Trusting God’s Promises

KEY VERSE: “My covenant I will establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.” —Genesis 17:21

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Genesis 15:1-4; 16:3, 4; 17:15-21

ABRAHAM was ninety-nine years old. It was thirteen years since he had taken Hagar for a wife and Ishmael was born. He had hoped that God would receive this child as the promised seed, but now it was being made clear that this proposed arrangement was not acceptable.

Again God spoke to Abraham, reiterating that Sarai would be the mother, and to emphasize the nobility of the seed she would bear, her name was changed to Sarah, meaning ‘a princess’ or ‘a queen’. God said, “I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her; yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations, kings of people shall be of her.”—Gen. 17:16

God now was becoming much more specific in his statement concerning the seed. He said, “Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shah call his name Isaac” (vs. 19), and he added that this would happen at a set time in the next year. Abraham was no doubt beginning to realize God had waited so long that a miracle would be required to bring Isaac into the world.

The Apostle Paul, referring to the words of our text in his letter to the Romans, places them in an allegorical setting. He said that Israel—a nation descended from Abraham under the Law—had hopes of being the seed of blessing, but like Ishmael they were unacceptable to God in this capacity. (Rom. 9:6-9) Also, as was pictured, the seed would be brought forth through a promise which only God would have the power to fulfill. “This is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.” It was God’s intervention which gave Abraham and Sarah the strength to conceive and bear a child.

It was God’s intervention of the natural process which caused Jesus to be brought forth by a miraculous birth; and this occurred in keeping with a set time God had previously stated in the prophecy of Daniel. (Dan. 9:25) But further, it was through the power of God’s Holy Spirit that our Lord was begotten to divine sonship when, at the age of thirty, he was immersed by John the Baptist.

This pouring out of God’s Spirit, pronouncing Jesus as a Son in whom he was well pleased, set the pattern for all who will be part of that seed. Their begettal is from God, through the operation of the life-giving and transforming power of the Holy Spirit. It is to the divine nature. This is the kingly station of life to which the seed is called and from which it will bless all the families of the earth’.

The Lord told Abraham on this occasion that he would establish his covenant with Isaac “for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.” (Gen. 17:19) Abraham understood the Lord to be referring to the only covenant he knew about—the promise of a seed and subsequent blessings to all mankind.

While God was speaking to this faithful patriarch he also changed his name from Abram to that of Abraham, “for a father of many nations have I made thee … and kings shall come out of thee.”—vss. 5,6

Centuries later, the Apostle Paul was used to identify the seed and the prospective kings. He wrote: “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.” (Gal. 3:29) And again, “Now we brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.”—Gal. 4:28

In his interesting discussion of this type, Paul likened Sarah to a covenant linked with the future kingdom government—Jerusalem which is above. He said that those brought forth for this purpose by this mother are free. (vs. 26) Unlike natural Israel, they are unencumbered by any other covenants.

The Apostle then turns to an inspiring prophecy of Isaiah in which God gives assurance that though the wait would seem long, the antitypical Sarah would indeed bear her children—the entire Isaac class.

“Sing O barren, thou that didst not bear, break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child. … Enlarge the place of thy tent, … for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles … for thy Maker is thine husband. The Lord of hosts is his name, and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel.”—Isa. 54:1-3,5

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