Part One: When God Promises the Absurd
WRITTEN BY DREW MATZ
As With Abraham, Trusting God Often Requires Us to Believe Incredible Things
Believing God is no simple task. It is one thing to believe God when he promises us things that make sense. We can thank God for providing us with the means necessary to sustain our lives because we can tangibly see that God provides these things. It’s entirely another to believe God when he promises things to us that seem absurd. Yet, the scriptures testify again and again of God’s utilizing ways, which are so far beyond our understanding. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts,” God tells us through the prophet Isaiah. Our lack of ability to understand his ways can prove frustrating and can place stress on our relationship with God and one-another.
We can see from early in the Biblical narrative that God is using a strange approach to accomplish his task of reversing the curse of Adam and blessing the whole world. God chooses a man from Haran, an idol-worshiper who did not know God, and promises to bless him and that from him would arise a great nation (Genesis 12:2-3). He promises Abram that his descendants would inherit the land of Canaan.
Sounds pretty good, no?
The problem for Abram and his wife Sarai was they were having trouble conceiving a child. The years come and go, and suddenly Abram and Sarai find themselves elderly and far past their child-bearing years. The only person Abram has for an heir is his servant Eliezer of Damascus. As he complains to God:
O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.”
Genesis 15:2-3
God hears Abram’s concern, but doubles-down on his promise:
“This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Genesis 15:4-6
Here we are shown that God always remains faithful. Yet, we also see something else that is interesting. Abram’s trust in God’s promise is credited him as righteousness. God saw Abraham as righteous, not because he had done any virtuous work, but simply because he believed God’s word. God sees the covenant that he has made with Abram and changes their names to Abraham and Sarah to illustrate that God will bring forth from them a great people.
Abraham must have been confused up to this point. He and Sarah are not getting any younger, and yet God’s promises keep getting reaffirmed in more and more detailed and elaborate ways. How difficult it must have been to remain faithful. How tempting it would have been to return to his old ways and return to his old gods? Yet Abraham presses on in faith, a faith that will finally receive the long awaited promise in the most unexpected of ways. We will continue Abraham and Sarah’s journey in part two.