What Do You Do When God Makes You Wait? | Genesis 12:1-4

And I want to highlight, if you weren't sure, what, that what Rebecca read in Genesis chapter 12 there is one of the greatest promises in all of the scripture.

It's what starts the lineage of the Jewish people, and it's why in the Old Testament when God is referred to as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that promise is why we start with Abraham, because it's God beginning a new people.

Despite being 75 years old, Abraham, who had no...

Well, by the way, the scriptures call him both Abram and Abraham.

There's a moment where that changes.

Uh, we're not gonna highlight that this morning.

I will switch back and forth for no reason at all other than my brain is getting confused between Abraham and Abram.

That's not any kind of theological statement that you should read into it other than I just was moving quickly.

So caveat, sorry.

There was a footnote.

Uh, but he's got no kids, no descendants at the time, leaves his homeland, then leaves his family, uh, and then to follow Yahweh, a promise to be made into a great nation through descendants he does not have.

He's not being told he's gonna have a great people.

He's not being told he's gonna have a great family.

He's being said- he's being told that all the people on the earth would specifically be blessed through his descendants, not his friends, not his household, his descendants, ones that he does not have.

So here again, here's that opening promise in Genesis chapter 12, starting in s- uh, verse seven.

It said, "The Lord appeared to Abram and said, 'I will give this land to your descendants.'" Again, does not have any, but he's getting this promise.

And as crazy like- unlikely as it is that two 75-year-olds would start doing some family planning at this point in time, Genesis chapter 21, spoiler alert, the Lord kept his word and did for Sarah exactly what he had promised.

She became pregnant and gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age.

It happened at just the time God said it would, and Abraham named their son Isaac.

Eight days after Isaac was born, Abraham circumcised him as God commanded.

Abraham was 100 years old when he- when Isaac was born.

Now, listen, my wife and I are empty nesters.

I cannot imagine hitting that reset button in 30 years from now.

But as we continue in this series, um, I was telling- my daughter's like, "What's the name of the series?" I was like, "Okay, Boomer." She's like, "Is it about old people?" I'm like, "It's about the Old Testament." You know, we're asking what we can learn and understand from the lives of people in the Old Testament, and today we're looking at two of the most important members of scripture, Abraham and Sarah.

And in case you could not do that math real quick, Abraham was 75 when he got the promise, and he was 100 when it actually happened.