By Ife J. Ibitayo
Many of us are in a season of waiting right now. We’ve just finished Thanksgiving, and we’re trying to hang on until Christmas. We’ve been following the election cycle, and we’re anxiously seeking the end of this extended conundrum. We’re yearning for 2021 and its promise of a vaccine.
Abraham, the father of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, was no stranger to waiting. It defined his life. At the ripe old age of seventy-five, God promised him that he’d become a father of many nations (Genesis 17:5-6). Yet it wasn’t until Abraham reached the grave-knocking age of one hundred that God gave him his son Isaac.
The Foolishness of Faith
True faith will often look ridiculous to those who don’t believe. The Apostle Paul said Abraham “did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body to be already dead (since he was about a hundred years old) and also the deadness of Sarah’s womb” (Romans 4:19 CSB).
Now that we’ve seen the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham, it can be easy to diminish the sheer craziness of his faith. By the time God promised him he’d have a son, he was already old enough to be a grandfather. Stories must have abounded of the crazy, rich nomad that somehow thought his creaky wife would give birth to a son before they both kicked the bucket. Their whole family carried the shame and disgrace of believing in a vision from some little-known God that no one else worshiped at the time. Genuine faith often only looks reasonable in hindsight.
The Faithfulness of Faith
The Apostle Paul goes on to say about Abraham, “He did not waver in unbelief at God’s promise but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, because he was fully convinced that what God had promised, he was also able to do” (Romans 4:20-21 CSB). Faith hangs on. It takes it stand on the sure foundation of God’s promise even as the waters rise to its throat. It believes God when He says He knows a guy who can walk on water (Matthew 14:22-33).
The Fulfillment of Faith
Summing up the fulfillment of this righteous man’s faith, the author of Hebrews says, “And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore” (Hebrews 11:12 NIV). Abraham lay hold of the promise God gave to him because he held on to God. He suffered the shame, endured the wait, and embraced glory and joy unimaginable because he had faith. The question remains if we’ll have the patience to receive our own Isaac.
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation.”
(Hebrews 11:1-2 ESV)