Turning Points in Ministry

43. Between Promise and Provision

Genesis 18:9-15; Gen: 21:1-3; Hebrews 11:11

God’s people seem to know how to make ends meet where others do not see how it can be done. I have listened to and read “call stories” of ministers who said that their grandmothers made a meal seemingly out of nothing but scraps and not much of that. Grandmothers baked hot biscuits from a little flour and meal. My own grandmother would kill a chicken and make gravy and biscuits when there was nothing else to eat. We had an old apple tree in the front yard. Mama picked those green apples, fried them with bacon and made hot biscuits for breakfast.

These older women had a knack for making a meal from nothing but a little flour, milk, and lard. But there was something else that went before all this preparation of food, there was much prayer. In fact, I heard others talk about their grandmother’s faith in God, and how she whispered prayers to them, and read Bible stories to them and how she would pray with them at night. I heard my own Grandmother praying and saw her on her knees in prayer. Our grandparents did not have all they wanted, but they knew how to call on the Source of their provision.

In this story about Abraham and Sarah, the Lord visited them one day and said to Abraham, “I will surely return and in due season, Sarah, your wife, shall have a son.” Abraham had been walking with God for many years. Abraham had left his home in Ur of the Chaldees when he was 75 years old. He and Sarah did not have any children because Sarah was barren. But God had promised that he and Sarah would have a son.

When they did not have a child together, Sarah decided to give her slave girl to Abraham to have a child. Whenever God gives a promise there is a time of waiting before the time of provision. God’s promise to Abraham included Sarah, his wife. God told Abraham that he would make him the father of many nations, that Sarah would be blessed and that his seed would be a blessing. God said to Abraham that he would make him exceedingly fruitful. In Genesis 17:15-17, we know that Sarah was included in this blessing because God said it twice, “I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations and kings shall come from her.” Abraham laughed to himself at God’s promise and said, “How can a 100-year-old man and a 90-year-old woman have a child?” But there is nothing too hard for God!!

In our pericope today, Genesis 18:9-15, three strangers have visited Abraham under the old oak tree at Mamre where Abraham built his tent. Abraham shows them southern hospitality and they hang around for conversation with their host. Biblical stories of hospitality show us that in the context of hospitality, the guest and the host can reveal their precious gifts and bring new life to each other.

Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place. Hospitality requires the creation of the friendly and empty space where we can reach out to fellow travelers on this spiritual journey of life. To show his hospitality, Abraham asked Sarah to make her mouth-watering biscuits. Then he had his servants kill a fat, young, calf and roast it and they had milk to drink. After the meal, one of the strangers asked Abraham, “Where is your wife, Sarah?” Abraham said she is in the tent. The same stranger said to him, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.”

Whenever God sends a stranger that just may be your messenger bringing the good news that you have been waiting for. Remember, there were three strangers, but only one of the men talked with Abraham. I call them the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God the Father speaks, God the Son is our redeemer, and God the Holy Spirit, comforts us. God reveals His purposes by degrees. And teaches us lessons in learning how to wait and not to lean upon our own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge him. God sent His son in due season. Jesus told the disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came in due season on the Day of Pentecost when they were all together waiting.

God does not show us everything up front. We must learn how to trust Him. We must go through some trials, some disappointments, and sometime of setbacks before the promise is realized or manifested. The Holy Spirit will comfort you as you go through your experiences. Before God fulfills His Promise to us, He brings you and me to a place beyond all-natural hope. That is the place between promise and provision. When you cannot go back - you are suspended in a desert place. You cannot go back, but you cannot go forward - it is called the waiting time.

It’s the time when you might act like Sarah and think that you should try to help God because you think that it is impossible to receive the promise, but you need to wait because God is doing a work in you. Do not be like Sarah and do things that bring forth an Ishmael who is a child, but not the Promised Child. Whenever you produce something according to your own human efforts, you brag about what you have done.

Learn how to wait on God and His timing, then God gets the glory. Wait in hope for new life and you will develop a deeper faith in God. The writer of Lamentations says, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning, great is your faithfulness.” (Lam. 3:22-23) Then in verse 25, he says “the Lord is good to those who wait for him. To the soul that seeks him.” This is good news to know that waiting is a part of God’ process and waiting is designed to prepare us for the divine provision that God has for us.

There is something about waiting that teaches us lessons we cannot learn otherwise.