In Genesis 12, God called Abram out of his country and from his kindred. He promised to make him a nation and to bless all the families of the world through him. Abram set out on a journey with one major hurdle in front of him, no heir. God gave the promise, clarified the promise, and fulfilled the promise.
God Gave the Promise
Abram followed God’s directive. When he arrived at the land of Canaan, he built an altar to worship God. Then he went further south and ended up in Egypt for a time until his shenanigans resulted in Pharoah sending him away. He returned to the Land of Canaan and again called on God. There, God again promised to give Abram, the land for his descendants.
God Clarified the Promise
After the conflict in which Abram rescued Lot’s family, Abram considered Eliezer of Damascus as his heir. God told him that his heir would come from his own body. Then after Ishmael’s birth, God further clarified the promise, “No Sarah your wife shall bear you a son. I will establish My covenant with him.” God eventually told Abraham, “I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.”
God Fulfilled the Promise
When the time arrived that God had spoken of, Sarah received strength to conceive seed and bore a child, well beyond her time. She experienced the fulfillment of God’s word which the year before had caused both she and her husband to laugh. “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.” God gave the promise, clarified the promise, and fulfilled the promise.