God promised Abram that he should have a son, but He wished to prove to all the world, and to the angels who are looking on at what happens on this earth, that Abram could trust Him, and trust His promise even though he should have to wait twenty years for it. Abram had brought his wife Sarah, and his nephew Lot with him, when he left his own country; but after a time he and Lot had so many sheep and oxen that there was not grass enough for them all; so Lot chose the land towards Sodom, and Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan. One day the word of God came to Abram in a vision or dream, saying, "Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward!" Then Abram told the Lord how he wanted a son of his own, for he had no one to take all his riches by and by, except the servant who managed his property. And God promised Abram that he should have a son of his very own. And God led him out in the night when all the beautiful stars were shining in the deep blue sky, and God said, "Look now towards heaven, and tell the stars if thou be able to count them"; and God said, "So shall the number of your children be!" And Abram believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for righteousness. Do you not think, children, that as Abram walked on those lonely mountains in Palestine, that he must often have thought "God has promised all this land to me and my children!" And then, when he looked up at the stars at night in the clear atmosphere, that he must have been lost in wonder at the thousands and thousands of stars which he saw, and have said to himself, "God promised so shall my seed be!" The Lord Jesus, in the New Testament, tells us something about Abraham which we do not read in Genesis. He said "Abraham rejoiced to see my day, he saw it and was glad!" How wonderful it is that God notices and remembers when we try to please Him, and sees our hearts when nobody else can! At length Abram was ninety years old, and the Lord appeared to him again, and told him that his name should not be called Abram any more, but Abraham, because he was to be a father of many nations. And then God told Abraham that very soon he and Sarah were to have a little son, and that his name was to be called Isaac. So one day Abraham was sitting at the door of his tent in the heat of the day, when he looked up and saw three men standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran to meet them and bowed himself to the ground. Perhaps Abraham guessed that one of the three men was the Lord; for afterwards he did not seem at all surprised when the Lord spoke to him, and promised to give Sarah a little son very soon. At any rate he begged the three men to rest beneath the tree while he hastened away to prepare food to refresh them. Then he took butter and milk and a young calf which he had cooked, and set it before them and he stood by under the tree, and they did eat. Then they asked him where Sarah was, and Abraham answered that she was in the tent.