‘And the LORD said unto Abraham, wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old?’ — Genesis 18:13
If you have waited on the Lord for a promise and nothing seemed to be happening in that direction then you may be familiar with the story of Sarah.
Her story is one of hope gone sour as she watched herself age and beyond the natural capability to conceive a child. She believed God’s promise like most of us but as her reality and circumstances deteriorated she laughed in unbelief at the reinforcement of the same promise from the Lord.
In her case she laughed at the prospect of having a child in her old age even as the promise lingered. Sarah’s laughter at the reinforcement of the promise is one of distrust and disbelief, because she thought, having tried several times to have a baby the promise would not be any different especially now that she is 90 years old.
Her waiting was so frustrating that like many of us she ended up barking up the wrong tree, that is, making the wrong choice of instigating her husband to have a child with her maid, Haggar. She thought, ‘well, maybe God’s word had been Ishmael all along’ therefore taking the matter into her hand. Trying to help God figure out the promise, she helped birth Ishmael instead of the promised child, Isaac.
This of course would later result in another painful decision in Abraham’s family, and like many who have gone through frustrating route, she struggled with the birthing of her own plan and God’s original plan.
The painful conclusion was to get rid of Haggar and Ishmael (her own plans). A plan that would reverberate with a spirit of discord through history.
In fact, the recent peace agreements between Israel with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are known as the Abraham Accords (August 13, 2020), underscoring the age long belief that the Middle East conflict began with Abraham’s children, Isaac and Ishmael.
We must know that it is impossible to live life and not encounter discouragements. However, from the experience of Sarah we clearly see that the discouragement of man because of a delayed promise cannot stop the fulfilment of a divine promise-if we hold on to God without yielding to satanic temptations or self-help.
The bible says without faith no one can please the Lord, and we can rightly also say that without patience no one can excel in the school of faith.
The birthing of divine promises take time, and it is a constant pattern in the scripture. Isaiah prophesies that a virgin woman will give birth to God’s son (Isaiah 7:14) while prophet Micah equally prophesied that Jesus will be born in Bethlehem (Micha 5:2).
Now as accurate as these prophecies were, the interesting thing is that this event did not come to pass until about 700 years later. This underscores the admonition of Peter on divine timing, ‘that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day’. (2 Peter 3:8).
Now, if God’s timing is so much different from ours because He lives in a different time zone so to say, then His plans for us would also be so much bigger than what our mind can process.
It would therefore be dangerous not to take His word by faith and not to wait on Him prayerfully.
Processing the promises of God can only be possible by faith and not by logic or else like Sarah we may end up barking up the wrong tree. It is always costly to redo the harm such an exercise would later cost us.
When Sarah laughed the first time, God questioned Abraham, saying “Why did Sarah laugh…. Is there anything too hard for the Lord?” But despite Sarah’s laughter of unbelief God did not bear a grudge against her to withhold what was promised.
God’s mercy indeed triumphed when Sarah gives birth to Isaac (whose name means laughter), she laughed again for joy. Beloved, God will always fulfill His promise no matter the delay. Only belief, and you too will laugh again with joy.
Job was another man whose story was that of sadness and an eventual triumph. He however captured the best snapshot of waiting on God saying, ‘all the days in which I am now in warfare, I expect until my change come’ (Job 14:14) and his change did come because we read that ‘the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning’. (Job 42:12)
Are you waiting on God now but grinning with unbelief, God’s word to you today is that you too will laugh again, this time your laughter will ring out with a shout of joy in Jesus name, amen.
Reading
Genesis Chapter 18: 1-15.
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