The Least Likely Choice

Series: Changed

The Least Likely Choice

Genesis 17:19 NIV

Romans 9:7 ESV

The Covenant God made with Abraham when he was old was not only promise made to Abraham and Sarah. It was a covenant that was passed down to the descendants of Abraham and Sarah.

In Genesis 17:19, “God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.”

When God made the covenant Abraham and Sarah had no children. Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was ninety nine years old.

I am not surprised that when God told Abraham he was going to be a father at 100 and…Sarah would be the mother, Abraham laughed.

Abraham and Sarah could not see how it could be. We have to remember the Hebrew culture. Having children was extremely important, especially having a son. But because Sarah was childless and was very old, her time was past. Abraham did have a son with her servant.

Sarah gave up hope decades before God spoke to Abraham. We know from Genesis 16 that when Sarah was certain she would not have a son she gave her servant Hagar to Abraham so he would have a child. Ishmael was born to Abraham and Hagar. But Ishmael was not the son God promised Abraham.

In Genesis 18:10 Abraham was promised in a year he would have a son with a Sarah and they would call him Isaac.

In Romans 9:7 the Apostle Paul validated the promise when he wrote to the church in Rome after the death and resurrection of Jesus, “For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.”

Paul who gave his life to be as Pharisee absolutely knew Old Testament scripture. Young Hebrew boys were required to go to school and they had to memorize scripture. They didn’t memorize pieces though. They memorized all of it. When a Hebrew boy came to a point where he could not memorize more, they were sent home to learn the trade of their father. Every Pharisee had memorized scripture. So when Paul quoted what we call the Old Testament, he did it from memory.

We know that every disciple Jesus chose was surprised they were chosen to follow a famous Rabbi. They were not Pharisees. They had all been sent home to learn another trade or the trade of their father. They were NOT in the Hebrew chosen “club”. That’s why it was shocking that each of the twelve disciples who had been sent home were now chosen to be a disciple.

Abraham was the least likely chosen one to be the Father of many nations because he was over a hundred when Isaac was born.

The 12 disciples of Jesus were the least likely to be disciples of any Rabbi (let alone a famous Rabbi) and even more than that 11 of them were chosen to be in charge of spreading the Good News of Jesus to the world.

But… that’s exactly what God did. Clearly God is in the business of choosing the least likely person. It’s because God knows who we CAN be.

In God, Deborah/acrazyjourney.com