Thanksgiving of Laughter

Genesis 21:5-7 ESV

5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 6 And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” 7 And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

I’m sure that we have all heard the old saying that science and religion are incompatible, and in the very strictest sense, that is true. Science, in the strictest sense, consists of the study of physical data in order to build knowledge.

So, in the strictest sense, science and religion are incompatible in that there are many elements of religion that cannot be physically observed, physically studied. But though there are elements of our faith that cannot be physically observed, we can still, through what can be physically observed, come to know some of the aspects of our faith to a greater extent.

And if we look at what science is, that is, the study of accumulated facts, we will see that science is much wider and broader than what many today consider to be “science”. In fact, we will see that actually, science and religion are not at all incompatible, but in fact, there is a “science” that has God in its name; it’s called “theology”.

“Theology”, which we get from the Greek word, “θεολογία” means, “the study of God”. And so, if “science” is the study of facts, we then know that “theology” is indeed, the science of God. It is the study of what we know about God and coming to know God greater through that study.

In fact, you and I can both confidently say that theology is the mother science, the main science. And the other sciences, fields like biology, chemistry, psychology, mathematics, philosophy are all sub-sciences to the mother science of theology in that fields like that seek to observe and learn primarily about God’s creation. But as those kinds of scientific fields uncover information about God’s creation, what it always inevitably leads to is glory to God.

Indeed, the sub-sciences are extremely important and useful, but all sub-sciences, when they are properly studied, should always bow to and lead to a renewed interest in the mother science of theology. Because while the sub-sciences reveal the creation, the mother-science; theology, reveals the Creator, Who of course is infinitely greater than the creation.

Today, as we conclude our series of messages from the first seven verses of Genesis, chapter twenty-one, we are going to be studying that mother science of theology even more as from our text for today, we are going to see just how magnificent the sovereignty of God really is.

There are many times when we read the Bible, and we come across narratives like David slaying Goliath. When we read that, we are tempted to think, “You know, David had an abundance of faith! I need to be like David!” or we might read about how Daniel refused to pray to King Darius and we think, “Wow! Daniel had such great faith! He had such great courage! I need to be like Daniel!”. Or, we may even think of the narrative surrounding Abraham and Sarah, how Abraham and Sarah had left their home to go to a place that they had never seen before and say, “What faith! I need to be like Abraham!”.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with admiring the faith of people like Abraham or David or Daniel, but as we do so, we need to remember why they had that faith, Who gave them that faith, for what purpose were they faithful. Abraham and David and Daniel are not the heroes of their stories, God is!

But some may try to say that the reason why Abraham and Sarah finally had the child of promise is because they were faithful to believe that God would give them this child of promise and so, the birth of Isaac is a reward for their faith.

But I hope that by now, after three sermons spent in this series, we will see just how wrong that kind of reasoning is. As we study this narrative, we actually see that Abraham and Sarah did not believe that God would give them a son through Sarah. But even if they did believe it, it still wouldn’t be that God gave them Isaac because of their faith, but rather, God gave them Isaac, because He wanted to give them Isaac, because it pleased Him to do so.

And so, as we conclude this series of messages, we are going to do what we do every Sunday here at the Bethany Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and that is shine the spotlight on God, the real Hero of the story.

And we will do this, as we look at how the sovereignty of God is explicitly made manifest on at least four different occasions throughout our reading.

We find the first plain mention of the sovereignty of God found in verse five of our reading, which says,

Genesis 21:5 ESV

5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

Now, in this statement what we see first is weakness, “Abraham was a hundred years old”. Now, there are certainly things that people who are one hundred years old can do, but physically speaking, what would be physically required for a man to produce children at one hundred years old would certainly require greater strength than what a typical one hundred-year-old man could produce.

Not only that, but I think of myself, at thirty-eight years of age, and I know that even at my age, while I can still physically do what it takes to produce a child, I still would definitely not want to start over with a baby at my age, and so, from the time that I had my first son at age twenty-two and to now at age thirty-eight, I can tell that there has been a shift that has taken place between the two ages; an emotional, spiritual, but most of all, a noticeable physical shift has taken place between the two ages. I’ve lost more hair, gained more weight, lost more energy since twenty-two and I just don’t want to start over with a baby anymore.

Well, if I feel this way at thirty-eight, then imagine how I will feel at one hundred years old if God is pleased to let me live that long! If I don’t want to have babies at thirty-eight, then I definitely won’t want to have them at one hundred!

Well, with that being said, because Abraham was able to impregnant his eighty-nine-year-old wife and then care for the son that she produced for him at one hundred years old, you know that a power greater than Abraham had brought this pass as almighty God sovereignly worked to perform the extraordinary as Abraham fathered a son at one hundred years old.

Thus, again, in this we see the almighty power of God at work as there is none other Who could do this.

