Abraham: Faith, Doubt, and Divine Promise

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This is a good example of how careful we should be not to read into a text something from our own experience that makes an interpretation seem likely but rather let the context decide whether it's likely or not so the question is did Abraham's laughter in Genesis 17:17 signify the kind of weakened faith or unbelieving doubt wavering as she calls it. [00:00:46]

The old testament context goes like this this is Genesis 17:15 following God said to Abraham as for Sarai your wife you shall not call her name Sarai but Sarah shall be her name I will bless her and moreover I will give you a son by her now this is at 90 years old for her and baron all her life and and now post menopausal according to 18:11. [00:02:01]

In hope he believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations as he had been told so shall your offspring be he did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body which was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb no unbelief made him waver. [00:04:00]

He did not doubt in unbelief concerning the promise of God but he grew strong literally he was strengthened passive voice he was strengthened in faith giving glory to God fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised that is why faith was counted to him as righteousness. [00:04:35]

Six times Paul affirms Abraham's faith in response to God's promise that he would have an heir from his own 100 year old body and from Sarah's 90 year old barren body one he says the presence of God in whom he believed two in hope he believed against hope three he did not weaken in faith four he did not doubt in unbelief five he was strengthened in faith six he was fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. [00:05:01]

God gave Abraham a glimpse of Christ in the sense that Genesis 17:1-19 says repeatedly six times that Abraham would have offspring of his own who would be the heir of the promise and we know that Paul in Galatians saw that offspring as Christ so I just can't help but wonder when Jesus said he saw my day and was glad he might have had in mind he saw my day in the promises of Genesis 17 and he laughed aloud with gladness. [00:06:00]

Paul sees Abraham's faith as strong and exemplary for us even though not perfect so here's the question whether the clues in Genesis are sufficient to say Paul got this right I mean that's what Jessica is asking because when she reads verse 17 of Genesis 17 it sounds to her like Abraham is just blowing it off like he's he's laughing it out of court that can't be which sounds like a wavering of faith a weakening a doubting of a faith. [00:07:15]

Abraham looked at the stars listened to God and believed the promise that his descendants would be like that he says so he believed God and God counted him his righteousness second Abraham asks God what evidence God would give him that the covenant would be kept and amazingly in Genesis 15:18 God acts out a kind of covenant ceremony in which animals are cut in half and God passes between them as if to say may I be cut in pieces if I don't keep my half of this covenant to make your seed nations. [00:08:06]

It doesn't just say that Abraham laughed this is really significant I think it says he fell on his face he had already said that once in verse three he fell on his face and laughed and falling on your face before Yahweh is a sign of reverence and respect and awe and fear it's not the posture you would assume if you were cynically laughing off the possibility of what God just said. [00:09:05]

As soon as the encounter with God is over in chapter 17 Abraham immediately obeys the terms of the covenant and has all the males circumcised so it seems to me that we have good reason not only from the new testament but also from the context of the old testament that Abraham's faith really was astonishing and when Paul said in in Romans 4:20 that Abraham was strengthened passive voice strengthened in his faith giving glory to God. [00:10:00]

This amazing work of faith in Abraham was not just his doing it was the work of God in him and that probably is the central lesson for us Paul is trying to make clear that sinners like us come into a right relationship with God by trusting him believing having faith not by working for him and even more pointedly Paul is showing us that this faith itself is a work of God so that in the end God gets all the glory. [00:10:51]

God gets all the glory not just because of our faith calling attention to his total trustworthiness and all sufficiency but also because the faith itself is a mighty work of God. [00:11:24]

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