Genesis 18:9-15 “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him. “There, in the tent,” he said. 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?” Then the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.” But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.”
Abraham was 75 when God said, “I will make you into a great nation,” Genesis 12:2. In Genesis 13:16 God says, “I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth.” It’s not clear how much time passes between Genesis 12 and Genesis 15, but it appears that Abraham had begun to doubt that God’s promise would be fulfilled through a child of Abraham and Sarah.
Genesis 15:3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
So, God renews His covenant with Abraham and tells him that “a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” Genesis 15:4. And the Bible tells us in Genesis 15:6 that “Abram believed the LORD”. But it doesn’t seem like either Abraham or Sarah ever believed that Sarah was part of that promise or at least she gave up believing after 10 years had passed since God had initially spoken to Abraham. In Genesis 16, she convinces Abraham to take things into his own hands and have a son with her handmaid, Hagar. Abraham was 86 years old when Ismael was born. It seems to me that both Abraham and Sarah believe that Ismael is the answer to the Lord’s promise to Abraham since 13 years pass between the end of Genesis 16 and the beginning of Genesis 17. Then when Abraham is 99 years old, God renews His covenant again with Abraham and promises a son will be born from Sarah, Genesis 17:16. This is the first time that Sarah is specifically called out as being the one who will bear the son of promise for Abraham. And he laughs to himself about the impossibility of this happening. I wonder if Abraham even told Sarah what the Lord had said? I mean, she was 89 years old already. Why bother her with it? I wonder if that is the answer to the Lord’s question, “Why did Sarah laugh?” Genesis 18:13.
All of this to say, God’s timing and God’s ways are not under our control. We might try to figure it out, to help God out with His answer to our prayers, but we just mess it up when we stick our nose in His workings. Are you waiting on a promise today? Have you tried to force it to happen in your own way or in your timing? It’s time for us to trust that God is in it for the long haul and will bring to pass what He has promised.
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