Sarah & Abraham

We Laugh at God’s Plans: When we first meet Sarah and Abraham, they are known as Sarai and Abram. And old couple who was not able to conceive any children during their childbearing years. But God comes to Abram and tells him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Genesis 15:4-5. Wow, thats pretty cool right? I know I would be impressed if the Lord told me that. But wait a second, there’s just one problem here. Abram and Sarai never had kids, and now they are too old. So Abram was probably thinking, OK God if you say so but I just don’t see how. Isn’t that just like us though, to think of God’s plans for our life in only the normal human way? As if anything is too hard for God as if he can’t work miracles. Look at both of their responses to what God tells them.

Abraham fell face down; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!” Genesis 17:17-18.

Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?” Genesis 18:10-12.

Both of them laughed in God’s face. Umm Lord apparently you haven’t seen how old we have gotten. I know time is different for you than for us, but you have missed your opportunity. You see the problem was that Abraham and Sarah saw their problems through human eyes. So that’s why Sarah comes up with her fantastic plan to have Abraham go into Hagar. And of course he’s all for this idea, I mean if your wife tells you to sleep with another women, not many men would argue with that. So he listens to his wife, and as we saw with Adam and Eve, that usually causes problems.

We See God’s Plans Before Our Very Eyes: After all the drama unfolds with Hagar and Ishmael. God tells Abraham about his plans for Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham and Sarah get to see in real-time what God’s wrath looks like for those who don’t obey him. Did this have anything to do with Sarah’s genius idea to have her husband impregnate her slave so God could deliver his promise? We don’t know that for sure but we do know he continued to keep her womb shut until they arrived in Gerar because Abraham lied and told king Abimelek that Sarah was his sister. After God appears to Abimelek in a dream and tells him that Sarah is married, the king quickly returns Sarah to Abraham and sent them on their way.

Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelek, his wife and his female slaves so they could have children again, for the Lord had kept all the women in Abimelek’s household from conceiving because of Abraham’s wife Sarah. Genesis 20:17-18.

After leaving Gerar, Sarah finally becomes pregnant and gives birth to Isaac. Did God have more spiritual growth and maturity for Sarah to go through before becoming a mother? Or did he want to show her that He alone has the power to open and close wombs as he did not only for her but for Abimeleks wives and female slaves? Or maybe he wanted to show Sarah, that it didn’t matter if she was 70, 80, or even 90 years old, he was the author of life. Whatever the reason, God’s timing is always perfect. So what can we learn from Sarah? If we try to rush God’s plans for our lives we will only end up making it into a huge mess. Your timing is not always God’s timing. Don’t laugh at what God says, get ready to see a huge miracle.