Wait

"Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram" (Genesis 16:16).

The story of Abraham is one of great patience, of learning to wait on God's promise even when it seems like He's forgotten it entirely. It's a story of God's faithfulness, of how He remains true to His word even when the ones to whom He made the promise choose their own way over His.

This is especially evident in the episode of Hagar and Ishmael. For ten years, Abram and Sarai had waited for God to fulfill His promise of making Abram into a great nation. For that to happen, a son was required. Yet Sarai was barren, and she was now seventy-five years old. How could she give Abram the son he needed to become a great nation?

So they took matters into their own hands. Abram conceived a child with Hagar, Sarai's servant, and she bore him a son. It was a horrible affair that created a great rift between Abram and Sarai, but still--it had worked. Abram now had the son he needed.

But he wasn't the son God had chosen. Thirteen years later, God appeared to Abram again and made him a new promise: he was indeed to be the father of nations, kings even, and the child from whom all that would come would be Sarai's own son. It was then that God changed their names, calling them Abraham and Sarah as a guarantee that His word would stand.

God had already determined when Sarah's son would be born. He hadn't needed Abram and Sarai's help to bring the promise to fruition. It was their own impatience that goaded them to take matters into their own hands. "God helps those who help themselves," they mused, and so they created a mess.

God is faithful. When He promises something, He will bring it to pass. We have only to wait.