Have you ever laughed out loud at something only to find out you should not have laughed? Or thought something that was serious was funny? I think if we are honest we have all done this.
The lesson I taught about Sarah did not focus on her laughing but she had a hard time believing that at the age of 90 she was going to have a child. Let's face it I am 64 and if I was told I would have a baby in the next year I would laugh out loud too! The part that was wrong about that situation was that she tried to hide the fact she laughed from God! He was standing right there, He knew exactly what she did and didn't do!.
Sometime we think we can hide from God. We think that because we are alone when we do something or no one knows here on earth that God doesn't know either. Guess what... when we believe this we are believing a lie! As a Christian, God is present in all we do, He is right there at every moment good and bad. Just like He was there when Sarah laughed.
Sarah is lucky that her laughter and unbelief didn't get her voice taken away from her like it did Zachariah. I would hope that if God was standing in my presences and told me something like this that I could believe Him. It is harder today I think to believe the promises God makes to us because we aren't getting them verbally. We have what is written in the Word! And we have the Holy Spirit to help us understand what these words mean and guide us to believing. The angels long to look into these things we have to support our belief and faith (1 Peter 1:12). They marvel at how we trust the Lord, for salvation and I am sure everything else.
So here is the lesson about Sarah. I hope you enjoy it. If you do please let me know.
Sarah (Genesis 12-20; Hebrews 11:11) is the first woman in the Bible to have much written about her. For good reason since she is the mother of the Hebrew nation. She was probably one of the most beautiful women to live in this world. So much so that a Pharaoh and a King wanted her and would have killed for her even at her elderly age. With that said, we need to be reminded that in those days people lived longer and probably didn’t age as we do today.
When the story of Sarah starts her name is Sarai, which means princely, or a princess. She is the daughter of Terah, Abram’s father, but not his mother (Genesis 20:12). She is his half-sister, we think of this as wrong now, back then it was not. She was 65 when Abram received his first message from God to leave the land of his father and to travel to a land that He would show him and give him many descendants. She went with her husband, and she was barren.
Many things transpire in their lives, there is a famine, so they go to Egypt, where Pharoah is played for a fool by Abram and Sarai. Then when they returned to Canaan, he and Lot needed to separate because their possessions were too great, and their servants were at odds with each other. Lot went to the area near Sodom. As a result, Abram had to rescue Lot from the warring nations that captured him.
Soon after this the Lord came to Abram again to renew His promise of making Abram a great nation, with descendants that outnumber the stars. Abram had a hard time believing Him because Sarai was barren, and he was approximately 85 years old. Still, he believed but Sarai took matters into her own hands and told him to take her handmaiden, Hagar.
Sarai should have thought about this plan before she put it in motion, because she caused herself more grief. Hagar’s attitude changed because she was going to be the mother of Abram’s only child. She most likely rubbed it in Sarai’s face. Sarai drove Hagar away, but the God found her and told her to return to Sarai and submit to her and he would make a great nation of her son also. Hagar and Abram had a child named Ishmael; Abram was 86 years old.
The third time God comes to Abram and tells him of His covenant, he is ninety-nine. God tells him again that he will have descendants that outnumber the stars. That he is to circumcise all the current males of his household and all future males on the 8th day after their birth. He and Sarai were given new names Abraham and Sarah. Then again God says he will have a son by Sarah and nations will come from her. Abraham laughs because of his age but also because of Sarah’s, for she is ninety. God said their son would be named Issac. Abraham did as he was told and circumcised all the males.
Not long after the last covenant reminder the Lord and 2 other men came to Abraham, again. Abraham had Sarah prepare a meal for them. The Lord reminded Abraham that Sarah would have a child in the next year when the Lord returned. Sarah was eavesdropping and laughed to herself, but you can’t hide anything from the Lord! The Lord asked why Sarah laughed, “Is anything to hard for the Lord?” Sarah denied she laughed. But the Lord said, “No, but you did laugh.” She should have known she could not hide from God.
Many other events transpired in the next year, and just as the Lord promised Sarah conceived. She gave birth to a son naming him, Isaac (Yitzchak) which means laughter. Not the laughter of a woman who disbelieves but of a woman who knows that God keeps His promises.
Do you find yourself liking or disliking Sarah? Why?
Have you ever been tempted to laugh at God’s plan for you?
Why do you think the Lord came back so often to renew His covenant?
Thanks for Reading! God Bless You!
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