(Genesis) Genesis 17:15-18

And God said to Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, and I have actually been pronouncing it incorrectly all through here, and I'm not about to change it. It's Sarai would be the correct pronunciation before Sarai. Well, if I'd started saying Sarai, somebody would have written to me and said what's happened to you? You're speaking, you don't seem to be able to speak very clearly.

Well, it was Sarai before, now it's changed to Sarah, and I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her. Yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations. Well, if old Abraham's going to be a father of nations, then Sarah is going to be a mother of nations.

Kings of people shall be of her. Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that's a hundred years old, and shall Sarah that's ninety years old bear? Old Abraham, he just laughed. Now, it's not the laughter of unbelief.

I think it's the laughter of just sheer joy that this could happen. You know, every now and then in our lives, God does something for us that's just so wonderful. I'm sure you had that experience, that you just feel like laughing.

You don't know anything else to do but just to laugh about it. Well, this man Abraham didn't dream this type of a thing could possibly happen. You put yourself back in his position, and you will find out that this is just something unheard of.

Now, it was the deadness of Sarah's womb, and he was dead. Have you ever noticed how Paul described that? I think I should turn to Romans 4 right now, and share this with you. Verse 17, As it is written, I've made thee a father of many nations.

Before him whom he believed, even God who quickeneth the dead, calleth those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb, he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform, and therefore it was imputed unto him for righteousness.

You see, Abraham believed in God, and he just absolutely is overwhelmed by the wonder and the goodness of God. But then all of a sudden, a thought comes to him, and it's like an arrow to his heart. You know what? He thinks of a little boy that's his by the name of Ishmael.

Let me read verse 18 now of Genesis 17. And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee. Abraham is saying now, O Lord, this little fellow that's been growing up in my home, he's attached to him.

He was 14 years old when Abraham sent him out, and you'll find he sends him out a little later on, and the boy was 14 years old. And I don't think Abraham ever saw him again. Broke his heart to send this boy.

After all, friends, I don't care what you might think of Ishmael. He was Abraham's son, and Abraham loved his son, and it is a heartbreak for him to have to give him up. I'm of the opinion that he thought many, many times, I made a great big mistake in taking Hagar.

You see, that was a sin that not only plagued him, friend, but look over in that land today. There's been trouble in that land from the beginning. Why? Because Abraham's sin.

Don't tell me sin's a little thing, or sin is something you get by with. My friend, the fruits of sin, God says, be not deceived. God is not mocked.

Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. Not something similar, but just that. And this man Abraham is certainly reaping.

O that Ishmael might live before thee.