Read with Me
Genesis 18:9-15 (HCSB)
“Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.
“There, in the tent,” he answered.
The LORD said, “I will certainly come back to you in about a year’s time, and your wife Sarah will have a son!” Now Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him.
Abraham and Sarah were old and getting on in years. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. So she laughed to herself: “After I have become shriveled up and my lord is old, will I have delight?”
But the LORD asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Can I really have a baby when I’m old?’ Is anything impossible for the LORD? At the appointed time I will come back to you, and in about a year she will have a son.”
Sarah denied it. “I did not laugh,” she said, because she was afraid.
But He replied, “No, you did laugh.”
Listen with Me
Just a few days earlier, God had promised Abraham that in one year, Sarah would have a child of her own (Genesis 17:19-21). Now, while He was there in visible form, He had the opportunity to reiterate that promise.
Sarah, though nearly 90 years old, was still attractive, although she was now past the age of childbearing. As she sat in the shade of the tent listening to the conversation going on, she heard God (although she didn’t yet know that it was God) state this promise to Abraham, and it struck her as amusing. The thought of herself pregnant, waddling around as big as a house at an age when most women were preparing for death, caused her to chuckle.
She had no idea that her soft chuckle was audible to God as he talked with Abraham, let alone that He could hear the thoughts that had caused her to chuckle. So, she was shocked and embarrassed when He called her out, with her first response being denial: “I didn’t laugh!” But God would not let her lie pass. He wasn’t harsh with her, but simply pointed out what the truth was, and the fact that Sarah had lied about her laughter.
Sarah had not known God personally as Abraham had. Her faith was second-hand at that point, a matter of believing what her husband told her about his experiences with God, what he had seen and heard. But now it was time for Sarah’s own first-hand encounter with the living, speaking God, so that she could learn more about who He is and what He can do. His question, “Is anything impossible for the Lord?”, and His reiteration of the promise of a son, were designed to reveal to her even more clearly that she could trust what God was promising.
Pray with Me
Father, it is easy for us to relate to Sarah. It is often difficult for us to truly believe You for the big things you promise, although we can usually believe Your promises for the smaller things, things that we could figure out how to do for ourselves if we needed to. But You are the same yesterday, to day, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Your arm is not too short (Numbers 11:23; Isaiah 59:1) to be able to do anything You have promised that You will do. If you can make a ninety-year-old post-menopausal woman pregnant, anything You have promised me is simple by comparison! Lord, help me to trust that You will deliver everything You have promised. And let any laughter that escapes from my lips be only out of joy and confidence, never out of doubt. Amen.
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