Welcome to our new devotional series on the life of Abraham!
Isaiah 55:1-5. 1“Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married,” says the Lord. 2“Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. 3For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your offspring will possess the nations and will people the desolate cities. 4“Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. 5For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.
The story of Abraham and Sarah is the story of promise. Promises made by God to a man and his wife. But because those promises were not immediately fulfilled, it is the story of waiting. Waiting in the gap between the promise and its fulfillment. This gap is where Abraham and Sarah’s faith would be tested. It is where Israel’s faith would be tested too in the days of Isaiah. And it is where our faith is tested each day that we wait for the return of Christ, our Savior.
Isaiah’s prophecy pronounces a promise to the nation of Israel for a time when it will seem like God has forgotten all about his people – the Babylonian Exile. Israel will be marched out of the promised land and sent as slaves into a heathen empire. Their shame will be like that of a barren woman.
The promise is that of redemption. The barren woman will sing! She will break forth into laughter. The tents of the childless will expand. Their offspring will possess the nations. The season of their disgrace will come to an end. The shame of their youth will be overcome with blessing. How? Because God, the maker of Heaven and Earth is their husband. He will do it. He will keep all of his promises.
This promise to Israel was first the promise to Abraham and Sarah – the barren one who did not bear. The covenant made with the nation was first made to this desolate couple in their old age – you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your offspring will possess the nations and will people the desolate cities.
Every promise of God to the world, every promise fulfilled by Jesus the Messiah, was first a promise to Abraham. A godly kingdom among the nations, drawing all humanity back to God. A world full of blessing and honor, praise and glory shared between God and man. An intimate relationship with God our husband producing an offspring of righteousness and justice. All that our hearts need and all that we long for, was first promised to a pagan from Ur and his barren wife.
That is the story of Abraham, the story of promise.
But it is also the story of waiting. Waiting for the fulfillment of that promise. Israel would wait seventy years in Babylon, and in a very real sense they are still waiting for God’s promises to find their final fulfillment. Abraham and Sarah would wait decades to see God keep his promises to them, and in that waiting their faith would be tested.
That’s what life is, isn’t it? One big waiting game. One big test of our faith.
True faith is not that which produces anything from God. God’s promises did not hinge on Abraham and Sarah’s level of belief. In fact, often their belief was quite lacking. Thankfully, God’s promise to Abraham was unconditional. It relied only on the faithfulness of God, not the unfailing faith of Abraham. This is seen when God alone walked through the bloody animal carcasses as Abraham fell into a trance that sidelined him in the covenant ceremony with Yahweh (don’t worry, we’ll get to that story soon enough).
Yes, Abraham will be saved by faith, just like you and I, but it is not the quality of his faith that will save him, but the object of his faith – the promise. The blessing of God.
Isaiah 51:2. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him.
So let us look to Abraham and Sarah. Let them be an example for us of what saving faith can and should be. Let us look to Abraham and Sarah as we too live in the gap between the promise and the reality. We too have not yet experienced the fulfillment of all God’s promises. We too wait in anticipation of the promised Son.
Therefore, more importantly, let us look to Jesus. Let us look to the author and perfecter of our faith, Jesus Christ the righteousness of God for us today, and the promised Son of Man to be revealed to us one day. Jesus, our future rest. Our promised land. Our maker and our husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel our Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.
You: Do you see your life as one of waiting for the promises of God to be fulfilled?
You in Christ: In what way does our union with Christ give us both an immediate but also a future fulfillment of God’s promises to us?
Christ in you: How can you shift your focus from the quality of your faith to the quality of your Savior?
Prayer: Father, I trust your faithfulness, but I confess that I am also quite impatient. Please show me how to wait on you as I fix my eyes on Jesus not on my own faith. Amen.
To Live is Christ 