We are quickly approaching Christmas, and for us here in New Zealand the big heaving sigh of relief as many of us arrive at a (long overdue) break. In the middle of the festivities and the last stumbling steps towards the yearly finish line, we can let our eyes slip from the reason behind Christmas. It is not candy canes and scorched almonds (my kryptonite), presents, and barbecues, but Christ who is the focus of the season.
Just as we can struggle and stumble as we look forward to the Christmas holiday and forget to look back at God’s promises fulfilled, so too God’s People have struggled with the promise of a coming son of Abraham. God’s promise of redemption worked through Abraham, who with Sarah was to give birth to a surprise son. That surprise son, the offspring of promise, looked forward to another promised surprise son, one born of a virgin.
After God instituted the covenant sign and seal of circumcision, He promised that Abraham and Sarah would have a child of their own (vv.15-16). While Abraham and Sarah had previously tried their own human schemes to ensure a son for Abraham, resulting in Ishmael, God had his own plan in mind.
Abraham’s initial response to this announcement by God was the laughter of unbelief (v.17). After all, Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90. Why would not Ishmael fit God’s bill? (v.18)
God had his own plans and wisdom that were greater than Abraham’s. The inheritor of God’s covenant promises to Abraham would come through Abraham and Sarah, not Ishmael or another (v.19). Ishmael would receive his own blessing (v.20), but Isaac would inherit the promises (v.21). In a year, they would see.
After this, Abraham, Ishmael, and all the men (eg, servants) of his household were circumcised (vv.22-27). They bore on their bodies the sign of the promised descendant who would be cut off and have his blood shed for the sins of all Abraham’s believing children.
Following this, God appeared to Abraham once again at the oaks of Mamre, together with two angelic companions (18:1). Abraham was quick to offer these men hospitality (vv.2-5). Abraham and Sarah raced to throw together a meal, as Sarah prepared bread and Abraham slaughtered an animal to prepare meat (vv.6-8).
After accepting their throw together meal, God asked Abraham where his wife Sarah was (v.9), not because God did not know but to direct Abraham’s attention to the direction of their discussion, and to draw Sarah’s attention from inside the tent.
With both giving their attention, God announced that he would return in a year, and Sarah would have a son (v.10). The promise now had a firm date attached to it.
Sarah at 90 was past the age of childbearing, and so this announcement from a human perspective is fantastic and surprising, to say the least! (v.11) Not surprisingly, Sarah laughed at hearing the seemingly impossible (v.12), just as her husband previously had (17:17). As with Abraham, the laughter carried unbelief from her heart, out through her lips.
So God rhetorically asked Abraham why his wife laughed and doubted his words (v.13). “Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son” (v.14).
Sarah lied, denying she had laughed. But God rebuked her, stating that she had laughed (v.15). Yet this was not a rebuke that led to judgement, but one that cleared the air. A promise had been made, and God would fulfil it. A surprise son, long after childlessness had become Abraham and Sarah’s norm, would come.
Many years later, Abraham’s far off descendants would receive another promise from God. That at the appointed time, another surprise son would be born. Not in old age, but “the virgin shall conceive and bear a son” whose name would not be Isaac but Immanuel (Is. 7:14).
That son, Jesus, was the true promised offspring of Abraham (Galatians 3:16). God’s promise to Abraham that he would have descendants like stars in the sky, and through him all nations would be blessed, found its ultimate fulfilment in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Isaac was a necessary step along the road, but not the one in whom all God’s promises would ultimately be fulfilled.
This was a message which the first hearers of God’s promises struggled to believe. After all, a child in old age? A virgin conceiving? These are not the norm! But nothing is impossible for God. And God chooses to use the unusual, the surprising, and the miraculous to advance his salvation plan.
God’s promises brought laughter to Abraham and Sarah, though they ultimately believed God’s words. God’s promises through Isaiah met a similar reaction, yet some still waited on their fulfilment. As we reflect at Christmastime, our laughter is not one of unbelief but joy that we are blessed by God’s promises fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
