Genesis 17:21 But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.
I love Abraham. He and his wife were wonderful people who exemplified living by faith. They trusted God and put their rest and confidence in God’s promise to them. While that is true, it is amazing to find that this is also the area in which they sometimes failed. Their faith sometimes lagged.
In Genesis 17:21 God says, “But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.” You see, Abraham, as best I can tell, never wondered whether God would actually give him a son, an heir of promise. I don’t think that was something about which Abraham was fearful. What he was fearful about was God’s timing about this promise.
The truth is, conceiving and bearing a child is not rare. It happens all the time, and while it is miraculous in the sense that all life is a miracle, it is the natural course of life. So, when Abraham and Sarah worried, they were not so much worried about whether or not God would keep His promise as they were about when He would do it.
For instance, Genesis 15:2 says, “And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?” Abraham seems to be saying, “God, I know you are going to give an heir, but I have been waiting and it seems like you need a little bit of help. Why don’t you just take my servant to be my heir, the fulfillment of Your promise?”
God replies, “This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.” God was very direct. He wanted to make dead sure Abraham knew exactly what He was saying. God was going to give this son of promise in His way and in His timing. The Bible says that Abraham “believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.”
Time goes on. Chapter 16 seems to indicate even more desperation on Abraham’s part about the timing of God’s promise. Genesis 16:1 says, “Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare no children.” This is where Sarah hatched the plot for Abraham to take Hagar, Sarah’s maiden, and have the heir of promise through her.
God is very direct. In Genesis 17:16 He says, “And I will bless her [Sarah], 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.” God is very emphatic. The child that He promised would come through Abraham and through Sarah. God said in verse 19, “Sarah thy wife shall bare thee a son indeed…and I will establish my covenant with him….and as for Ishmael, I have heard thee.” God would take care of Ishmael, but God’s covenant would be with Isaac “which Sarah shall bear.”
So, why did Abraham make some really bad decisions? Hagar was a bad decision, and having his steward become his heir wasn’t God’s plan either. Why were there questions? The reason is because Abraham and Sarah were concerned about God’s timing. I don’t think Abraham doubted that God would do what He said He would do, but the reason that Abraham and Sarah were trying to do things their own way is because they weren’t trusting God’s timing. The question in Abraham’s mind was not whether God would keep His promise, but rather the timing with which God would keep His promise.
The point is that if you won’t trust God with timing, you can’t trust Him with anything. “Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year,” God says in Genesis 17:21. In Genesis 18:10, God repeats, “I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life.” And again in Genesis 18:14 we read, “Is there any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.” God says, “I am going to do things My way and in My timing.”
Genesis 21:1-2 says, “And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.” Even in their old age God kept His promise. Friend, if you won’t trust God with timing, you are not likely to trust Him with anything. Trust that God will keep His word in His own good way and His own good timing.