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Daily Devotions

Genesis

Genesis 
Day 
Day 90

"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye." Psalm 32:8

Text: Genesis 17:1-27

A MIXED RESPONSE

How did Abraham respond to this new word from the Lord most High? With great candidness the Scriptures recorded his response. At best, it may be called, “a mixed response”.

“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?’ And Abraham said to God,
‘Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!'”

GENESIS 17:17-18

1. What Abraham said to himself

The first response that Abraham made was with reference to himself. He was of two minds about what God had said. On the one hand, he wanted to believe God with all his heart. On the other hand, he could not overcome the feeling that perhaps God had waited too long. He had lived for about a century already. Sarah was just a decade behind. Surely, God couldn’t be serious when He said that they would have a child through the natural process?

2. What Abraham said to God

Abraham was most careful about what he actually said to God. His mind turned to his son, Ishmael! Would not God accept Ishmael as his rightful heir, even if Sarah was not his natural birth mother! Abraham presented Ishmael as his possible heir to the Lord, when he said, “Oh, that Ishmael might livebefore You.”


A VERY FIRM ANSWER

The reply that God gave to Abraham was most significant! Ishmael would also be blessed, but he was not going to be the heir.

“Then God said, ‘No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son,
and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant
with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants
after him.”

GENESIS 17:19

Not only was Sarah personally named as the prospective mother, even the name of the offspring was given! Isaac, would be the one with whom God would establish the everlasting covenant that was first given to Abraham. The Abrahamic covenant would be established again and again because it was an everlasting covenant!

Abraham would have to get over his personal feelings. He would have to cultivate a faith strong enough to believe that God could and would fulfill all that He had promised! Could God cause both Abraham and Sarah to be renewed physically so that they would be able to have children? Great faith would have to be exercised if God’s Word of promise was to be believed and accepted!