Here is the link to the study and discussion material for this week's study topic:

http://www.ssnet.org/qrtrly/eng/07c/less02.html

In light of this whole week's study, I find the Memory Text most interesting.

With Abraham going to Hagar and having a child by her, with both Abraham and Sarah laughing at the thought of Sarah herself bearing a child, and with them lieing about there marital relationship more than once, how can it be said that Abraham "was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise"?

My question was answered in our Sabbath School Class discussion this morning.

Can anyone answer it here?

Perhaps his faith, like ours, is not an unbroken string of victories.

We all fall. But the truly faithful trust that God is able to pick them up and keep them from falling next time. And the fully mature reach the point where they are constantly led by the Spirit, and therefore do not walk in darkness anymore.

When it came to the test of sacrificing his only son, and he was about to actually sacrifice him, that's when I think that Abraham had fully matured in his faith with God.

I agree. But Isaac was born about 20 years before that.

What do you mean by this?

Your original question was "how can it be said that Abraham 'was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise'?"

If the mark of his faithfulness was Mount Moriah, Abraham became a father about 20 years before that event.

What would your answer be to this question?

Not sure. I've never thought about his physical fatherhood in relation to his faith. But I've thought about his being the father of faith, and yet manage to do various unfaithful things.