Abraham and Sarah, Birth God's People

Introduction/Seeing the Need

How has the Lord appeared to you? In and through a friend? a child? a book you read? a thought you had? through a favorite hymn or a Bible verse? in nature? in a word from a stranger? How? How have you been keenly aware of God’s presence? If you are struggling to answer that question, could it be that you weren’t watching or listening to God?

In this fascinating story from the Book of Genesis, we’ll follow a wife and her husband through a totally unexpected event in their lives, an event that shaped and changed them forever and, in the process, changed and shaped an entire people! What happened to them can and does happen to us when the Lord speaks to us in a wide variety of ways and calls, when the Lord challenges us, when the Lord calls us to serve.

We should avoid the temptation of saying that God has never called, inspired, or challenged us to serve, for God has done just that and will do it again and again. The question is, will we respond when God calls us with obedience and gratitude or with sarcastic laughter and protests of inadequacy?

We saw last week God’s promise to make Abram “a great nation” and make his “name great” ( ). Abram was to have many descendants who together would form a formidable and respected people group. Working against this outcome, however, was the fact that Abram and Sarai had not been able to have children (). Abram may have assumed that God would correct this problem sooner rather than later.

Support for this supposition may be seen in the fact that God told Abram on more than one occasion that his descendants would possess the land of Canaan, which at that time was occupied by other tribes. Yet despite all these promises, nothing happened. Abram and Sara prospered financially (), and their clan was feared for its military power (), but no son was born. How could God’s plan be fulfilled if his promise remained unfulfilled?

What are some things we can do to maintain faith when fulfillment of Bible promises seems too distant to happen in our lifetimes?

Abram raised the point of he and Sarai being without children with God explicitly in . That time when God appeared to him, Abram observed that it would be impossible for God’s plan to work: since Abram had no male heir, at death all his assets would revert to his oldest male servant, Eliezer, who was not related to him by blood (15:2). In response, God reaffirmed the promise (15:4, 5).

More time passed, and no child came. In desperation, elderly Abram and Sarai decided to take matters into their own hands: they produced an heir through a surrogate mother, Hagar (). But then some 13 years later, with Abram nearing the century mark, God again made his intentions clear (). Abram (meaning “exalted father”) would be known as Abraham (“father of many nations”; 17:4, 5). Abraham and Sarah (renamed from Sarai) would have many descendants, who would indeed conquer and possess the land. Having heard this same story may times before, Abraham could only laugh (17:17).

Human Possibility -

Genesis 18:9–15 NRSV

They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?” The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. He said, “Oh yes, you did laugh.”

Our reading picks up near the beginning of a long episode that culminates in the deliverance of Abraham’s nephew, Lot (), from the destruction of the city of Sodom. Abraham is now 99 years old (17:1, 24). He and Sarah still have no children, and God has instructed them to circumcise all the men in their household as a sign of his plan to make a covenant with their heirs (17:9-27).

Somewhere along the line, God has decided to destroy the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah, where Lot was then living (). Before he does this, however, he has a message for Abraham and Sarah. As our passage for today opens, the couple has been told several times over a period of many years that they will become the ancestors of a great and powerful nation. Working against God’s promise is the hard reality of infertility and menopause.

The word they refers to the “three men” of . Their identity is often proposed to be the Lord and two angels, who disguise themselves in human form. They have stopped by the home of Abraham and Sarah to confirm once again God’s promise regarding a child.

Abraham welcomed them warmly. Hospitality was the order of the day during biblical times. To forsake a traveling stranger in that climate and that landscape was to sentence that stranger to wandering for perhaps hours or even days in the desert without food and water.

What was a bit out of the ordinary at that time and place was the strangers’ query, “Where is your wife Sarah?” (). Men did not often inquire into the place or status of another man’s wife, and for three total strangers to know the name of Abraham’s wife was most unusual. But imagine their shock, though, at the news the messenger gave them, Sarah and Abraham were old. Even at the time, when people had limited understanding of biology and the human body, they realized that childbearing was for much younger women. And the natural processes of aging eventually meant women could no longer bear children, and men often could not father them.

Sarah also laughed at the prospect, much as we might chuckle and say something like, “Yeah sure. I know that’s not going to happen. We’re way too old to start a family! We’re even too old to be first-time grandparents!” The Hebrew word translated “laugh” here carries with it meanings of mocking and even scorn. Thus, Sarah’s laughter was apparently not the laughter of joy but a bitter laughter at the total absurdity of what she had just heard.

What are appropriate ways to respond to news that is hard to believe, yet is from a reliable source?

When has God’s timing in response to your prayers been vastly different from what you had hoped? What did the experience teach you about your faith?

