Athlete, The Wait Is Over

*This devotional series was written by the AIA staff team at the University of Virginia

Read Genesis 21

We've been waiting for this chapter for a long time, about ten days.  Abraham and Sarah were waiting for this chapter of their lives for 25 years.  At last, the son of promise has come!  Sarah's laugh of cynicism (18:12) is transformed into the laugh of joy.  We marvel, rejoice and laugh with Abraham and Sarah in the miraculous birth of Isaac, the son through whom their Savior and ours would eventually come.  

But salvation is a long way from being fully realized.  The household tension that was initially produced by Abraham and Sarah's self-reliant strategy (Genesis 16) rears its head, as Hagar's son mocks Isaac.  God is, once again, compassionate and gracious to Hagar (21:15-20), but makes it clear that the son of promise, not the son of human effort, is the one through whom salvation would be realized.  Abraham's offspring will be "reckoned" as righteous, or credited with righteousness, through Isaac's line (21:12; cf. 15:6), and Abraham's true offspring are those who share his faith in the promises of God (Romans 4:16-25).

In the last section of the chapter, God gives Abraham peace with his neighbors and "the LORD, the eternal God" provides him with a well and a home within the greater land that his descendants would receive from God.

Questions for Reflection & Prayer

1. Reread the first few verses, put yourself in Abraham and Sarah's sandals, and allow your heart to experience the joy of God bringing life out of death, a son out of a dead womb, and of long-awaited hopes being fulfilled.  What does it look like for you to live consistently in this joy? Ask God to help you.

2. We are reminded that God is faithful even though He does not work on our timeline.  Sometimes not even close to our timeline. In what part of your life is God not on your timeline?  Where do you need to surrender to and rest in his timeline?

3. Today, are you wholly resting in the work of Jesus, the son of Abraham and Isaac, in whom you are reckoned as a child of God?

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