DAILY READING
REFLECTION
Is Anything Too Hard for the LORD?
By Beth Voltmann
Sarah, the matriarch of God’s chosen people, laughed when she heard God’s promise that she would bear a child at 90 years of age.
So Sarah laughed to herself...
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?”
(Genesis 18:12, 13-14)
I think I might have laughed too if God made me such a promise! (I wonder if Elizabeth laughed at the news that she would give birth to John the Baptist in her later years?)
Sarah was not the only one who laughed. In the prior chapter of Genesis, we find God reminding Abraham that his intent was to bless the couple with a child of their own. (Ishmael, Abraham’s son by a maidservant, was not to be the intended heir of the promise.) Upon hearing this good news...
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?”
Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac.” (Genesis 17:17,19)
The child they would conceive together would begin the promise of God’s everlasting covenant for those who believe.
It’s hard to imagine how we would personally respond to such hopeful news against insurmountable odds, but we are told that both Abraham and Sarah believed God.
Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.
(Romans 4:3)
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.
(Hebrews 11:11)
Perhaps Abraham’s laugh was one of delight. Was Sarah’s one of incredulity?
We don’t know what emotions stirred her reaction, but nine months later, she gave birth to their child – the son of the promise - Isaac, meaning “He will laugh”- and she declared...
“God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.”
(Genesis 21:6)
Sarah now held a gift of laughter in her own arms.
God had the last laugh. Sarah was blessed indeed.
Is anything too hard for the LORD?
PRAYER
Lord, thank you for the hope you give when the wait seems long and the circumstances seem impossible. You are so faithful to your promises. During this Advent season, may we be filled with the same joy that Sarah and Abraham shared as we celebrate the miraculous gift of Christ Jesus to a tired and weary world. For unto us a child is born – what joy! Amen
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
BETH VOLTMANN
After moving to Ohio in 1997 with my husband and four children, I developed a hunger for God’s Word through adult teaching and women’s Bible study at UALC. My passion is to help others understand Scripture so that they may grow in their desire for more of God and experience the new life offered to us through Christ Jesus.
The wonder of our God...for whom nothing is too hard! O' me of little faith. And how I laugh when I see what he has done with something that seemed too hard for me!