Abraham Laughed

Laughing at the Impossible

 17  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?”  - Genesis 17:17 ESV

 11  Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah.   12   So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?”   13  The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’  - Genesis 18:11-13 ESV

To understand what is happening in the above verses, we need to go back several chapters in the book of Genesis. It begins after the death of Abram’s father, Terah. God appeared to Abram, called him to leave Haran, and made a great promise to Him. 

 1  Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.   2   And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.   3   I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 4  So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. - Genesis 12:1-4 ESV

When Abram was seventy-five years old, God promised that his descendants would become a great nation and they would bless all the “families of the earth.” Showing him the land of Canaan, God told him that He would give it to his offspring (see Genesis 12:5-7). God did not go into detail about how He would accomplish these purposes. All Abram knew was that God had set a land aside for his future family and that they would be a blessing to the world.

Notice how God repeats His promise when Abram and Lot are separated. In Genesis 13:14-17, we read:

 14  The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward,   15  for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.   16   I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.   17  Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.”  - Genesis 13:14-17 ESV

It may have been possible for Abram to think that God’s promise would be accomplished through his nephew, seeing that Sarah was unable to conceive. God removed Lot from his household, however, making it clear that His plan to make Abram’s offspring “as the dust of the earth” would not be through him.

The word of the Lord comes again to Abram in Genesis 15. Here God told him that He would be his shield, and his reward would be very great. This was the third time we know that God appeared to Abram prophesying a great blessing. This time, however, Abram questioned God. Years were passing and he had not seen any sign of that promise being fulfilled. He reminded God that he was childless and that the only heir to his wealth was his servant Eliezar (see Genesis 15:3). Listen to what the Lord God told Abram that day:

 4  And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.”  - Genesis 15:4 ESV

God told Abram that he would have a son and that this son would be the heir and fulfillment of His promise. God went further than this, however, and, taking Abram outside, had him look up into the night sky and said:

 5  … “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”  - Genesis 15:4-5 ESV

Through his own son, Abram’s descendants would be as numerous as the stars of the sky. That evening, Abram believed God:

 6  And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. - Genesis 15:6 ESV

By the time we get to Genesis 17, however, twenty-four years have passed. Abram has not seen a hint of God’s promise being fulfilled. He was ninety-nine years old now, and the Lord appeared to him once again. That day God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, which means “father of a multitude,” and renewed His promise to make him “exceedingly fruitful.” He told him that kings and nations would come from his descendants (see Genesis 17:4-6).

God also changed Sarai’s name to Sarah and told Abraham that He would give him a son through her:

 15  And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.   16  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.”  - Genesis 17:15-16 ESV

Note Abram’s response when God told him that it was through Sarai that He would fulfill His promise:

17  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?” - Genesis 17:17 ESV

When Abraham heard that he would have a son through his ninety-year-old wife, he laughed. The reason for this laugh is recorded for us in the words, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”

Some time later, Abram was relaxing at the door of his tent by the oaks of Mamre when three men appeared before him. Greeting them, he invited them to his tent as guests. He told Sarah to make some cakes, slaughtered a calf, and ordered his servant to prepare it. As they ate, the men told Abraham that by this time next year, Sarah would have a son. Sarah was at the door of the tent and heard this prophetic word. Note her response:

11  Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah.   12   So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?”  - Genesis 18:11-12 ESV

Sarah’s response to this word from the Lord is the same as Abraham’s. She too laughed at what she heard.

Let’s consider this response to the word of the Lord. What caused this laughter and what does it tell us about Abraham and Sarah?

The Hebrew word used for laugh is  צָחַק (ṣāḥaq) and speaks of mocking or scorn. It is the response of someone who cannot believe what is said because it makes no sense. This leads us to the first reason Abraham and Sarah laughed –what God said defied human logic.The

We see this in the response of both Abraham and Sarah when they heard the news of the promised child. Abraham said:

“Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” - Genesis 17:17 ESV

Sarah responded:

“After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?”  - Genesis 18:12 ESV

Abraham and Sarah knew they were old. Sarah was well past the age where she could conceive and safely give birth to a child. From a biological perspective, what the men told them that day was impossible. They laughed at the impossibility of the promise given.

Second, Abraham and Sarah’s laughter was connected to their expectations. Deep down, Abraham knew that God was the God of the impossible, but listen to his response when God told him he would have a child in Genesis 17:

18  And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!”   19  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.  - Genesis 17:18-19 ESV

Abraham’s response was to look to his son Ishmael, whom he had through Sarah’s Egyptian servant Hagar. Sarah had been barren and unable to have children. Abram had given up all hope of ever having a child through her. Abram believed God could make him a great nation, but he had his idea of how that was going to take place, and, in his mind, it wasn’t going to be through Sarah.

From Sarah’s perspective, after God told Abram that He would make him a great nation, she had her expectations as well. We read in Genesis 16:

 1   Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar.   2  And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.  - Genesis 16:1-2 ESV

Sarah didn’t expect God to give her a child, so she gave Abraham her Egyptian servant Hagar, expecting that God’s promise would be fulfilled through her. Both Abraham and Sarah expected that the promise would be fulfilled through Ishmael. They laughed because what God told them about it being fulfilled through Sarah and a son born to her took them by surprise, and was not what they expected. 

Finally, understand that God waited until it was humanly impossible for Abraham and Sarah to have a child for a reason. He was not interested in human effort and natural ability. The birth of the nation of Israel was a miracle. God wanted to show the world that this was no ordinary nation, but one He had chosen for the blessing of the whole earth. The means God chose to create this nation defied logic. It was biologically and scientifically impossible. When Abraham and Sarah held baby Isaac in their arms, there was no doubt about the miracle that had taken place and who was responsible. They laughed at God’s purpose because the means by which He accomplished it was very strange to them. 

Let’s consider one more passage before we conclude with the application. As God promised, the child of promise was born to Abraham and Sarah. Consider what Genesis 21:5-7 tells us about the birth and the reaction of Sarah in particular:

5   Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.   6  And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.”   7  And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”  - Genesis 21:5-7 ESV

The author affirms that Abraham was one hundred years old when Isaac was born. Note, however, how Sarah speaks of how God had made her and everyone who heard what had happened to laugh. The laughter here, however, is not a laughter of unbelief and mockery, but one of absolute joy, amazement, and surprise at the wonder that had taken place. It defied logic, was not what they expected, and the means God chose to bring this about was nothing short of a miracle.

I suppose it is human to laugh at the impossible. I am thankful, however, that God is not hindered by my lack of faith in what He can do. He often takes me by surprise. He does what I could never have imagined. He accomplishes the impossible despite my failures and misunderstandings. Like many of us, Abraham’s logic and expectations stood in the way of God’s means. Not too many of us have not found ourselves in that situation as well. What I am grateful for, however, is that while we are often tempted to laugh at the impossible, God takes us by surprise, pushes through our frail humanness, and gives us something truly wonderful to laugh at.