In prior messages, we've noted how a Biblical philosophy of history might be summarized as: time measured by the progress of redemption. Accordingly, the historical context of Genesis might be compared to a necklace. The string is the timeline while the jewels are moments of particular redemptive historical significance like creation, the fall, the flood, the patriarchs, and the calling of significant sons. This analogy also applies to the events recorded in Abraham's life. Significant portions of the scripture are devoted to Abraham, yet the moments highlighted have particular significance in God's broader plan to glorify Himself through the salvation of an elect people. As such, our last few chapters in Abraham's life have been marked by divine visitation, revelation, or theophany. The moments when God communicates directly to his servant. Over some 25 years, God has visited Him upon entering the land, upon parting ways with Lot, upon defeating the Chedorlaomer coalition, the angel of the Lord appears to Hagar in chapter 16, and now, some 13 years since the birth of Ishmael, God appears to the patriarch yet again with further covenant revelation. God's plans are unfolding to Abraham over his lifetime, each encounter adds detail and clarity reminding us that faith for every believer involves a trust that some aspects of our eternal hope and the purposes of God, yet in seed form, will be revealed in greater shades of glorious understanding as His decree is unveiled in the fullness of time. At this moment in the patriarch's biography, the Lord appears to clarify that the child of promise will in fact be born to Abraham and Sarah despite their age and doubts...