Part Three: When God Promises the Absurd

WRITTEN BY DREW MATZ

As With Abraham, Trusting God Often Requires Us to Believe Incredible Things

This week, we will conclude our journey with Abraham and Sarah as we witness the completion of God’s promise of a true heir, one through whom God has sworn through whom he will bless all the nations of the world.

Even though Sarah was now of very old age, God delivered as he said he would:

The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. 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.

Genesis 21:1-6

After all of the waiting, all of the doubt and setbacks, God has finally done the unthinkable. By his power and according to his purpose, he has opened the barren womb in order to bless all nations in this single child. God’s closeness to Sarah illustrates his mercy toward her, and how he pardons her unbelief. Even though she was at times faithless, he is always faithful.

Yet, God was still not done speaking in this narrative:

And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” 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.”

Genesis 21:6-7

The Holy Spirit is often at work in even the most subtle words. In this case, the idea of laughter recalls both Abraham and Sarah’s reaction to God’s outrageous promises (Gen 17:19). However, God has transformed the laughter of unbelief into the laughter of joy in order that his faithfulness to his promise might be demonstrated. Just as he is able to turn what is meant for evil into good, he is also able to change the fruit of unbelief into the fruit of faith.

What was 25 years in the making has now manifested before their eyes. Through the doubt, tears, and laughter, God was at work every step of the way, drawing all things together for good. In all of it, God was cultivating faith and patience in both Sarah and Abraham while demonstrating his miraculous power. So it is also with us in our relationships. What often seems hopeless can be used by God in powerful ways to accomplish his purposes. Nothing is beyond his redemptive power. Even when our faith is hanging by a thread, that faith is more than enough for God to work with. It is in our weaknesses that God’s power is made perfect (2 Cor 12:9), not in our own abilities. For though the life of Abraham and Sarah is in twilight, it is through Isaac that the promise will pass, in whose seed the light of the world would shine in Jesus Christ.