Read: Genesis 16-17
Advent is a season of waiting and if there’s one thing that we know, it’s that it is hard to wait. We get impatient waiting for coffee to brew or water to boil or supper to finish cooking. As we wait, our minds get so consumed with what we are waiting for that every passing second feels like a minute, every minute an hour …
Abram and Sarai knew the feeling. For 11 years they had waited on God’s promise to come true and by now they were tired of waiting. It’s just so hard to wait. So they hatch a plan: Sarai gives her servant Hagar to Abram and through her Sarai will bear a son. This way, God’s plan will come to fruition. After 11 years they figure God needed a little help. And Ishmael is born.
But, as chapter 17 reveals, Ishmael wasn’t the son God had promised. It wouldn’t be through him that God would bless the nations. The son of promise was still coming. It would take another 14 years though, and both Abram and Sarai laughed at the prospect of Sarai giving birth to a son at 90, but that was God’s promise. While Abram and Sarai had tried to find a shortcut around God’s plan, God showed them that His plan was set. It would happen in His time. And nothing - not even biology and age - could stop it. Soon Isaac would be born to parents well beyond childbearing age.
Even when it seemed impossible, God kept His promise. And hope remained.