Gods Sabbath

H OW A BRAMAND S ARAI BECAME A BRAHAMAND S ARAH

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on earth for him was the place where God would have him to be.” Patriarchs and Prophets , 126.2, 126.3. Furthermore the patriarch was a man of constant prayer. Wherever he pitched his tent, close beside it was set up an altar (see Genesis 12:8; 13:4, 18), calling all within his encampment to the morning and evening sacrifice. No fault can be found with Abram’s faith, which led him to obey God implicitly, no matter what sacrifice was required of him. The presence of such a faith in this man of God would lead us to expect that he would always trust God more than self and do only what was right and pleasing in the Lord’s sight. Acknowledging Abram as the true spiritual successor in the patriarchal line, God solemnly promised that through him the Messiah would be born, and that, in consequence, his seed would be as numberless as the stars. “He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Abram believed the L ORD , and he credited it to him as righteousness.” Genesis 15:5, 6. This promise Abram fully believed and nothing was more im portant to him and Sarai than its fulfillment. For them, the glo ry and honor of God were matters of the first and highest conse quence. Therefore, they prayed and waited for the fulfillment with intense longing. Yet a decade passed, without any evidence that God would ever keep His word. The longer the delay, the greater the pressure Satan was able to exert on them to carry out God’s work in their own way (see Genesis 12:4; 16:1–3, 16). What we need to understand here, is that despite the deep de votion of this godly couple (which increased their desire to see the promise fulfilled and God’s work advanced), the greater their spirit of sacrifice, the more they were in danger of attempting to do God’s work in their own way. We also need to see that this same danger still faces every true Christian today, for Satan is very adept at turning the mighty powers that God builds within us into wrong directions. ATest of Submission