Promise of Iron

The LORD is a God of promises. He cares a lot about it.

And this can be seen with how He acted to Abraham.

He had promised Abraham to give him a child through Sarah:

[Gen 17:15-16 NKJV] – 15 Then God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah [shall be] her name. 16 "And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be [a mother of] nations; kings of peoples shall be from her."

He had established this covenant. He Himself walked through the pieces of the animals that were used to make a covenant to make it clear that He would work out this covenant.

Abraham was righteous and he would teach his children after him to walk in the ways of the Lord.

But was he perfect? Was he of perfect faith all his life? Were there moments when the covenant seems to have been made void because of his own mistakes?

Certainly.

First we see him in Egypt, lying about his wife out of fear. He told people that Sarah was his wife. He didn’t perfectly trust God to realise that God would protect them. God wouldn’t allow him or Sarah to be killed.

But he lied and because of that he lost his wife.

[Gen 12:11-15 NKJV] – 11 And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, "Indeed I know that you [are] a woman of beautiful countenance. 12 "Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, 'This [is] his wife'; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 "Please say you [are] my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you." 14 So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that the Egyptians saw the woman, that she [was] very beautiful. 15 The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh's house.

It was his own mistake, his own lack of faith, his own shortcomings.
But did God now make His promise void and did He forget His covenant?

No! It was not bound to Abraham, but to His word.
We read in Genesis 12 that Pharaoh, the person who took Sarah as a wife because he thought he was his sister, received a plague from God. And soon enough Abraham got Sarah back.

Then the same happened in Gerar. Abraham lied again and still had the same shortcoming and weak faith.

And yet, God kept His promise. When Abimelech took his wife, thinking it was his sister, God showed Himself exceedingly zealous to His promise. He threatened Abimelech and those that were his and, it seems, even the whole nation was in danger if Abimelech didn’t return Sarah.

[Gen 20:6-7 NKJV] – 6 And God said to him in a dream, "Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart. For I also withheld you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her. 7 "Now therefore, restore the man's wife; for he [is] a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore [her], know that you shall surely die, you and all who [are] yours."

Abimelech returned Sarah and even gave more to Abraham.

And God did all this despite Abraham being a liar. 

But does it end there? Oh surely not. Did Abraham not have intercourse with Hagar, the slave, on Sarah’s advice because they didn’t get a child. They wanted to ‘help’ God in fulfilling the promise by a polygamous relationship which caused a family feud. 

Sarah herself quite literally laughed in mockery when she heard the promise that she would receive a child. 

Abraham needed a visible sign to realise what God had promised and to have his faith strengthened in Genesis 15.

We can even speculate that Lot had to leave Abraham and went to wicked Sodom because they had received so much property in Egypt. It says that they received property from Egypt and that they had to split because of their riches in Genesis.

This is the father of believers, the example of faith. And yet, how many mistakes? How many times was his faith not weak?

But God never left His promise. It was not built on human frailty, but on the solid promises of God. And even if it seems like it may not work out, even because of our own mistakes, like when Abraham lost his wife, He still keeps His promise if we simply have the weak faith of a mustard seed.

What faithful God! Who is like Him?

He is still the same. When He makes a promise, He will keep it. It doesn’t matter what events may occur. He will make it work out. And even if we make mistakes or if we have a weak faith we may still trust in the promise of God.

It is on this sure rock we can stand.

This is the psychology of God.