¹² Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number, and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.

One must see the humor in this annotation, this colloquial expression of faith. Abraham was as “good as dead.” This reminds us of Genesis 20:3 (NIV) when Abimelech was warned by God for taking Abraham’s wife. Not there yet, but as certain as if it were already true. “Return Sarah or you die!” Apart from God’s intervention, it would happen. Abraham, at age 99, was long past being able to impregnate a woman, let along one 90 years old, Sarah! No matter that the patriarchs lived much longer than we do today, in Abraham’s case 175 years, what happened to him was unheard of in his time. That’s why he and Sarah both laughed when they first heard the promise.

The fact that they would have a child was no surprise in itself —God had promised this to Abraham. At age 75, the Lord had promised him (Genesis 12) he would make of him a great nation. Then in chapter 15, when he was 90 years old, God promised him physical descendants that would populate that nation, as many as the number of stars in the nighttime sky. “Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness” (Gen 15:6). At this point, Abraham became the man of faith who was justified, which forms an anchor for the teaching of justification by faith that we find in the book of Romans.

Abraham struggled in his faith. That is what I like about the Word of God—no varnished hagiographies for the heroes of the faith. They were humans just like you and I. To be sure, the book of Hebrews focuses on their exemplary faith, but the Word of God pictures them as they truly were, warts and all. As for Abraham, he doubted God’s promises from time to time. Whether by fleeing to Egypt on at least two occasions during famine, or thinking God’s promise of blessing and a land was coming up short in face of the realities of life. Or thinking the promise of countless progeny in light of his advancing age and Sarah’s also, might require some human intervention, or at the least, some modification to help bring the promise to pass. After all, ten years had passed since the promise of innumerable descendants was made, and still Abraham and Sarah didn’t have the first one yet! And he was closing in on 100 years old! Their attempt to fulfill God’s promise in their own way, having Abraham impregnate Sarah’s servant girl, Hagar, was a miserable failure. Yet, Abraham dared to believe God after that. It was this growing faith that God notes.

Lord, help me to have a growing faith like Abraham’s. I do believe in You, yet in so many ways I still doubt.