Day 27 – Sarah & Isaac

• Last Saturday I wrote a lot of notes and questions and we discussed a difficult topic together. Today you may be glad to see that we have a change of pace. The readings are short (we’ve even read the Genesis passage already!), the story encouraging… and my notes today will be shorter too!
• What promise of God is fulfilled in today’s passage in Genesis?
• Look back at Genesis 12:4. We’ve thought about it before, but how many years did Abraham and Sarah have to wait? Think about how Abraham and Sarah must have felt during the long wait. Would you have trusted God, day in and day out? Would you have almost given up hope, perhaps like Sarah when she laughed at the idea she would become pregnant?
• Why is Isaac’s birth more special than the birth of Ishmael? Does that mean that Ishmael was less special to God generally?
• The passage in Romans explains to us that it was never God’s intention that every descendant of Abraham would automatically be saved purely because they happened to be born into the right family. How are people saved into eternal life?
• Today’s readings return us, once again, to Hebrews 11 and to some interesting verses about Sarah. Sarah is listed as an example of faith, alongside her husband. How do you think this is, given that she laughed in apparent unbelief in Genesis 18? Genesis 21:6 may give you another perspective.
• Hebrews also refers to faithful people from the bible “acknowledging that they were strangers and exiles on the earth”. If earth isn’t their home, where is? Are you seeking a greater home too?

With the bible in our hands, we can read something about an event, and turn the page to find out what happens twenty years later. Abraham and Sarah didn’t have that luxury – they had to sit through a situation seemingly bereft of logic (a promise to an 80 year old that she would give birth), day after gruelling day for years and years. It’s so easy for us to sit here with the complete story in our hands and not appreciate the immense faith that Abraham and his wife must have had. Hey – it’s hard enough to read our bibles every day, it seems! As you do, spare a thought for Abraham and Sarah.

Added to that, they never got to see the promises that Abraham received fully given to them. That would not happen until many, many years later after they died.

Of course, we are indeed in a wonderfully fortunate position that we can have a bible in front of us, and we can see God’s plan being worked out throughout the Old and New Testaments. We can see, time after time, that God doesn’t always work as we imagine or hope, but He does always work. God’s promises to Abraham – and to mankind – have gloriously proved to be faithful and true, including the greatest promise of all – that He would send a Saviour and a Redeemer to us.

Abraham and Sarah had to trust in the unknown future. We’re called to trust in the historical past. I hope this thought helps you to appreciate the joy of opening scripture as we read this year, as we see God working out His plan of salvation.