September 20, 2015: Isaac Born to Sarah

September 20, 2015: Isaac Born to Sarah

Genesis 18:1-15; 21:1-7

18 The Lord appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre while he sat at the entrance of his tent in the day’s heat. ² He looked up and suddenly saw three men standing near him. As soon as he saw them, he ran from his tent entrance to greet them and bowed deeply. ³ He said, “Sirs, if you would be so kind, don’t just pass by your servant. ⁴ Let a little water be brought so you may wash your feet and refresh yourselves under the tree. ⁵ Let me offer you a little bread so you will feel stronger, and after that you may leave your servant and go on your way—since you have visited your servant.”

They responded, “Fine. Do just as you have said.”

⁶ So Abraham hurried to Sarah at his tent and said, “Hurry! Knead three seahs^[a] of the finest flour and make some baked goods!” ⁷ Abraham ran to the cattle, took a healthy young calf, and gave it to a young servant, who prepared it quickly. ⁸ Then Abraham took butter, milk, and the calf that had been prepared, put the food in front of them, and stood under the tree near them as they ate.

⁹ They said to him, “Where’s your wife Sarah?”

And he said, “Right here in the tent.”

¹⁰ Then one of the men said, “I will definitely return to you about this time next year. Then your wife Sarah will have a son!”

Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. ¹¹ Now Abraham and Sarah were both very old. Sarah was no longer menstruating. ¹² So Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, I’m no longer able to have children and my husband’s old.

¹³ The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Me give birth? At my age?’ ¹⁴ Is anything too difficult for the Lord? When I return to you about this time next year, Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁵ Sarah lied and said, “I didn’t laugh,” because she was frightened.

But he said, “No, you laughed.”

21 The Lord was attentive to Sarah just as he had said, and the Lord carried out just what he had promised her. ² She became pregnant and gave birth to a son for Abraham when he was old, at the very time God had told him. ³ Abraham named his son—the one Sarah bore him—Isaac.^{[a] 4} Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old just as God had commanded him. ⁵ Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born. ⁶ Sarah said, “God has given me laughter. Everyone who hears about it will laugh with me.”^{[b] 7} She said, “Who could have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse sons? But now I’ve given birth to a son when he was old!”

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Introduction

I have been a huge fan of history my entire life: upon entering the First Grade I asked my teacher if would be studying the American Revolution in class, in Second Grade my teachers had to look up the word “portcullis” because I wanted to write a story about castles. (you can look it up yourself if you’d like to know what a “portcullis” does).  I studied history in college and graduate school and continue to read as much of the subject as possible. One of the most important and enduring things I’ve learned about studying the past is that there is a great gulf between them and us.  Sure, people in the past had hopes and dreams like we do, they had fears and worries like people today, but one thing makes it extremely hard for us in the present to understand the people who have gone before us: we know their future.

It has often been said that “hindsight” gives us 20/20 vision. A decision might make sense when we make it, but as things play out, that sensible decision can look like the height of folly in hindsight. Napoleon invading Russia in 1812? What an idiot! Would the American Revolution succeed? Of course, and I can give you all sort of reasons why.  Of course electric lighting and telephones and cars and all of that technology would catch on, it was inevitable right?  Of course, we have the advantage of hindsight and we know the future of the people who are making the best decisions they can. This is the gulf that separates us from the people of the past.

This kind of hindsight can get in the way of our understanding of Biblical figures as well.  We might start to ask why Abraham and Sarah had trouble trusting in God’s promise of a child. On other occasions we might get down the people of Israel in the wilderness or Jesus’ disciples for their lack of faith.  Okay, so that people of Israel could be a whiny bunch and Jesus’ disciples did have trouble with their faith, BUT if we put ourselves in their position their actions make much more sense. While I’m not saying Abraham and Sarah get a “pass” for laughing at God’s promise, or that God is wrong for the way God does things, I think we should remember that we know their future as we finish this story. They do not.

The Technical Stuff:

The first eleven chapters of Genesis are universal in their scope and scale. The narrative talks about the human race as a whole over and over again: the great flood that God sent to wipe out human wickedness took away ALMOST ALL OF HUMANITY. God’s interference with the Tower of Babel project changed the languages of ALL PEOPLE. At the end of Genesis 11 we see a long genealogy leading from Noah’s family until it reaches someone named “Abram.” In Genesis 12, the story becomes very particular indeed: God has decided to redeem and bless the world through this man and his wife (named “Sarai”) the Lord promises to “make of you a great nation,” to bless him, to make his name respected, to give him a land of his own, and to make him a blessing to others.

Later, in Genesis 15, the Lord once again promises to be Abram’s protector, that Abram will have his own, biological child as his heir, that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky, and that he will have his own land. God seals this promise with a “covenant” ceremony.  Once again in Genesis 17 God says that Abram will be the father of many nations. Abram also receives a new name: “Abraham” and the Lord promises to be Abraham’s God as well as the God of his descendants.

What Does This Say to Us?

These are many wonderful promises and it might be easy for us to now say, “Well, how could Abraham and Sarah doubt them?” This, of course, becomes a classic example of knowing their future. After all Abraham and Sarah have always had difficulty in having children together and now he is 99 years old. Besides, God’s promises seem rather delayed. Perhaps it was easy for Abraham to wonder if his conversations with God did not occur, or if some malevolent spirit or deity was toying with him. Still, he was able to recognize that these three visitors were special and that God was there under the oaks of Mamre. (It’s rather impossible for Christians to read this and NOT think of the Trinity…Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…but that’s the subject for another devotion…) Whether Abraham is a ‘trinitarian’ or not, he recognizes that this is very important: he hurries to make sure his guests have the best he can offer: great bread made of the finest flour, a healthy young calf, plus butter and milk.  Over this food, he’s about to receive yet another promise.

So much of the Bible is filled with God’s promises for us, and we’ll see the idea of “promise” as a reoccurring theme in our devotions this year. God makes promises to Abraham and many other people in Scripture and God makes promises to us as well today (the biggest and best promises we receive comes from our baptism when we are named “children of God” through Jesus Christ). But these promises are also often delayed and feel unfulfilled.  Abraham and Sarah had to wait and so do we.  When Sarah overhears that “this time next year you will have a son!” she laughs.  She’s never been able to have children, even as a young woman, and now she’s very old.  There have been many promises made before, but it seems more ludicrous than ever!

But God is indeed faithful and Sarah does have a son, who is named Isaac.

In many ways, we are like Abraham and Sarah: we too are waiting for the fulfillment of God’s promises in our own lives. We have been loved and claimed by God, we have been saved by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and we have been made children of God through our baptisms. This is wonderful and life changing. At the same time, we can look around at our world and realize that there are so many more promises waiting to be fulfilled: peace and plenty for all.  When we pray “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,” we’re praying for God’s promised fulfillment. In the meantime, we live as people of the promise, and our expectation that a member of Abraham’s family, Jesus Christ the Son of God, will come again and set things right.