Daily Devotional For Sunday, June 9, 2024
It’s Super Sunday. Yeah. It’s the Lord Day and let’s rejoice and be glad in it. It’s time to sing, celebrate, hear from God’s Word, respond to God’s Word and give. And as you prepare to do all of this today at church, we come to our next question asked in the Bible. It is a question the Lord asked Himself about Abraham in Genesis 18. In this chapter, God comes along with some other “men” to meet with Abraham. Realizing this, Abraham and Sarah work together to make a meal for them. Obviously, God does not need food but in biblical times as in ours, having a meal with someone connotes a relationship, a connection, and an invitation to engage.
Through these messengers God tells Abraham that Sarah and he will have a biological son one year from this day. Sarah over hears and laughs and questions how it could be possible at her age. In Genesis 18:12-13 we read this about Sarah, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure? . . . (13) Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’” (ESV).
Sarah is post menopause and past the age to even be able to physically have children. It is obvious from her comments Abraham and her have not been sexually intimate in some time and looking at her own body, she knows what it can and cannot do. Most preachers and commentaries really condemn Sarah for this. I am not so quick to do this and here is why. The Hebrew text can be read two different ways. First, you could read it sarcastically as some say Sarah did in her questioning. Meaning, she looked at Abraham and herself and thought, “What a cruel joke it is to say this looking at the two of us.”
A second way you could possibly read this is not sarcastically, but faithlessly. I know based on the messenger or angel’s response this is a stretch, but is her question any different than a virgin some 1,900 years later in the future? When the angel Gabriel told Mary she was going to bear a son, the Messiah, Mary asked a similar question in Luke 1:34, “And Mary said to the angel, `How will this be, since I am a virgin?’” (ESV). Both Sarah and Mary have valid questions as to the how they were getting pregnant. Mary is not admonished for her question but given an answer. Is it possible one so young 12/13 would not have the amount of faith as one 89 who has been with the Lord many more years?
And though Sarah doubted, the messenger affirms it will happen by giving Abraham the answer in a question in Genesis 18:14, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son” (ESV). It is interesting that the Hebrew word translated as “hard” in verse 14 has also another meaning. It is the Hebrew word [הֲיִפָּלֵ֥א, oppla] and it can also mean “wonderful, joyful.” In other words, “Is there anything too wonderful, joyful for the Lord to do?”
Sarah laughed in doubt here about the possibility of having a biological son and nursing that son. But one year later God’s Word to them came true. No wonder she joyfully named this son, “Isaac,” which means laughter. Nothing occurs outside God’s plan, and everything happens exactly at the time He plans it to happen. In seminary, that is what my systematic theology professor, Dr. William Hendricks called the sovereignty to God. God has a plan, and He has the power and the will to carry it out.
To some people this concept of God preordaining scares them and they reject it. They fear it removes our free choice and thus we are nothing more than automatic robots, doing what God wants by some overriding program in us. That is not true. Today is Sunday. You’re going to church. During the worship time, talk to God about His preordained will and purpose for your life.
Questions To Consider
- What is a dream you have like Abraham and Sarah you wish the Lord would fulfill? For Abraham and Sarah, it was a child. What is it for you?
- What have you been waiting on God to do for you? Answer a prayer? Is it relational? Financial? Vocational? Physical? Emotional? If God would grant you one dream, what would you ask Him to do and why?
- Sarah laughed at God’s Word and promise. When are you like Sarah? You hear, “Nothing is impossible for God,” but do you every question that? Why or why not?
- What prayer request have you been waiting on God to answer for years like Abraham and Sarah? Do you still ask God? Why or why not?
- Looking back over your life, what impossible things has God done for you and what are you currently doing to show your appreciation and love to God for it?
Scripture To Meditate On: Mark 10:27, “Jesus looked at them and said, `With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God’” (ESV).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, I publicly say I believe anything is possible for You to do, but internally, I am like Sarah at times. I doubt You at times. Please help my unbelief. Help me to walk by faith and not by sight. Help me believe I will “see the salvation of the Lord” as Moses said to the trapped Hebrews. There was an approaching Egyptian army ready to slaughter them and the Red Sea in front of them to drown them. You parted that watering I pray you will help me part with my doubts. I ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside!—Pastor Kelly