Genesis: 11:27 through Genesis 25
Have you ever prayed about a challenging situation? Of course! Why else would you read the Bible stories on the WOW website!
Well, I think it’s safe to say that your challenge may pale in comparison to the situations of some men and women of the Bible living in ancient times. Take the well-known story of Abraham and Sarah. Elohim (God) sent messengers to give the childless couple an answer to their prayers!
***********
Up to this point, a lot had happened. Abraham, originally known as Abram, grew up in the flourishing civilization of Ur of the Chaldeans. This bustling city had a vast library and traded extensively with its neighbors. Abraham’s father, Terah, was the ninth in descent from Noah and had two additional sons, Nahor and Haran. Abram married the gorgeous relative known then as Sarai, who was barren. His brother Nahor also married. However, Haran, the father of Lot, died.
Terah decided to pack up the families and leave. Although the destination was Canaan, Terah, Abram, Sarai, and Lot stopped along the route and settled in a place called Haran. When Terah died at age 205, God called Abram to leave his country and relatives and go to a land that he would show him. At 75 years old, Abram left town and took his wife Sarai and nephew Lot to Shechem in Canaan.
Soon, however, a famine forced Abram and Lot to take their families, livestock, and portable possessions to Egypt where they got in trouble with Pharaoh. When they were kicked out of Egypt, they moved South to modern-day Sudan but parted ways in a dispute over land. Lot was kidnapped during a rebellion of the Jordan River cities, Sodom and Gomorrah. Abram valiantly fought and rescued his nephew.
Abram’s willingness to follow God was fueled by a promise made in Genesis 12: “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
God spoke his promise to Abram three times, first at age 75, again at age 86 and then at age 99. The biggest problem was he and Sarai were still childless.
When Abram was 86, Sarai tried to make sense of how they would become a progenitor of nations and decided to help God out by offering Abram her Egyptian slave, Hagar, to be his wife. What followed were 13 years of chaos, headaches, and grief because a son was produced from that union. A conflict between Sarai and Hagar arose and the slave was sent away. In other words, Sarai’s plan ended in disaster.
At 99 years old, Abram’s name was changed by Elohim to “Abraham – a father of many nations.” Sarai became Sarah. To honor the covenant, Abraham circumcised himself and all the men in his household. He was honored that Elohim was about to respond to a prayer for a son made decades earlier.
*************
Now we come to Genesis 18 when Elohim (God) sent three visitors to Abraham, again underscoring the importance of the number three. Three represents completeness. We serve God who is Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, indicating three roles in one perfect God.
“And Elohim appeared to him [Abraham] by the terebinth trees of Mamre, while he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. So, he lifted his eyes and looked, and saw three men standing opposite him. And when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, and he said, If I have now found favor in Your eyes, please do not pass Your servant by.”
Readers, just imagine you are relaxing on the front porch of your home, almost the equivalent to the tent door in Abraham’s time. You are not praying, worshipping, or working, just minding your own business when three people show up across the street. This is the scene in Genesis 18.
Immediately, Elohim (God) brings an answer to what seemed like a life-long prayer for Abraham. The three were no ordinary visitors but angels. To the people around, however, the three looked and acted like regular visitors.
Abraham offers the visitors water and food as well as a place to rest, and they accepted his hospitality. Abraham asks his wife, Sarah, to make cakes for the men and instructs a young servant to prepare a good calf for the meal.
The three men began eating the meal under the tree, while Abraham stands by and watches. They asked Abraham, “Where is your wife?”
Abraham answers, “See, in the tent.”
Then, one of them prophesy, speaking as Elohim’s representative to Abraham. “I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son!” he said.
Sarah was listening at the tent door because of her curiosity about the visitors. She laughed to herself, thinking, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?”
Genesis 18: 11-12 provides this background to her comments. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age, and Sarah was past the way of women.
Finally, in verse 13, Elohim (God) settles the matter. And Elohim said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, “Shall I truly have a child, since I am old. Is any matter too hard for Elohim? At the appointed time I am going to return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah is to have a son.”
A year later, Isaac was born.
As Women of the Word, we encourage all women to trust God and His Son Jesus for everything. Need a new job? Pray. Do you need help with your finances? Pray. Do you need help with your marriage? Pray. Do you need help raising your children? Pray. Do you need healing? Pray.
The matter is settled. Pray and believe God will answer your petitions. PERIOD.
NOTE: Women of the Word do not profess to be pastors, teachers, or ministers. We are ministry volunteers who encourage women to read the Bible and trust God.
Written by COH
2 thoughts on ““She Laughed”: A Brief Exhortation ”
Excellent article. I am praying and trusting God concerning my finances. Nothing is too hard for God. I can’t see what the outcome will be, but I am going to walk by faith and not by sight. Thank you for these articles; they are appreciated.
Praise GOD! Our faithful Father is not a human that HE could/would lie! No matter how challenging, ridiculously disturbing, overwhelming, long-lasting, improbable we might ‘think’ it is; we must refuse to put stock in our limited thinking, reasoning, understanding! Trusting, depending on, believing The true and living GOD…THE only ONE Who proclaims, “God is not a man, so He does not lie. He is not human, so He does not change His mind. Has He ever spoken and failed to act? Has He ever promised and not carried it through?”
We can ask ourselves, when did He loose His power; when did His mercy fail; when did He break His promise/go back on His Word! Ah, um, Ah, Ah-never have; never will!
Did He need our input on how high to design then create the mountains, the exact second His sun would rise and burst forth, how many grains of sands to sprinkle on each beach, how much rain to send, when to tell the stars to come marching out when HE called them each by their individual names, the precise number of hairs on each head? Make clothes, shoes last for 40 years? Did He seek you out about splitting then standing the Red Sea waters on either side as He dried up a sea and made a highway for His people to walk? How about the time a’little’ young shepherd boy went to a sword fight with 5 smooth stones, a sling, and praise in his mouth of His BIG, all powerful, ALMIGHTY? Were we there when they beat Him beyond human recognition, spit in His face, mocked, tortured, humiliated Him on trumped up charged, betrayed, denied, abandoned, crucified Him? Did we help prepare and bury His body, roll the giant boulder, and raise Him from the dead? HE said ‘IT’! HE promised! Let the praise and worship and thanks and adoration, and obedience begin just as surely as if you were holding ‘IT’ in your hands; seeing ‘IT’ with your physical eye! HE promised! That’s it!