0936. Sara, or the Faith That Sees an Innumerable Seed Begotten of One As Good As Dead

Sara, or the Faith That Sees an Innumerable Seed Begotten of One As Good As Dead

"Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged Him faithful Who had promised.

"Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable" (Heb_11:11-12).

Sara's faith was not always that steady and strong faith that confides unwaveringly in the Promiser. However, as the years rolled by Sara turned from all suggested subterfuges and placed an unswerving trust in God. Therefore it was that there sprang "of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable."

Sara's faith bore testimony to the definition of faith given in Heb_11:1, because it was a faith that received strength to conceive seed and looked down the centuries and saw two great lines of sons–the one line, children of faith and the other children of the flesh.

For our own part we believe that the patriarchs by faith saw things far more definitely than we are accustomed to acknowledge. Neither Abraham nor Sara may have seen all that we see, for God has given many added revelations since their day, but they did see some things clearly and they did believe what they saw implicitly.

Sara's faith did hold conviction concerning two distinct companies which should come through the son whom her faith and God's provision made possible.

First, faith saw in Isaac the Seed of the woman, Christ, and a multitude of sons, spiritually born, as many as the stars of the heaven.

Second, faith saw in Isaac a seed, an innumerable race, physically born, and as many as the sand which is by the sea shore.

Those of us who are distanced from Sara by many centuries need no faith to grasp these two lines of Abraham's children, because we see by sight, as an accomplished fact, what Sara saw by faith. However we may go beyond Sara and see the two lines of seed inheriting all of the exceeding great and precious promises which are vouchsafed the seeds of Abraham.

For shame that we should ever doubt the Lord. The very fact that God has vindicated the first stage of Sara's faith and verified her faith in the presence on earth and in Heaven of the "sons of promise" born again by faith in Christ Jesus, and also the presence on earth of the sons of the flesh, the Jewish people, born by physical generation, unto Abraham, is enough to make easy our faith in the larger fulfillment of God's promises to both seeds.

No wonder that these saints of old confessed themselves strangers and pilgrims on the earth. They demonstrated clearly that they were seeking a Heavenly fatherland, far better than the one from which they came out.

The faith of Sara saw a seed

Born unto one as good as dead;

Her faith gave strength to her to bear

And bring to birth this seed, this heir

Of promises foretold. In him

She saw a multitude of men,

In numbers as the stars of sky,

And as the sands of seashore, nigh.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR