Old Hearts, Young Faith

I have a personal confession that I must share with you all. When I was a young child I used to think that adults were stupid.

To me, things were simple and made sense. In the earliest chapters of Genesis, we see God creating the world by the power of his voice and will.

Having created the world of course he has the power to do other things in this world. Things that he has promised he would do.

So imagine my confusion as a child when I see adults doubting his word. It was so simple to go from chapter one in Genesis all the way to chapter 18 and already finding the adults questioning when God makes a promise.

But now I am older and realize that the world actually works a certain way. God doesn’t always intervene in some miraculous way to save us or give us what we need.

God sometimes uses natural occurrences to bring about his will. A series of decisions, of events coming along until the right time happens and things change in an instant.

Too often I expect the miraculous now and expect things to change instantly when God actually has been working behind the scenes this entire time.

But there are also times when God’s answer is no. As hard as it is to address it and to find that is the case it does happen.

The Israelites in bondage in Egypt had to wait for hundreds of years. The Jews would have to wait for hundreds of years if not thousands for their Messiah. Hundreds for a prophet of God between the Old and New Testaments.

Indeed, the moments in the Bible, when God takes action, are balanced by the moments when the people of God are waiting for something to happen.

We in our time have the luxury of flipping through the Bible to passages and points in history, forgetting how many centuries of time have passed for the people experiencing these events firsthand.

I certainly hadn’t realized as a child that as I was reading the account of the virgin Mary having a child and it would make sense that Sarah would have a child.

Forgetting that Sarah did not yet have that account. Something like this just hasn’t happened before.

The further I looked at this passage the more I found out about Sarah. For instance, I found there is a nine-year difference between her and Abraham.

I did the calculations by taking Abraham's age in different events and subtracting nine from it to see just how old Sarah was. I was surprised to learn that she was already sixty-six when she left home with Abraham.

Already past the age of having children. This would appear to be a time when God had said no to her ever having children.

From the time she was sixty-six for the next thirty years, she has followed her husband around as God has led him.

I needed to remind myself that during this time she has never once heard God speaking these promises directly to her. It has been always through Abraham.

Imagine, if you could, putting yourself into her shoes. Your husband or spouse comes to you and says that God has spoken to you and he will be the ancestor of countless descendants. That he will be the father of a great nation.

Can you imagine the pain that must have gone through her heart with the knowledge that she will not be the one bearing any of those children? That she will not be bearing any children at all. Year after year she has to watch the women around her getting married and having children.

Nurturing them, feeding them, watching them take their first steps, their first words, the first milestones in their lives. Finally, watching them all grown up and taking their own spouses and having grandchildren to spoil?

I found myself sympathizing with Sarah in this chapter. Her heart must have grown old with lost hope and crushed dreams. The endless years passed her by in an endless stream.

How many of our own dreams have gone unfulfilled over the years? Something that we have yearned for and cry out for in our hearts but find no fulfillment.

The day started for Sarah probably the same as any day. Getting up, making sure things are done, and seeing to the comfort of Abraham. It would be the hottest time of the day when the visitors come.

She might have even seen Abraham hurrying over to meet them. Now, I don’t know how fast a hundred-year-old man would have been able to move. But the Bible does say he hurries.

Abraham comes back with the visitors and tells Sarah to fix bread for their visitors. A common practice during this time to provide quickly made bread for visitors.

The bread was quickly made and served she would probably go back into the tent where it was shaded and she was still in earshot for when she was next needed.

Finally, she is in earshot to hear the words of the promise.

“and Sarah your wife will have a son.”

What would you do in this situation if you were Sarah?

The younger me would have been surprised at her response. The older me actually gets it. This is the most human response one could expect.

A woman who is old and grey and whose body is no longer able to produce and carry children. She knows how the world works. Things like this just doesn’t happen.

The person saying this as far as she knows is not a god to promise it. She was not there in the previous chapter when God gave Abraham a great vision and a promise.

I would laugh too! And probably have said something even ruder.

Notice how God reacts. Does he call down fire on her? Curse her? Retort and say something back in anger?

