Abraham

There is an incident in the life of Abraham when he has a prayer apparently refused and it is significant and instructive. It is recorded in Gen 17. When God had first called Abraham to leave his home, He promised the childless Abraham that he would have children and that his descendants would become “a great nation”.

Abraham waited for eleven years and no child was born to him. There being no adoption agencies, Abraham followed the advice of Sarah, his wife, and produced a son named Ishmael by his wife’s maid Hagar.

This introduces us to one of the greatest problems of prayer, that of the time factor. Abraham waited a long time by our standards, and then tried to help God out. What he did not realise is that time in the plans of God is different from our timetable. “With the Lord, one day is as a thousand years” (2 Peter 3:8). Again, “My thoughts are not your thoughts” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa 55:8,9).

After the birth of Ishmael to Abraham by Hagar, Ishmael became a firm favourite with Abraham. At the time of the incident, he was thirteen years old and the centre of Abraham’s affection. A great day occurred when God made a special appearance to Abraham to announce that He was about to enter into a new contract or covenant with him. Part of the blessing God was going to give him was that, in a matter of months, Sarah, his wife, would bear him a son.

There were two snags. First, Abraham was too fond of Ishmael to permit any other child to take his place and second, the age factor – Abraham was ninety nine years old, and Sarah ninety. What is more, she had never been able to bear children. Abraham’s first response was to laugh, the second, to pray. What was his prayer? “O that Ishmael might live in thy sight” (Gen 17:18). In other words, his prayer was that instead of another son, God would accept Ishmael as his heir. The response of God to his prayer was immediate and to the point: “No. Sarah your wife shall bear you a son and you shall call his name Isaac” (v 19).

God refused to answer the prayer of Abraham for a good reason. First, God was going to prove that He was a miracle-working God. Second, He had specially chosen Abraham and Sarah as the originators of stock that would become the nation of Israel. Third, He was a God who did not break His promises. He was a covenant-keeping God.

Abraham’s prayer did nothing to change the purposes of God because He had something far greater in store for Abraham. The only thing the prayer did to Abraham was that he experienced a day bright with the sunshine of God’s special appearance and of His special promise.

Bro Fred Mumba (Mufulira, Zambia)