Sin and Patience in Relation to Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael

The story of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael can help answer the question of, "Will God Bless You When You Sin?"

My answer is "no", and the story of Abraham demonstrates this. Abraham still received Isaac as promised by God, though he slipped-up and had a child with his servant Hagar. You will still receive the promised blessings of God, but your well being (emotional, body and/or material) may suffer unnecessarily.

God promised Abram his promised child when he was 75 years-old (Genesis 12). Abram ran out of patience when waiting for the promised seed when he was 85 and agreed to take Hagar, the Egyptian maid, to be his wife and she bore Ishmael when Abraham was 86 (Genesis 16). When Abram was 99 years-old, God changed his name to Abraham and his wife's name from Sarai to Sarah, and a year later Abraham finally had his promised son, Isaac, 25 years after God first made the promised.

What Can we Learn from This?

God is faithful, when He made a promised; it's not a question of whether it would happen but when. God is omniscient and loves you; He has been to your future and knows the best time for the promise to come to pass. He could have blessed Abraham the next moment after He made the promise - but that was not to be. We have to believe His un-surpassing goodness and love for us by faith.

Patience is important: Abraham ran out of patience 11 years after he received the promise, committed sin (or perhaps transgressed) and had Ishmael, which he "lost" when Sarah cast both Hagar and Ishmael out. Imagine the sense of loss that Abraham had to endure to his grave sending away his flesh and blood - Ishmael. Abraham's joy of having Isaac - the son promised by God, would have been full if not dented by the “loss” of Ishmael. Abraham must have had some wonderful memories of Ishmael.

The blessings that Christ died for you and me to receive will surely come, there is only one thing that we need to do - labour to enter into rest (Hebrews 4:11). We need to make an active and deliberate choice of choosing rest in His love for us over the roaring of the devil (1 Peter 5:8) and the disappointments of life. We can do this by meditating on the message of the Gospel and knowing who are in Christ. Many believers would also add praying unceasingly in the spirit (Ephesians 6:18).