Laughing at God's Promises

Genesis 17:15-27 (ESV)

And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.” When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham. Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all those born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him. Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised. And all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.

There are a couple of things to notice and to mention here in this passage from Genesis.

This is the second time we read about God changing someone's name. Here God renames Sarai, which means "my princess," to Sarah, which is "princess." He moves her from being "my princess," which is a private thing between Abraham and Sarai, and he renames her to a public name, Sarah, which just means "princess." And it shows that her motherhood is going to bless more than just the private household of Abraham's tent. This long barren matriarch is now going to be the royal mother of nations.

And what this does in the story is that it puts Isaac's birth as a miracle, a mark of God's sheer grace to this family. Interestingly, this is the first real miracle we see in scripture. And so it shows us that God is not above using supernatural means to protect his covenant promise that he has made to Abraham.

Another thing we should see here is that Abraham laughs, but it's easy for us to get this mixed up. This laughter of Abraham is not a kind of mockery of God. Some people read it this way. When Abraham laughs, he laughs as if it's impossible for God to do this thing that he has said. But I don't think that's right or true. I think really this is a laughter that's the kind of laughter we sometimes experience after a really difficult thing comes to an end. It's a kind of wonder at the ridiculousness of the situation.

I mean, here we have a 100-year-old dad and a 90-year-old mom. Who would have heard of such a thing? We need to recognize that if that sort of thing happened today, it would be written up and reported across every medical journal and every news outlet in the world.

But interestingly, God redeems this laughter of Abraham's and he names the boy Isaac, which literally means "he laughs." And so what God is doing here is he's turning this kind of disbelief into a lifelong reminder that the covenant that he had made with Abraham, that the promise he'd made to bless the whole world through him is guaranteed by him, even in God's own sort of divine sense of humor.

Now notice that Ishmael also receives genuine favor from the Lord. Abraham cries out to God and says, "What about Ishmael?" And God does bless Ishmael, actually. He promises him fruitful descendants. Twelve princes will come from him. A great nation will come from him. But the everlasting covenant, the rescue plan that God had made, was going to happen through Abraham and Sarah's line, not through the line of Hagar. It is fixed on Isaac alone.

And so here, Moses, who writes this, distinguishes the common grace, the favor that all people in some sense have before God. God delights in blessing people, even delights in Ishmael, this child who rejects God. And he gives redemptive grace, special grace, the covenant grace to the line through which the Messiah will come.

Now, why does this matter? Well, it matters because I think often we bargain with God like Abraham. You know, Abraham says here, "Let Ishmael live before you." In other words, he says, "Just bless the plan that I already have. I've already sorted out the blessing through Hagar. And now I want you to bless the plan, O Lord, that I've got." And often our prayers and our desires and our plans in life go exactly like this. We invite God to bless the plan we've already made. But the reality is and what this passage challenges us with is the fact that God often has a laughably bigger thing than the thing we think he wants for us.

The second thing I think this means for us is that we need to recognize that covenant faith includes the household. So when Abram responds to God here, he responds that very day by obeying the command God had given him to circumcise everyone in his household. That very day, we read in verse 23 and 27, Abraham circumcises everyone—himself, his servants, and everyone in his household. And so his faith in God and his response to God's grace results in this quick and prompt action on Abraham's behalf.

Notice how this encompasses the entire household, everyone who is under the kind of spiritual authority of Abraham. Ishmael, the slaves, the foreigners—they all get the sign that they are included in the covenant plan. Now, in Reformed theology, we see here the foundation for including children and dependents, those that are under our care, in what we view as the visible church. God works through people groups, through groups, through churches, through families, far more often than he works through individuals. And that's something for us to remember today in this culture of ours, which is so highly individualized.

And so how does this passage ultimately point us to Christ? Well here Isaac, this laughably bigger promise child that God has given Abraham and Sarah, foreshadows Jesus. Both Isaac and Jesus' birth was announced in advance. It was humanly impossible and it was met with a kind of astonished joy in both cases. And in both cases, it went from this astonished joy or laughter if you like, into ultimately being fulfilled by God.

Even Isaac's name reminds us that what seems absurd to us with God is possible. And through this impossible thing, God has redeemed us and saved us through sending Jesus his son to die on the cross. Something that seems humanly foolish and spiritually backwards ultimately becomes the vehicle by which we are all saved when we have faith in Christ Jesus.

Let me pray.

Dear Covenant Lord, we pray that you will forgive us when we want you to align to our plans. That we want you to bless the plans we've already made. Help us to trust you with great faith. Help us to see the great staggering and sometimes absurd promises you make in scripture and how they apply to us. And help us to respond in this sense like Abraham did, with quick obedience to the work that you've given us to do. We pray this in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.