Abraham is the key example to us in the Old Testament of someone who didn’t have all the answers but who still trusted God. God had promised Abraham He would give him a son in his old age. Abraham and Sarah were old and had been married a long time and it didn’t look like they would have children. Abraham was rich, but it all seemed pointless to him if he didn’t have a son to leave his wealth to. So God promised he would have a son and Abraham believed that promise for very many years. He didn’t always get it right: sometimes he tried to sort it out himself and get a son by sleeping with his wife’s servant. But ultimately, as he carried on believing God, God gave him a son. Paul says, ‘Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.’ (Rom 4:18-21)
Abraham didn’t expect the answer to come from his own body anymore. He didn’t expect the answer to come from his own reasoning. He knew he needed a miracle from God and that’s what he got. He didn’t stop believing God, even when he didn’t understand. That’s why he’s called the father of faith, because he kept on believing.
Even when we don’t see… even when we don’t understand… even when we’re bewildered and confused, we can still believe. God wants us to live by faith and not by sight, to be like Abraham who was declared righteous by God because of his faith. Paul says that doesn’t just apply to Abraham. He said, ‘the same thing gets said about us when we embrace the One who brought Jesus to life when the conditions were equally hopeless.’ (Rom 4: 24, The Message) A dead man doesn’t come back to life, does he? But Jesus did, and because of His death and resurrection, we can be set right with God and can have a hope that lasts beyond this lifetime. Even when we don’t have the answers, we can still believe and trust that God knows what He’s doing and will sort everything out. Even when we don’t see, we can still believe.
