Isaac will be born next year. Despite everything, God remains in control. Are we willing to submit to his timing, to his opening and closing of doors, to his word that harmonises with his will? This has been called the greatest test of our faith: that God never fails, never changes, always completes what he begins. His will is perfect. We are about to look at Mamre, then at Sodom, and then at Gerar, and then Isaac will be born. Despite all that is going on in this intense period, God is in control. Nothing will stop the birth; God always fulfils what he has promised.
Notice that faith must believe in his word. Faith is trusting what God has written. Moody said, ‘I prayed for faith, and thought that some day Faith would come down and strike me like lightning. But faith did not seem to come. One day I read in the tenth chapter of Romans, “Now faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”. I had closed my Bible, and prayed for faith. I now opened my Bible, and began to study, and faith has been growing ever since.’
Isaac’s birth involved a miracle; he was the child of promise. Through him came one nation: Israel, but Israel typified the church from all nations. The sovereign control of God has to be seen in the great purposes of God towards his church. The course of this world’s history depends on all the elect being saved. The world must continue until the very last one has been gathered in. In this world of confusion and blasphemy, it is important that we know that God is in control. In the midst of rebellion, mockery, decline, God is building his church. The church is evidence of the unstoppable purposes of God. He has said it and it will be performed.