Our Mistakes Can't Stop God's Dream for Us

God’s Dream was to make Abram a great nation!

Genesis 12:1–5 The Message

1 God told Abram: “Leave your country, your family, and your father’s home for a land that I will show you. 2 I’ll make you a great nation and bless you. I’ll make you famous; you’ll be a blessing. 3 I’ll bless those who bless you; those who curse you I’ll curse. All the families of the Earth will be blessed through you.” 4 So Abram left just as God said, and Lot left with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. 5 Abram took his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot with him, along with all the possessions and people they had gotten in Haran, and set out for the land of Canaan and arrived safe and sound.

Despite Abram’s Misleading Lies, God Blessed Him!

Genesis 20:1–18 The Message

1 Abraham traveled from there south to the Negev and settled down between Kadesh and Shur. While he was camping in Gerar, 2 Abraham said of his wife Sarah, “She’s my sister.” So Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent for Sarah and took her. 3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream that night and told him, “You’re as good as dead—that woman you took, she’s a married woman.” 4 Now Abimelech had not yet slept with her, hadn’t so much as touched her. He said, “Master, would you kill an innocent man? 5 Didn’t he tell me, ‘She’s my sister’? And didn’t she herself say, ‘He’s my brother’? I had no idea I was doing anything wrong when I did this.” 6 God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know your intentions were pure, that’s why I kept you from sinning against me; I was the one who kept you from going to bed with her. 7 So now give the man’s wife back to him. He’s a prophet and will pray for you—pray for your life. If you don’t give her back, know that it’s certain death both for you and everyone in your family.” 8 Abimelech was up first thing in the morning. He called all his house servants together and told them the whole story. They were shocked. 9 Then Abimelech called in Abraham and said, “What have you done to us? What have I ever done to you that you would bring on me and my kingdom this huge offense? What you’ve done to me ought never to have been done.” 10 Abimelech went on to Abraham, “Whatever were you thinking of when you did this thing?” 11 Abraham said, “I just assumed that there was no fear of God in this place and that they’d kill me to get my wife. 12 Besides, the truth is that she is my half sister; she’s my father’s daughter but not my mother’s. 13 When God sent me out as a wanderer from my father’s home, I told her, ‘Do me a favor; wherever we go, tell people that I’m your brother.’ ” 14 Then Abimelech gave Sarah back to Abraham, and along with her sent sheep and cattle and servants, both male and female. 15 He said, “My land is open to you; live wherever you wish.” 16 And to Sarah he said, “I’ve given your brother a thousand pieces of silver—that clears you of even a shadow of suspicion before the eyes of the world. You’re vindicated.” 17 Then Abraham prayed to God and God healed Abimelech, his wife and his maidservants, and they started having babies again. 18 For God had shut down every womb in Abimelech’s household on account of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

Having an “Ishmael” will cause heartache!

Genesis 16:1–4 ESV

1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. 2 And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3 So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. 4 And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress.

Genesis 16:11–12 ESV

11 And the angel of the Lord said to her, “Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your affliction. 12 He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.”

Genesis 16:15–16 The Message

15 Hagar gave Abram a son. Abram named him Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave him his son, Ishmael.

Genesis 21:9–13 NKJV

9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, scoffing. 10 Therefore she said to Abraham, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac.” 11 And the matter was very displeasing in Abraham’s sight because of his son. 12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice; for in Isaac your seed shall be called. 13 Yet I will also make a nation of the son of the bondwoman, because he is your seed.”

God’s “Isaac” Always comes in the end!

Genesis 21:3–8 ESV

3 Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. 4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 6 And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” 7 And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.” 8 And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

Never let your “Isaac” be more important than God!

Genesis 22:1–5 ESV

1 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”

Doing it God’s Way makes His dream for us a reality!

Genesis 22:9–18 ESV

9 When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” 15 And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”