Now, if we look at the beginning of verse six in our reading, we find the second plain mention of the sovereignty of God in our reading, where we read:

Genesis 21:6a ESV

6a And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me;”

As Sarah declares in this first half of the verse that God has made laughter for me, we need to remember why Sarah laughs here. She laughs because of the great joy that she now experiences, having given birth to the child of promise at ninety years old.

And we need to remember this in contrast to that which came before this God-induced laughter. Before she had given birth to Isaac, Sarah did not laugh with joy, but rather, she was mournfully without child.

But now, Sarah says “God has made laughter for me”. God has made her laugh with joy because she is no longer without child, but has brought Isaac into the world at ninety years old.

Now, just like we said earlier about someone who is one hundred years old, there are a lot of things that ninety-year-old women can do, but one thing that they cannot naturally do is give birth to children. But Sarah was ninety years old when she gave birth to Isaac!

Again, this clearly shows that a power greater than Sarah was at work here, and that power was the almighty power of God as He powerfully and sovereignly caused Sarah to give birth at that ripe old age, and thus, here, Sarah rightly recognizes that she laughs because God has made her laugh, she laughs because God did in her what caused her to laugh with joy and thus send joyful praise to God.

Then as we move on to the second half of this sixth verse, we see the third plain mention of the sovereignty of God in our reading, where it says:

Genesis 21:6b ESV

6b “everyone who hears will laugh over me.”

And so, in this statement of Sarah, what we see is that as God had caused her to laugh with joy because of what He had accomplished in her, resulting in praise to God, so will it be for anyone who ever hears of it.

In the day in which we live, whenever we talk about this narrative, the reaction that most of us give to it is, “Oh, that’s nice”. Now, the reason why we do that is because either (A.) We have heard it so many times that it doesn’t really seem to mean too much to us anymore (B.) Maybe some of us don’t believe that it happened and so that’s why it doesn’t do a lot for us. Or (C.) Because we didn’t see it happen, because we don’t personally know Abraham and Sarah, it doesn’t have that much of an effect on us.

Well, Sarah says that anyone who hears of how God had given her a son in her old age would laugh, would sing praises to God. Anyone who knows Abraham and Sarah, anyone who sees her, a ninety-year-old woman nursing an infant and hearing how the God of heaven and earth made her conceive and give birth would cause them to laugh with joy, to glorify and sing great praises to God.

But even us today, though, as I said, though we have become rather indifferent to this narrative for various reasons, we should still, when we seriously meditate upon what God had performed here, our reaction should not be indifference, but rather, it should be one of great praise to God.

And now, as we move on to verse seven, the last verse of our reading, we see the fourth and final mention of the sovereignty of God, which says,

Genesis 21:7 ESV

7 And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

Whenever we look at the first part of this verse, when Sarah puts forth the question “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children?” she is saying that anyone who would have heard such a thing would have thought that it was impossible.

And not only that, but look at how Sarah words this “Who would have said to Abraham”. What she is saying is that if someone would have told Abraham that this would happen, he would have thought that it was impossible. And it’s ironic that she mentions that, because that is exactly what had happened.

Remember, back in chapter seventeen of this same book, God had come to Abraham and told him that his wife Sarah would birth the child of promise to him. And do you remember Abraham’s reaction?

Genesis 17:17 ESV

17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”

He said, “That’s impossible!” and he fell on his face and laughed in disbelief.

But Sarah herself also knew what it was like to laugh in disbelief at this prospect as we are reminded in the eighteenth chapter of this same book of how Sarah also laughed at what was humanly impossible.

Genesis 18:12 ESV

12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?”

She said, “It can’t happen. There is no way that it will happen!” She too laughed in disbelief. But though that was both her husband’s reaction and her own reaction, look at what she says at the end of our reading, “Yet I have borne him a son in his old age!”. And so, at the age of ninety, Sarah nurses an infant as if she were still a young woman.

And in this, we see the sovereignty of God over disbelief.

Some, indeed, multitudes have said for generations upon generations that unless you have a certain level of faith that God can do something, His hands are tied. That God can’t do certain things in and through certain people because they do not possess faith that He will do it.

Well, did Abraham have faith that God would give him a son through Sarah? Genesis 17:17 says that he did not. Did Sarah have faith that God would give Abraham a son through her? Genesis 18:12 says that she did not.

And so, did Abraham and Sarah’s lack of faith prevent God from giving them the child of promise? This narrative tells us that it most certainly did not!

God is sovereign, which means that there is nothing that keeps Him from performing His good pleasure. My unbelief, your unbelief does not keep God from bringing to pass what He has ordained to bring to pass. Indeed, if God wants to do something in and through someone, then He will do it, whether that person believes that He will do it or not!

Nothing stops God from bringing His good pleasure to pass, not even you or me doubting that He will bring His good pleasure to pass.

And for this, beloved, as we come upon the holiday of Thanksgiving, we who are truly born-again believers ought to be eternally grateful.

Praise God that He works in your life not only without your permission, but oftentimes, in spite of your disbelief.

Amen?