A God of the Impossible

Sarah laughed within herself. I agree with noted Bible Commentator Matthew Henry who posited that, "It was not a pleasing laughter of faith, like Abraham's (Gen 17:17), but it was a laughter of doubting and mistrust." Really, who could blame her? She was now eighty-nine years old, and had long resigned herself to the fact that she and Abraham could not have children together.

We cannot fully appreciate how devastating her condition was in a culture where women were expected to present their husbands with heirs. Solomon wrote, "Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. ... Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate" (Psalm 127:3,5). Who can forget Rachel's plea, who when she saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister and said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I shall die!" (Genesis 30:1)? Hannah, in her barreness, was harrassed by Peninnah who "provoked her sore, for to make her fret" (1 Sam. 1:6).

So in Sarah we see someone who had lived with the lifelong shame of being childless. At sixty-five, there had been some hope after God had promised Abraham a son by her, but it was now twenty-four years later, and despite their best efforts, there was no pregnancy. Now here was this stranger, sitting in their tent, declaring to Abraham that which was now physically impossible - "... lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son" (Genesis 18:10b). As a matter of fact, it was so impossible that the Biblical writer emphasized that Abraham and Sarah "were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women" (18:11).

Sarah was right; this was an impossible situation. But the man among them was no ordinary stranger, He was the LORD! In response to her laughter, He uttered words that should serve as the bedrock for every believer when confronted with fear and doubt - "Is any thing too hard for the LORD?" (18:14).

What 'impossible' situation are you facing? What is that one thing for which there seem to be no answer? Rest assured that we serve a God who calls things that are not as though they were (Romans 4:17b), and so with Him, absolutely nothing is impossible. In the fullness of time we are told that "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" (Genesis 21:1,2). If He promised it, He will deliver it, in His time. He's just that kind of a God.