LOOK TO THE ROCK
The Lord promised that He will come back. But He tells us in James 5:7 that we ought to wait in patience like a farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth.
In Isaiah 51:1-3, we are called to look to the rock from which we were hewn. The rock referred to is Abraham - a man who was given a promise of countless descendants and yet had to endure much waiting before the promise came to pass.
These two passages are a reminder to us of how before fruitfulness comes, we are called to patiently wait. Isaiah 51:3 is an excellent promise of how Zion will not be desolate forever because a time is coming that her waste places and deserts will be like the garden of the Lord.
We can look forward to a time when barrenness will be transformed to fruitfulness, sorrow into joy, and mourning into singing!
Promises Come with Instructions
In Gen. 12:1-3, Abraham was given a promise by the Lord that He is going to bless him and make him a great nation. God’s keeping will be upon him since God will bless those who bless him and curse those who curse him. God will also bless all the families of the world through his life. What a wonderful promise!
However, this promise was preceded by an instruction - to get out of his country, family, his father’s house and move to a land God will show him. When God gives promises, they come with instructions.
Promises have a capacity to call our attention since they are blessings. However, attractive as the promises of God are, we cannot neglect the instructions that come along with them. God gave Abraham a very straightforward instruction to get out of his homeland and leave his family behind to move to a new land. This was his part. The promises on the other hand were God’s part.
Just like Abraham, our business is to obey God’s instruction and let God fulfill the promises.
However, there are times when we question how the instruction we were given can result into the promises. If you simply look at the promise God gave Abraham and compare it to the instruction, there seems to be a big gap of details God did not provide.
Unfortunately, if you get focused at this seeming gap, chances are you will begin to figure out how to fulfill the promises of God yourself and take things into your own hands. However, the promises of God can only be fulfilled by God and God alone.
But if we focus our attention on obeying God’s instructions, we will see Him move in our behalf and fulfill His promises for us. We have to accept that we will not be given full understanding of the plans at once. We do not need to have it all figured out. If we will obey, God will not delay in revealing to us the necessary direction so that we can advance to the next step. After all, that’s really all we need to know at any moment, how to get to the next step.
The Period of Waiting
Abraham had to endure waiting. When we go through the life of Abraham in Genesis it appears action-packed. In every chapter it seems like some new development was taking place. But when we look at the time period involved we realize that these events were spaced out through many years. From the time they left for Canaan to the time Isaac was born was 25 years.
There must have been many uneventful days. And it is really these days when nothing seems to be happening that we are tested if will we continue to believe God.
When there seems to be no progress people battle with discouragement, confusion and doubt. But it takes time to bring forth an Isaac. The period of waiting is required to prepare us to raise up sons of promise.
Do you have a promise from God you are waiting for?
Many wear out waiting but it is a sifting stage. Will you faithfully wait or quit or spark your own fire?
Perfected in Obedience and Faith
Acts 7 speaks of how Abraham was called to leave Ur alone. But in Gen. 11 we find that he left Ur with his father and nephew Lot and stayed in Haran. When his father died, Abraham finally made his way to the promise land but he still brought along his nephew. God was very gracious with Abraham that He patiently waited for Abraham’s obedience to be perfected.
It was finally in Gen. 13 when Abraham and Lot parted ways that God made clear the boundaries of the inheritance in Canaan God was giving to him and his descendants. After he fully obeyed the instruction, God made the promise into a covenant which was far weightier than the promises he received before.
So strong was this covenant that it was made between God the Father and God the Son. This meant that the fulfillment of the Word on Abraham was not even based on Abraham but on God. It was irrevocable and for eternity. But inasmuch as obedience can be perfected, partial obedience which is disobedience can disqualify us from the promises of God.
When Abraham left Haran to go to Canaan, he was already 75 years old. Yet, this did not stop him from believing God’s promises. Several times after he entered Canaan, God spoke to him of descendants. Yet each time he heard it, it appeared to become more and more impossible. However, no matter how long it took for the promise to be fulfilled, he did not lose heart to believe.
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| Image from Sweet Publishing/FreeBibleimages.org |
In Gen. 15, God told Abraham that He will give him an heir from his own body and that his descendants shall be countless as the stars. Abraham believed and it was accounted to him as righteousness. Heb. 11 says by faith Sarah received strength to conceive because she judged God, who gave the promise, faithful. How do we judge God today as we wait on His promises to us? How we view His promises speaks of how we judge God.
Abraham had faith but it was not immediately a perfect faith. It needed refining. His faith in God’s promise that Canaan was the promise land caved in when a famine came and he decided to move to Egypt. God had to move through the Pharaoh for Abraham to go back to Canaan. His faith in the promised son also failed when Sarah suggested that he obtain a son through her maidservant Hagar. Abraham’s faith needed to be perfected. God used the long period of waiting to do just that.
Not long before Sarah conceived Isaac, God appeared to Abraham and said “I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless.” Before God fulfilled His promise, He commanded Abraham to be blameless before him. God can certainly give Abraham the promise but more than that, He wanted Abraham to be able to keep the promise.
If Abraham’s faith and obedience were not perfected could he have obeyed to offer Isaac? If not to Abraham’s obedience, we will not share in the blessings and promises of God. Do you have unfulfilled promises from God?
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