Genesis 17:1-27
17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. 2 Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”
3 Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, 4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”
9 Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. 10 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring.13 Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
15 God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. 16 I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”
17 Abraham fell facedown; 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?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”
19 Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.” 22 When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.
23 On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him. 24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised, 25 and his son Ishmael was thirteen; 26 Abraham and his son Ishmael were both circumcised on that very day. 27 And every male in Abraham’s household, including those born in his household or bought from a foreigner, was circumcised with him.
Hebrews 11:1-4
What Faith Is
1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.
3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
Genesis 18:10-15
Sarah Laughs
10 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. 11 Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”
13 Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”
15 Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.”
But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.”
Hebrews 11:8-11
Sarah and Abraham's Faith
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise.
Genesis 21:1-7
1 Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. 2 Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. 3 Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. 4 When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
6 Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” 7 And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
There are two stories of laughter that include Sarah and the first Patriarch Abraham in Genesis...It is about the LORD announcing that they will have a child late in their lives...Abraham laughs as a sign of faith, when he is told by the LORD that he is going to have a second child...After all, he will be a hundred years old and that is not common for a man and his elderly wife to have a child at that age...But later his wife Sarah hears about them having a child, she laughs and there is some doubt and disbelief in her laugh -even though the words are coming from the LORD...And Sarah was afraid...The LORD doesn't punish her for her denying and her disbelief in what we read...We are told only that He reminds her that yes, she did, in fact, laugh...
The Hebrews author tells us what faith is... Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see...This is what the ancients were commended for...By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible...Then the author goes on to tell us some of the people of great faith in the Bible...Included in the list is Sarah and Abraham, the mother and father of the next Patriarch Isaac...
What is interesting about including Sarah on the list of those of great faith, she had laughed at (or maybe with) the LORD, when He tells her she will have a child in her very old age...Her laugh seems (to me) to be a natural reaction to the comment that a woman who was in her late seventies would have since she is late in life and quite old to have a child...This seems funny in a way, and to react by laughing seems quite normal...The LORD knows Sarah and He knows how she is going to react...But she does deny that she laughed to the LORD...And the LORD even tells her that she did...But she was a woman of great faith, and is included on the list of the Hebrews author of those of great faith...It just seems like a shock to her that a woman in her seventies would later have a baby...And she has her son later...Isaac would be born to her around the age of ninety...There might have been a moment of doubt in her mind, the instance the LORD said she and Abraham would have a child...I am sure she wondered how this would and could happen...But the Creator formed and created man and woman...He literally put together all of our DNA...She would and could have a baby because He is the Creator of life and our bodies...He is a God of miracles...And there is not anything too hard for our LORD...She wanted to believe what God had said, but at her age and in the time of her life, she (with her knowledge) did not know how this would happen...Sarah forgot that nothing is impossible for God...Doubt and disbelief and failing to trust Him came upon her quickly...But in the back of her mind, she knew what the LORD had said...She would wait fourteen years for their first son...
We too find somethings very hard to believe...But just because we find some things hard to believe, does not mean we cannot have faith, and to keep our faith...We can have doubts and still have faith...Both Sarah and Abraham are two great stories of faith...And let us remember doubts do not preclude our faith...Doubts can interfere sometimes with our faith, and get in the way of our faith...But we can tell by this story of the great faith of Sarah, that even though our faith can stumble at times, it still can grow and get stronger...Doubts do not have to take away our faith...
Sarah and Abraham would have a child named Isaac...Isaac means he laughs or he will laugh...Sarah said after she had her son, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.”...And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children?...Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”...Isaac's birth would have been a happy day...A day of laughter and joy...I think God might have laughed with them on that day...