ABRAHAM’S FAITH AND PATIENCE. Hebrews 6:13-15 God made a promise to Abraham and reaffirmed it with His unchangeable word and the authority of His own name, which is above every name. For twenty-five years, Abraham waited for God to fulfill His promise to give him a son through Sarah. Isaac, the promised son, was one “born out of due time.” His birth was a supernatural act on God’s part. Through this, He demonstrated to Abraham and all who wait for God's promises to be fulfilled that God controls all events. He is not limited by time, space, or matter. His actions are beyond human capacity and understanding, but they are real to us through faith and patience.
Our limited understanding of divine matters and God’s eternal purposes relies on two unchanging truths: God’s word and His promises rooted in the authority of His name. In our fallen human condition, one cannot always trust that a person's word is the truth. People lie even when they have taken an oath to “tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”
Unlike human failure, God never fails. In an act of condescension toward our imperfect humanity, God swore an oath by two absolutely trustworthy things – He doubled the assurance of what He said. God’s “I will bless thee" can be relied on to happen. “I will multiply thee” meant that God would do exactly what He promised in the way He had promised. When He promised Abraham a son, Abraham believed God. Between the time of the promise made to Abraham and its fulfillment, there were quite a few things that had to be dealt with and corrected in Abraham’s life.
When God promises believers that Jesus, our Great High Priest, is our Intercessor at the right hand of the Majesty on high, we need to accept the benefits that fact gives us without trying to make any additions of our own, or thinking our efforts add value to the priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ. The failures and weaknesses Abraham experienced remind us that between our immature babyhood, where there is no sign of spiritual growth, and the time we “obtain the promises,” there are periods of instruction, correction, review, responsible action, and the development of full assurance of faith that we go through on our way to spiritual maturity.
We must learn what is wrong and avoid those actions, and understand what is right and commit ourselves to faithfully carrying out what has been entrusted to us. “It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.”
When God’s promises are fulfilled, we may face additional tests to determine if our faith rests in God's promise or in God Himself. Abraham’s ultimate test came when he was commanded to offer Isaac on the altar. His declaration of faith in God proved to be sincere.