11 By faith he received power of procreation, even though he was too old—and Sarah herself was barren—because he considered him faithful who had promised.
12 Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, ‘as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.’
(Hebrews 11:11-12)
The writer of Hebrews 11 has set his thesis to be that heroes and heroines of the faith believed in a God they could not see to bring about a future they had yet to live. The writer now makes to jump from Cain and Abel, Enoch, and Noah to Abraham leaving his homeland in obedience to an unseen God and traveling to a foreign country. Today’s text talks about Abraham fathering Isaac. The writer does not tell of the trip to Egypt because of famine or of Sarah being chosen to be in the Pharaoh’s harem nor about their return to their promised land with Hagar, Sarah’s maid who sires Abraham’s first son, Ishmael. There’s more to the story than meets the eye and so our world religions split. Hebrews is not tracing a bloodline but a faith line. At age 100, Abraham who was too old to father children sires Isaac by Sarah who is too old to have children. Impossible. The writer is tracing the impossible, the Ark and now a baby.
God made a promise to Abraham to bless him in Genesis 12 when he calls him. God renews the promise in Genesis 15. Isaac is born in Genesis 21. A lot of water has goes under the bridge. May I note the subtheme in these chapters of God’s faithfulness to and through Sarah?
Today I think of the many people who pray for dreams that seem never to be arriving, children we think are wandering in the wilderness, and governments that seem so corrupt. Many live in places of relative comfort but most of the world does not. Life is hard and it is easy to think God is busy elsewhere. Let us pray today for people who hold on to their faith and to promises of what seems impossible for an unseen God to achieve. Believing in a God who is true to his promises to bring about an impossible future is living life with hope! He is able. I am not. Praise be to God.
On the Way to Wonder 