A Promise Fulfilled...

This week I would like for us to jump back into a section of the very first letter that is recorded for us in the Bible, called the book of Genesis. And as we jump back into the book of Genesis, we are going to see the Lord continue to engage Abraham and Sarah. And as God continues to engage Abraham and Sarah, we will discover another timeless truth regarding God and God’s promises. So let’s discover this truth together, in Genesis 21:1:

Then the LORD took note of Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had promised. So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac. Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

When Moses states that the Lord took note of Sarah as He had said, this phrase literally means that the Lord took up the cause of Sarah so as to take care of her. And the cause that the Lord took up for Sarah was to fulfill the promise that he had made to the couple a year earlier, which we looked at two weeks ago in Genesis chapter 18.

You see, the Lord had promised a year earlier that He would return in a year and that Sarah would have a son. And the Lord was now making good on that promise by supernaturally taking care of Sarah and enabling Sarah to become pregnant and give birth to that son. As Abraham and Sarah acted with confident trust in God and his promises, God fulfilled those promises by giving them a son, whom they named Isaac, which as we discovered earlier in this series, means laughter.

Twenty five years after God had first promised Abraham that that he would be the father of many nations. Twenty five years after God had first promised Abraham that He would be the forerunner and example that a multitude of nations would follow. Fourteen years after Abraham and Sarah attempted to help God out by coming up with their own plan that involved Sarah’s Egyptian maid named Hagar and resulted in the birth of a son named Ishmael.

Twenty five years in the making, Abraham now had a son that was the result of trusting in God’s promise and not their plans. God’s promises, fulfilled at the time which God had promised a year earlier, had trumped Abraham and Sarah’s plans. Moses tells us that Abraham, who was now 100 years old, responded to the fulfillment of God’s promises by following God’s commands. Abraham circumcised Isaac on the eighth day, as God had commanded him, so that Isaac would be identified as part of God’s covenant people of promise. After recording how Abraham responded to the fulfillment of God’s promises through the birth of Isaac, we see Moses record Sarah’s response in verse 6:

Sarah said, "God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with 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."

Sarah responds to the fulfillment of God’s promise through the provision of a son by making a play on words. "God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me." Sarah basically says “God has made Isaac for me, now everyone who hears of what God has done for me with laugh and rejoice with me over God giving me laughter”.

Sarah then asks a rhetorical question: "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children?” In other words, Sarah is asking “who would have thought that someone would be telling Abraham that I gave birth to a child?”  Now this is a rhetorical question because the answer would seem to have been an obvious no. Remember, Abraham was 99 years old. Sarah was 90 and is on the other side of menopause. And sex was not what it once was for Abraham and Sarah.

Yet they got past their age; they got past Sarah’s menopause; they got past the fact that intimacy between them was not what it used to be and acted with confident trust that God would do what only He could do as they were faithful to do what they were supposed to do. And as a result, Sarah bore to Abraham Isaac in his old age.

However, Abraham and Sarah were not bound for a wrinkle free life the rest of their lives. God’s fulfillment of His promise to Abraham and Sarah by the provision of a son did not remove all obstacles. You see, there was a problem that was lingering in the distance. A problem that was the result of Abraham and Sarah’s earlier attempt to help God out through their impatient plans. A problem that had the potential to complicate Abraham and Sarah’s future and that could potentially threaten God’s promise. A problem that revealed itself only a few years later.

Tomorrow, we will discover this problem…