Romans 4:18-19 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.
The situation looked impossible from a human perspective. Abraham was an old man of possibly 75 years old when God first called him. His wife Sarah was past her prime for child bearing. There was quite a bit of time of waiting for him. Paul references here that Abraham was about 100 years old when the promise was fulfilled and Isaac was born. In the mean time, Abraham trusted in God’s promises of many descendants. Logic told him this was impossible. Faith told him to trust in God and put his hope in this impossible promise. Abraham serves as a model for our faith. We have the promises of God, especially of eternal life. This seems so distant and even theoretical to us for most of our life. There are moments when a loved one dies or we face a critical illness that we begin to wonder if there is anything beyond death. We have to trust in the promises that are found in the Bible. Our faith in Jesus gives us hope, as Paul will explain in Romans 5:1-4. This hope helps us endure any challenges in this life.
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