of fathering a child by another woman. He had faith, but his faith took confidence in his own flesh even though it was rooted in the promise of God. If Abraham did not take himself into consideration and solely believed in the promise of God, his response to Sarah would have been “Bear with me Sarai God will give us a son as He promised.” but that was not the case.
Paul compares Hagar to mount Sinai, the Law and says, “Indeed, the one of the slave woman has been born according to flesh, but the one of the free, through the promise, which things are allegorized, for these are two covenants: one indeed from Mount Sinai, begetting unto slavery, which is Hagar.” Galatians 4:23-24 The Law that represents mankind’s own effort to obtain the promises of God is represented in Hagar. So when opportunity presented itself, Abraham’s faith in his own flesh/strength found a means of expression and Abraham rested in his own works. From the ages 85 to 99 this period was spent Abraham taking comfort in the works of his flesh. He did not lack faith, in fact his action was a demonstration of his misguided faith. And by the time Ishmael was born Abraham had really thought the purpose of God was fulfilled.
The key point comes when God finally told him he will have a son with Sarah, when both of them were very old and without strength. More specifically when Abraham was without strength. “Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.” Genesis 17:15-16 So when the day finally came Abraham’s response was, “Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” Genesis 17:17 Now we see in Abraham a totally different perspective of himself, he saw himself old and without strength. Even Sarah herself saw no confidence in Abraham’s flesh, “Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” Genesis 18:12
Abraham was no longer expecting any more children; he had already rested in his works so he wanted God to bless Ishmael. And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You! Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac.” Genesis 17:18-19 We see here that God had always intended for Sarah to bear him a son and was not restraining her but all those years God was simply waiting for Abraham’s body to become dead, until Abraham himself put no confidence in himself. Now both of them knew they had no strength, no means to fulfil God’s purpose then God said, “My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.” [vs.21]
This is where Paul shows Abraham’s faith taking on new life and says, “And not having become weak in the faith, he considered [not] his body already having become dead, being about a hundred years old, and the lifelessness of Sarah’s womb.” Romans 4:19 Abraham was now clearly seeing the weakness of his own body which he had never done before as well as Sarah’s condition and Paul says he did not take it into consideration. But purely by faith, believing God to do what He said, he hoped Against ALL Hope. “Yet he did not waver through unbelief at the promise of God, but was strengthened in faith, having given glory to God, and having been fully assured that what He had promised, He is also able to do.” [vs. 20-21] That is there was now no wriggle room and only the faithfulness of God remained and he rejoiced and grew strong in faith giving glory to God.
This is to make absolutely clear that the promises of God can NEVER be attained by the works of the flesh or any effort of mankind but only faith in the faithfulness of God. For this reason God waited specifically for Abraham to have no confidence in himself before His promise was fulfilled. Abraham needed to realise the weakness of his flesh in aiding God to uphold His own promise. “So that all flesh may not boast before God.” 1 Corinthians 1:29 And this principle applies to [All] of God’s promises.
We also may believe one thing for a long time and may be shaken when we encounter unexpected circumstances but it is not a failure of faith. It could just mean like Abraham our faith might have been misguided, we also were taking comfort in our works. “We at times have faith in our faith.” [Jp] But like Abraham we also through these unexpected turns of events have an opportunity for true faith to be made manifest when we also do not consider the circumstances we face and set our confident hope entirely on the promise of God. Faith is a product of words that take our eyes away from ourselves and put our trust in Christ alone. And Grace specifically seeks to teach us this by stripping our mind of merit based thinking and establishing our heart to be solely dependent on the goodness of God. For us to see the Grace of God in its purest form.
“How much more will those receiving the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ!”
Romans 5:17
Bread Bait. 
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