Gold Tried in the Fire - Robert J. Wieland

went on for decades, while he "against hope
believed in hope." Verse 18.
The Lord raised his expectations sky high by
promising to make him "a great nation" through
which the Messiah was to come, so that in
Abraham "shall all families of the earth be
blessed." He would have as many children as there
are stars in the sky. (See Genesis 12:2,3; 13:14-16;
15:5, 6.) But what is this thing called faith?
And then the Lord seemed to drop out of sight,
leaving the poor man to stagger on for decades
with no sign of even one child being born to him.
Most everyone else, it seemed, had no trouble
having plenty of children, while he, with the
tremendous promise ringing in his ears, appeared
to be doomed to go childless.
When he left Haran to go to the Promised
Land, Abraham, at seventy-five, was getting old
and Sarah's hopes for becoming a mother faded
with her increasing age. (She was only ten years
younger than Abraham.) When Abraham was
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