He asks a simple question.

“Why did Sarah laugh?” He even repeats back what she said under her breath which he should not have heard.

Can you imagine her heart stopping at that point? The terror?

He then asks a rhetorical question.

“Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?”

In the original Hebrew, it is the same word for too difficult or too hard.

The question that is asked. “Is anything too hard, too difficult for the Lord?”

Think back to our own unanswered needs. Not the ones that can be filled instantly by going to the store. Rather, the ones that we have waited for what has felt like an eternity for.

Keep in mind that God can say no. But yet God can answer yes when we least expect it. When it is impossible for the natural world to bring us what we need.

Sarah was ninety-one years old. Her hope had died and the reality of ever having a child had died when her body had aged. But that was when God finally said,

yes.

At the time set by God himself, he said it will happen. Not through anyone else or for anyone else but for Sarah.

This was her moment for her dream and her need to come true.

There was something else I want you to consider. It is just in the chapter before that God had told Abraham the exact same thing. That within the year Sarah would conceive and have a son. Almost the exact same word-for-word promise that was given here.

Why would God repeat it? One source said so that Abraham would know who the visitors were. I think that makes sense.

However, I want to propose another reason. I think it was so that Sarah herself could finally hear the words of promise for herself. That God could meet with her and deliver the message in person for her benefit.

Although the chapter starts with Abraham, yet in this brief moment he takes a background role. The main people acting in this moment are the Lord and Sarah. Abraham does not speak. Does not react to their interaction. He observes and is not recorded as having done anything.

He is spoken to but makes no response.

Again, Sarah receives her promise, as impossible as it is.

Think of our own world and what we are used to. Things that just make sense. That’s just how the world works.

Think of also what is going on in this world. People separating themselves along political lines. The name calling and the preparation for elections.

Those setting themselves up as deliverers. Those hungry for power.

We have people suffering. We have the poor. Mistreatment of the elderly. Loneliness. Separation. Anxiety. The list goes on and on.

We hope for guidance. For deliverance. But heaven seems silent. When will God answer?

We also think of our own personal hardships. Things that we can’t say. Things that we are going through that seem overwhelming.

I don’t know what you are going through. I don’t know the words to address them. But I finally understand Sarah in this. The feeling of being crushed by reality. By unrealized dreams that leave one aching.

I hope that you are not going through that. But if you are. Know that God is there as the promise keeper.

I don’t say this just to put your mind at ease with platitudes and encouraging words. Something to soothe over hurts and lost dreams.

I say this as one who has looked to God for an answer to an unrealized dream. Someone who has begged and pleaded with God for an answer.

What I have found is that God is a gracious listener who does not strike someone down for asking why. Who even dares to scream at God in the silence of one’s heart in anger.

I say this as someone who has read of just who this God is. The creator of the universe. The sustainer of life. The one who has conquered death. The one who will raise us up in the newness of life.

I say this as one who has walked with God and felt the peace of God. Not through an answered prayer but through unanswered prayers. Of realizing there is peace when we don’t get what we want just as there is peace in receiving what is needed. In knowing God in spite of reality. Of knowing God when things don’t turn out all right. In walking through the fire and finding God there in the midst of it.

Maybe that is the case for you as well. If it is I rejoice with you and praise God with you. If it is not the case I find that one day soon it will be!

In closing, I want to remind you that we don’t have hope because of some false peace. We have hope in the one who can answer prayer when reality declares that it is impossible.

We have hope in the one who meets us face to face and knows us. Who cherishes us. Who gives us what we need when it is the right time.

We have faith in God who meets us, loves us, and walks with us no matter what we are going through. No matter how we respond to God. No matter what we say to God.

This is the young faith. That though our hearts and minds are burdened and hardened by reality. Worn down by what is.

That God will meet with us and show us what will be. God’s peace. God’s provision. God’s promise. And God’s deliverance.

May our hearts be renewed by the faith given by God to grant us hope and perseverance.

May our faith be strengthened by God and may we be given the peace of knowing that our God is able to give us what we need.

Closing Benediction:

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship fo the Holy Spirit be with you all!