In God's Eyes - Pt 4

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. 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 21:1-7 ESV). As we continue to look at some of the faithful women of the Scripture, today’s focus will be on Sarah, wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac. First, I should note a basic principle of life: hope drives the human soul. All of us, at one time or another, have hoped for a better future. It may be in the form of something or someone, but hope drives us. The reverse is also true: unfulfilled hopes depress the human soul. Sarah certainly gives us a clear example of the loss of hope. Before reading our text today, we could go back a few chapters and see the erosion of that hope. Long before the birth of Isaac, Sarah had lost hope that she would ever be a mother. Sarah’s life hadn’t been easy. In order for the promises spoken to Abraham to be fulfilled, she had to leave her family and everything familiar behind. She had been promised a family and all she had received were the signs of old age. She even laughed at God’s message that she would give birth. Wouldn’t you laugh if someone told you that at age 90, you would give birth to your firstborn and from him would come a great nation (cf. Genesis 18:12-15)? What’s more, her husband Abraham, at 100, was not much better either (cf. Romans 4:19). But God always fulfills his promises, even when the odds against us are laughable. And when Isaac (whose name means “laughter”) was born, Sarah laughed: at herself, at Isaac, at the absurd way God can work. God had performed a miracle; he had raised her dead womb to life. Centuries later, on a dark Friday, Jesus’ disciples lost hope that he was the Messiah (cf. Luke 24:21). But God raised him from the dead on that cool spring Sunday morning, and his followers laughed with “great joy” (cf. Matthew 28:8). That’s what the Christian faith is all about. Our promise is that we have a God who works in hopeless situations in such amazing ways that our only response is to laugh with joy. Whatever your circumstance might be today, learn from Sarah that God keeps his promises, even when they seem laughable.