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Welcome to 5 -Minute Bible, your daily guide for your daily reading. Today's January 17th, and we'll be reading
Genesis 16 -18. Now today's reading keeps us in the life of Abraham as the story of redemption moves forward, but also slows down and becomes painfully personal.
Genesis 16 -18 takes place years after God's original promise, and nothing dramatic has changed on the surface.
Abraham is still landless, Sarah is still childless. Time has passed at an agonizing rate.
Their bodies have aged and their hope feels fragile. These chapters show us what happens when waiting stretches so long that faith is tempted to turn into sinful strategy.
In Genesis 16, Sarah gives her servant Hagar to Abraham in an attempt to secure the promise that God had given them with a child through human effort, and the plan works biologically, but it fractures them relationally, producing pride and jealousy and suffering in the family.
Now God sees Hagar and He shows mercy to her, yet the pain caused by the impatience remains.
In Genesis 17, God interrupts the human drama that is playing out by reaffirming
His covenant. Abram becomes Abraham, Sarai becomes Sarah, and then circumcision is given as the sign.
Most importantly, God states plainly that the promised son will come through Sarah and not through human ingenuity.
In Genesis 18, the Lord announces that within a year from that date, Sarah will give birth to a son, and she laughs, and she laughs not with joy, but a kind of incredulous disbelief, until God Himself asks the question that defines the entire chapter—is anything too hard for the
Lord? Now, as you read today, I want you to ask the following question. What do I reach for when
God's promises feel so far away and my strength feels so limited? These chapters confront a struggle that every believer knows—the urge to take things into our own hands, to take control, when waiting on the promises of God becomes uncomfortable and where our trust actually becomes costly.
Now, the key tension in Genesis 16 -18 is the clash between human ability and the promises of God.
God has spoken clearly, but time keeps moving slowly. Fear grows louder.
Abraham and Sarah, they believe what God has promised, but they're struggling to understand how and when these things are going to happen in space and time.
And their attempt to help God along does produce a child, but not the child of promise.
In this, Scripture is teaching us something pivotal. God does not move redemption forward through human ability and human strength, through human cleverness or human planning.
He moves it forward through life brought out of barrenness, through miraculous means, and not through human striving.
And in that sense, waiting is not accidental. It is necessary. It is
God allowing His people to reach the end of themselves so that what comes next can only be explained by Him.
And this is where Genesis 16 -18 becomes unmistakably Christ -centered. Because God advances
His redemptive plan through the miracle birth. Isaac is born through a barren woman, and this sets a pattern for many miraculous births because later,
Jacob is going to be born against the odds. Samson is going to be born through divine intervention.
Samuel is going to be born to a woman with a closed womb. Each time, God teaches the exact same lesson.
Salvation does not come through human power, but through God bringing life where there previously was none.
And all of these miracle births point forward to the greatest miracle birth of all, the birth of Jesus.
Jesus is not born through human effort or desire, but through the power of the Holy Spirit alone.
And just as Isaac's birth marks the beginning of a new covenant chapter, Jesus' birth marks the beginning of new creation itself.
Scripture will later tell us that those who belong to Christ are born again, not by human will but by God.
In this sense, faith like Abraham's is not confidence in ourself. It is trust that God will create life out of death and hope out of the impossible.
For families, this leans close to home because parents learn that forcing outcomes often creates more pain, not less, for the family.
Children learn that waiting is a part of trusting God and resting in His promises. And everyone learns that God's timing is not careless or meaningless, but it's infused with purpose.
When you and I rush around, we often produce ishmaels, which is not good. These chapters remind us that God specializes in working when we feel weak and we feel limited and we feel the least impressive.
So as you read Genesis 16 through 18 today, watch how God refuses to let
His promise be reduced to human ability. Pay attention to the laughter, first out of disbelief, but then later out of joy, because the
God who brings life from the barren womb is the same God who brings new life into dead hearts today.
And tomorrow, we're going to see how Abraham's faith is going to be tested again, not by waiting, but by judgment and intercession.
But with that, read your Bible carefully today, devotionally and joyfully, and may the
Lord use His word to sanctify you completely. And we will continue our journey tomorrow.