It is now 13 years since Ishmael was born and Abram is 99 years old. During those 13 years we hear nothing of any further appearance of the Lord to him, but now those silent years are going to end.
That is counsel for us. If we wish to be used of God, we have to be so scrupulous in all our conduct and words. I am loved by God; I am one of his children; I am ever in his view. I have to please him, his eye is upon me. I cannot do this thing, I nearly did. I cannot say that thing, I nearly said. It is wonderful counsel for sincere and godly living: live under the eye of God, and that is the command to Abram.
The Christians who make the heaviest weather of their pilgrimage are those who rest most along the way and indulge sin out of tiredness at the fight. But those who are the freshest and happiest are those who never pause for a moment in their struggle against temptation, and who receive new strength as they go through their victories.