Genesis 17:15-21
New International Version
15 God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. 16 I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.” 17 Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!” 19 Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac.[a] I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.21 But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.”
Saturday - July 17
Roughly 13 years after Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, God came and spoke to Abram again. This time God made it crystal clear that Sarai would be the mother of the promised child. Abram was so amazed by this that he actually suggested to God that Ishmael be the ONE. But God was not done with Abram and Sarai, now Sarah. God was bringing them to the place of complete and total trust. Abram, now Abraham, was 99 years old. Sarah was about 89. God will do what they could not. This is the heart of our salvation. We cannot save ourselves. Yet, Christ has come and defeated death once and for all. This is still hard for us to believe. But God is faithful and able.