God Will Do What He Says
Rom 4:17 NIV: As it is written: I have made you a father of many nations. He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed--the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.
Gal 4:22-23,29 NIV: For it is written that Abraham had two sons Ishmael first, and then Isaac, one by the slave woman Hagar and the other by the free woman Sarah. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way the flesh; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise the Spirit... At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now.
- You know the story. God promised Abraham a son in Gen 15:4. The problem came when after receiving this promise, Sarah suggested an idea to move ahead in the flesh and assist God. The Ishmael mistake of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar is not uncommon. We are often deceived into thinking that God needs our help. What is praiseworthy of Abraham and Sarah is that after this false start, they remembered God's promise and got back to simple faith and obedience, believing that God would help them... and not vice-versa.
Num 23:19 NIV: God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act, Does he promise and not fulfill.
God calls Isaac Abraham's only son in Gen 22:2,12,16. From God's point of view, the flesh counts for nothing, John 6:63. God did not remember Abraham's sin, only his faith, which was credited to him as full righteousness before God Rom 4:3. His mistakes were forgotten Micah 7:19. Like Abraham, we need to enter into God's rest, knowing that what God says He will do. For he who enters into rest has ceased from his own works Heb 4:10.
Isa 55:1-11 NIV: Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy. Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
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