Dealing with God you’ll need to learn patience; after all, He has eternity on His side.
At last! Twenty-five years of waiting comes to an end. The first sentence of Genesis 21 repeats it so we don’t miss it. “And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken.” We may think God’s promises are slow to come, but they are sure to come. At 90 years of age, Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age. As we will see in future studies, this son will be used as a picture, or prototype, of God’s own Son, who also came after a very long wait, but in answer to the Lord’s promise. The new mother again laughed, not as she had at first in disbelief, but in joy at the birth of this little boy. Is it any wonder that she said, “God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me” (v 6). God’s joy is contagious! Nor is it a surprise that Abraham capitalizes on this wonderful turn of events and calls his son Isaac. The Hebrew word yitschaq means “laughter”! The little fellow was circumcised on the eighth day, as God had said, and became a full-fledged member of the divine covenant made with his father. How Sarah delighted in motherhood in her advanced years! Verse 7 records her saying with amazement, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.” After perhaps three years, Isaac was weaned, and grateful Abraham made a feast for all to celebrate the goodness of God in faithfully doing as He had promised. I wonder. Is there some promise in God’s Word that you have claimed and longed for, but it has not yet arrived? Abraham and Sarah would speak across the centuries: Yes, you can trust the Lord. Remember His own words to us when doubt crept in: “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Absolutely not!