It is said of Abraham in Genesis 15:6: “And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” Abraham was a far from perfect man. He didn’t always lean on God’s wisdom.

(Reading: Genesis 16:1-17:27; 21:8-20) This week and next we’ll address what might be called “Abraham and the Child Problem.” We’ll see the human solution … and the divine one.

Then he said to him, “So will your descendants be.” (Genesis, Chapter 15, 5). Woodcut engraving after a drawing by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (German painter, 1794 – 1872), published in 1877.