Notice that God asked Abraham, not Sarah, why Sarah laughed at the Lord’s pronouncement (). Abraham made no answer, but Sarah did. She lied. Why do you think Sarah chose to lie? It may have been out of fear of the strangers. It may have been an attempt to cover her tracks. It may have been to try to protect Abraham, or it may have been for other reasons we might imagine.

But in spite of Sarah’s lie, God did not withdraw the promise, scold or punish Sarah for her lie, or threaten to make the couple pay somehow for this sin. God did, however, let Sarah and Abraham know that Sarah’s untruthfulness had not gone unnoticed: “You laughed,” God said (18:15). But just as God promised, Sarah and Abraham became parents within the year ().

Who or what inspires you to keep faith in God when you experience delays in answers to your prayers?

Sarah doubted, she questioned, she wondered, and she even laughed at the Lord’s promise. But Sara is not alone among other people in the Scriptures. Amos complained that he was not a prophet but only a shepherd and “a trimmer of sycamore trees” (). Jeremiah said that he was only a boy when God called him (). Hannah, Samuel’s mother, groaned under the taunting of others because she was childless (). Even Mary, Jesus’ mother, questioned the angel who told her she would give birth to God’s Son ().

But each of these, and many others in the Scriptures and in the history of Christianity, learned that God does not renege on promises. Like these biblical figures, many of us have learned that God summons; and despite our doubts and protests and desires to turn away, God can and will carry out the divine plan.

Divine Reality -

Genesis 21:1–7 NRSV

The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Now Sarah said, “God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.” And she said, “Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

Soon after the visit of the mysterious strangers, Sarah becomes pregnant and give birth at the age of 90 (). This fact answers the rhetorical question of , above. Clearly,, nothing is impossible with God! After decades of Abraham and Sarah’s childlessness, God acts miraculously within the exact time frame specified.

Both Abraham and Sarah had laughed when promised a child, reflecting their doubt. In response to Abraham’s laughter, God directed that the child’s name be Issac, which means “he laughs” when translated. Thus the child’s name serves as an enduring reminder of God’s faithfulness in the face of human doubt.

A year before Issac’s birth, God had directed Abraham to seal the covenant by circumcising the male members of his household (). Further, God had commanded that Abraham’s future descendants also should be circumcised. This is a known medical practice in Egypt in Abraham’s time. Abraham may have first become aware of it during his brief sojourn there during a period of famine.

Circumcision in the current context is symbolic of the fact that God has promised to bless Abraham, and through him the world. This is happen via the production of offspring. In this sense, circumcision is to serve as a powerful symbol of the passing of the blessings of the true God from one generation to the next. As Abraham’s descendants are circumcised a week after birth (; ), they are literally, physically marked for God’s service while still in the cradle.

Verse 5 shows the significance of Abraham’s story for two reasons. First, it again stresses the miraculous nature of Issac’s birth, which occurred far beyond the time when his parents would naturally be able to have children. Second, it stresses the patience that God required of Abraham and Sarah. The two were age 75 and 65, respectively, when they departed Harran for Canaan with expectation of being made into “a great nation” there (12:2). But the two had to wait another 25 years to see the promise fulfilled. Their story is usually a model of persistent faithfulness; on a few occasions, however, they model the opposite.

Though Sarah had earlier laughed at God’s promise, to her credit she praises him when she sees it finally fulfilled. Here again, the word laugh has mote than one implication. God’s prediction of the humanly impossible had previously provoked Sarah’s laughter as an expression of doubt. Now she laughs with joy at God’s fulfilling his promise. Sarah clearly intends to share her testimony with others, who will laugh with her as they share her joy and marvel with her at God’s power.

How should the church as a body respond when God shows his faithfulness?

Sarah now indicates the reason people will laugh in amazement with her. Clearly she had given up, coming to a point where she didn’t believe it possible for God’s promise to be fulfilled. Her words also reflect the social pressure she had been under for decades, living in a world where a woman’s primary responsibility was providing male heirs for her husband. Whereas people had previously whispered about her shame, they can now rejoice with her for God’s promises.

Conclusion

People seem to have a natural tendency to take things for granted. “Please” is easy to remember because we use that word to help us get something we want. “Thank you” takes more thought because we already have what we want and are ready to move on. Many believers find the same scenario to be true of their relationship with God. We know how to ask with “please,” but don’t invest much time in saying “thank you.”

Sarah can serve as a good model for doing better on our thank-yous to God. Once her desire for a child was honored, she remembered to give God the credit - a special kind of “thank you.” This told the whole world how grateful she was for what the Lord had done for her. Genuine faith always expresses itself in gratitude.

Prayer

Almighty God, you alone are almighty. Forgive us when we doubt, question, or even laugh at your claim on our lives. Help us instead to trust you completely and to rejoice in your summons. And may we, good Lord, see and find you in the world around us and in our sisters and brothers from all across this world in which you have placed us. Use us, Lord, to do your will. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.