MAY 18, 2023
“And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” (Gen 18:10-12)
We have in this chapter yet another occasion in which the Lord God appeared to Abraham. As he was sitting in his tent door in the plains of Mamre, he looked up to behold three men standing before him. Most everyone agrees that these were angels appearing in human form. Yet Abraham bowed himself to the ground before them, which indicates that he recognized that at least one of them was Divine – even The Angel of the Covenant. Some believe that all three persons of the Godhead here appeared to Abraham in the form of men. Notice in verses nine and ten the pronoun changes from plural to singular: “And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife?” (Vs. 9) “And He said, I will return unto thee according to the time of life.”
Regardless of their identity, it is clear that God here appeared to Abraham, and renewed the promise that his wife Sarah, even in her old age, would conceive and bare a son. Sarah, having overheard the words from within the tent, “laughed within herself.” Who, but the Omniscient One could have heard the silent, inward laughter of one who was hidden from view? Not only did He hear the inaudible laughter, but He revealed the secret musings of her unbelieving heart. “Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I…bear a child, which am old?”
At the time of this declaration from the Lord, Sarah was ninety and her husband was ninety-nine years of age. Admittedly, I have very limited knowledge when it comes to bearing children, but even I realize that a woman of ninety years has probably “aged out,” as they say. We can certainly understand why Sarah would find the prospect of bearing a child at her age to be a bit ridiculous. The writer of the Hebrew Epistle puts it this way, “She was past age,” and her husband was “as good as dead.” Lacking, at this point, faith to believe the promise of God, “Sarah laughed within herself.”
Notice the question which the Lord asked in response to Sarah’s laughter: “Is any thing too hard for the LORD?” Sarah’s laughter was in effect saying, “This is impossible!” But the Lord’s question is essentially saying, “With God all things are possible!” The Christian Faith demands that we believe in the impossible – that God can and must do the impossible. Concerning the very keystone of the Faith, Paul said to King Agrippa, “Should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead?” And what about the new birth? Jesus said, “Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said, “How can a man be born when he is old?” In other words, “That’s not possible!” Jesus answered, “Ye must be born of the Spirit.” Sarah thought it impossible that a woman past age should conceive and give birth. But God asked rhetorically, “Is anything too hard for Me?”
The history of God’s people is replete with instances of God performing the impossible. For example, He opened the sea, causing the waters to stand as walls on either side of the passage made for His people. He gave His people drink, causing water to flow abundantly out of a flinty rock in the wilderness; and it followed their camp for forty years. He made the walls of Jericho to fall flat without any visible cause. For sake of His people in battle, God made the sun to stand still for about a day, while disallowing harmful effects upon the Creation. God does the impossible!!
God specializes in things thought impossible, and in His fulfillment of the promise here made to Abraham, Sarah becomes a type of another woman, who, by miraculous conception, became the mother of Jesus our Savior. Sarah’s son, Isaac, is a type of the promised Seed, Himself.
Sarah’s laughter was a sign of her unbelief at the time. But she did not remain unbelieving. “Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age…” (Heb. 11:11) It is somewhat ironic that, “Abraham called the name of his son…whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac.” Isaac means laughter. “Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.” (Gen. 21:3, 6) Sarah’s laughter was no longer that of unbelief, but rather it was the laughter of rejoicing. She gave birth to the child of promise, the seed through whom the true promised Seed, the Messiah, was to come.
Sarah rightly said, “…all that hear will laugh with me.” All who hear and believe on Jesus Christ the true Seed shall “rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
Virus-free.www.avast.com
Speak Your Mind