Is anything too difficult for God?

The LORD obligates Himself to fulfill Covenant promises (Gen 18:9-10)

Explanation: The LORD God made a promise to Abraham that he would have descendants (Gen 12:7). Abraham was 75 years old at the time and Sarah was 65 (Gen 12:4). God was the One who made the promise to Abraham. God was the One who initiated the process to set up an unconditional covenant with Abraham. God was not coerced into this arrangement and Abraham did not pressure Him in any form or fashion.

Having made the promise, God also fulfills it. He comes to Abraham and Sarah 24 years after the initial promise and declares, I will visit you next year and “behold, Sarah thy wife shall have a son.” (v. 10).

Argument: As the Creator God of the Universe, the LORD has the Authority to initiate and enter into covenant obligations by Himself. He is also the One who decides when He will fulfill His obligations. The Transcendent One is outside of time and He works on His own timeline instead of ours.

Some might look at this at conclude that God wasted 25 years of Abraham and Sarah’s life. If God was giving them the child of the promise at this point, could He not have given Isaac at the time the promise was made? Of course God could have done that. God, however, is more interested in building character and trust than granting wishes.

Application: You CAN trust God to fulfill His promises. There is no power capable of over-riding the promises of God (cf. Isaiah 46:9-10).

We can know this truth and even accept it on the level of biblical events, but our struggle is with accepting it as it relates to us personally. Yes, we believe that God did these things that are written, but He is not going to intervene in my life in a miraculous way!

Physical assessment of the circumstances surrounding the promises often lead to a position of doubt (Gen 18:11-12)

Explanation: The three men were outside talking with Abraham while Sarah was in the back of the tent behind the partition. She was out of sight, but she was able to overhear the conversation. Her ears must have tuned in when she heard her name being mentioned - “where is Sarah thy wife?” (v. 9). And she was definitely paying attention when she heard the LORD proclaim that she would have a son in the next year (v. 10)

Moses gives the physical circumstances in v. 11 that draws the reader’s attention to the difficulties (or most probably, the impossibility) associated with Sarah having a child - “it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.” Not only was Sarah post-menopausal at 89 years, she had been barren even during her years of natural fertility - “But Sarai was barren; she had no child” (Gen 11:30).

Argument: As humans, we operate on the natural physical level. Meaning that we navigate life according to natural law, the things we expect to happen - those things that we observe.

When we drop something, we expect it to fall

We fuel our vehicles because we do not expect them to keep running on one tank forever

We go to work to get paid because we can’t expect someone else to keep us up

We expect our young married women have children, but we would not believe a report that a 90 year old woman gave birth to a child

Let’s be honest - we would have struggled to believe in the promise just as Sarah did. That’s one of the reasons she tried the shortcut with Hagar - because she did not see herself becoming pregnant at 75, let alone at 90!

Application: Be honest with God about your circumstances. BTW, He already knows what’s going on in your life. He knows the problems in your marriage, He knows about your financial burdens, He is aware of the prodigals in your life, and He knows the area for which you have declared (at least to yourself if not out loud) this cannot happen, this thing will never change!

Circumstances must give way before the power of the Eternal and Omnipotent God of all Creation (vv. 13-14)

Explanation: Sarah laughed to herself in disbelief, even when she heard the LORD declare it. It is very possible that Sarah was not aware that it was the LORD who was speaking at that moment. She was, however, very much aware that Abraham was giving the three visitors the royal treatment (v. 6), and she was also very much aware of the promise that God had previously made to Abraham concerning a son.

Sarah’s disbelief was internal, but God was aware of her scornful interior laugh. The LORD brought this to Abraham’s attention when He asked him “why did Sarah laugh?” Abraham must have been very surprised because he did not hear Sarah laugh, nor was he aware of her disbelief!

Argument: The LORD was very much aware of Sarah’s disbelief because He calls her out by asking, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” (v. 14) This is a rhetorical question and the expected answer is NO, No there is not anything too difficult for the One who inhabits Eternity and spoke the Universe into existence.

Sarah was one of the early OT saints who questioned God’ ability, but she has company in the NT as well. When faced with several thousand hungry people, Jesus asked Phillip, “whence shall we buy bread that these may eat?” (John 6:5) Phillip looked at the circumstances and his conclusion that it could not happen - “200 denarii is not sufficient” (John 6:7)

2,000 years later we are still looking at the circumstances. Think about the life situations we give up on or just accept as being unchangeable because we are looking at the circumstances instead of the God of our circumstances:

Even God can’t fix my marriage

Even God can’t deliver me from this temptation

Even God can’t bring back my prodigal

Even God can’t repair this broken relationship

Even God can’t get my daughter off drugs

Even God can’t grow this Church

Instead of focusing on the problems and all the reasons they will remain problems we can take another route:

The correct response is to repent and believe (v. 15)

Explanation: At some point after the LORD asks Abraham why Sarah laughed, Sarah comes out to join the discussion. She may have waited until after the LORD proclaimed, “at the time appointed I will return to thee . . . and Sarah shall have a son (v. 14), but in v. 15 Sarah is speaking to the LORD.

Consider the situation: Sarah was behind the scene eavesdropping and then responds with internal disbelief when she hears that she is going to become pregnant. She gets called out by the omniscient power of the LORD and now she is caught. The text states she is afraid, and she was most probably experiencing guilt as well. Her first response is to lie: “I did not laugh.” God is not having any of that and rebukes her by stating, “Nay, but thou didst laugh.”

Argument: The text ends this account abruptly and the reader is given no further information on Sarah’s response. When Isaac is born, we discover that Sarah has embraced God’s handling of this situation when she declares, “God hath made to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me” (Gen 21:6)

It is in the pages of the NT, however, that we are explicitly told of Sarah’s faith in this miraculous birth of Isaac in her old age: “Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.” (Hebrews 11:11)

Application: We CAN trust in God to do the impossible. His power is not diminished, and He is still in the business of delivering lost sinners out of the darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9), and He continues to answer the prayers of His people. The question for us is this: are we praying in faith and asking God to bring about His kingdom will in our lives?