A Promise Fulfilled: The Birth of Isaac
The birth of Abraham’s son Isaac is an event that defied natural process and possibility. It was truly a miracle of God. The events leading up to and including the miraculous birth of a promised son show us the faith Abraham had for his Creator and Sustainer. We can all look to Abraham’s faith in God as an example. God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah to give them a son was not absent of difficulties, impatience, and even doubt. When the news finally comes to Abraham, we will see the disbelief of the elderly couple as they laugh at God’s promise.
Abram, the son of Terah, was born in his father’s native land of Ur. Ur was located ten miles west of the Euphrates River, and less than ten miles north west of the Persian Gulf, on the border of modern day Iraq and Kuwait. Terah, the patriarch of the family, decided to move his family to the land of Haran, a six hundred mile journey, and they dwelt there until Terah died. Following his father’s death, the Lord spoke to Abram him saying, “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen. 12:1-3)
Abram, obeying the Lord’s instruction by faith, departed for Canaan with his wife, Sarai, and his nephew, Lot. On the journey, Lot separated from Abram with his eyes fixed on all the Plain of Jordan. He traveled eastward until he reached Sodom, where he pitched his tent. When Lot departed from Abram, God spoke to him again, saying, “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.” (Gen. 13:14b-17)
One night shortly thereafter, Abram was speaking with God concerning this promise and said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir.” God quickly reassured him, telling him to “look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them, so shall your descendents be.” Abram’s confidence was restored and he believed the Lord in His promise, and God counted it to him for righteousness. Sarai, Abram’s wife, was understandably troubled about the promise the Lord had made to her husband. She had not been able to conceive and deliver a child for Abram. She was barren and now seventy five years old. So she did what she thought she had to do and sent Abram to her maidservant, that she might conceive and bear a child for him, but when she conceived, Sarai became very jealous of her. When the child which Abram and Hagar had conceived was born, he was named Ishmael. (Gen. 15-16)
Fourteen years after the birth of Ishmael, when Abram was ninety nine years old, God spoke to him again and said that he shall now be called Abraham and his wife Sarah, and she will bear him a son, being a mother of nations. To this announcement, Abraham fell on his face with laughter, thinking to himself “shall a child be born to a man of one hundred years and a woman of ninety?” Then Abraham asked God to use Ishmael for this purpose, but God had different plans. He said again that Sarah would bear him a son and his name would be Isaac, and through him and his descendents his covenant would be established. (Gen. 17)
A year later, Sarah gave birth to Isaac, just as God had promised. Eight days after Isaac was born, Abraham circumcised him, just as God had commanded. This was the sign of God’s covenant with His people (Gen. 17:10-14), so Abraham obeyed this command with his promised son. Abraham wasn’t the only one who laughed at God’s promise to give him a child in his old age, Sarah too was humored by the promise. After Isaac was born, Sarah said “God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me.” She also said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.” (Gen. 21:6-7)
God fulfilled his promise to Abraham. Although Abraham laughed at God’s promise, he changed his tone after God insisted that it would be so, and he believed in God’s promise. In the same manner, Sarah laughed when she overheard the conversation between Abraham and God in the door of the tent, but when God heard her laugh, he said “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Gen. 18:14). When she heard this her faith was restored and she trusted in the Lord. Although it was a physical impossibility by nature, God is not limited by natural processes.
In what we refer to as the faith hall of fame the Hebrew writer says, “By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude—innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.” (Hebrews 11:11-12) The Hebrew writer includes her among the list of faithful examples in the Old Testament to show how instrumental her faith was in God’s will being carried out. Sarah judged God as faithful and because of that, she was strengthened, and through her son, Isaac, “were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude.”
Through the bloodline of Isaac, Jesus the Messiah, the Savior and Redeemer of the world was born. We should be strengthened and comforted in the promises of God, just as Abraham and Sarah were. We live under a better covenant established upon better promises. In the pages of the New Testament, which records God’s Covenant with the faithful followers of Jesus Christ, we are given the promise of forgiveness of sins and citizenship in the spiritual kingdom of Messiah. We should be confident that these things are so. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)
- Eric Bullock, Evangelist
