BRAGADAYJAH 45

Abram was 86 years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael. And 13 years later, when Abram was 99, God appeared unto him and told him; “I am the Almighty God; walk before me and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly.” Filled no doubt with great emotion, Abram now falls on his face, prostrate before God, and so God talked with him. What would have been going through Abram’s mind as God told him for the umpteenth time as he had said before, “Behold my covenant is with thee; and thou shall be a father of many nations. As a matter of fact, your name shall be no more Abram, but Abraham for a father of many nations have I made thee. I will make thee exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and Kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger; all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. By this time Abraham’s head would have been spinning. What could all this mean? He would have been wondering. Could it be that all this seed bearing and nation building was to come through Ishmael? His son Ishmael would have by this time be 13 and fast approaching manhood. He Abraham, was 99 and Sarai 109, surely past the age of child-bearing. So what is God saying to me, Abraham would have wondered; but God was not finish talking to him. More.