Genesis 21:1-7

Friends,
welcome back as we close out a week together.
Thanks for being with us today.
As we start a new chapter,
but really in some ways as we end part of an older story,
as we move into the 21st chapter today,
this is really the culmination of some of the Abraham story.
Now,
clearly there’s still some left,
but this is that moment we’ve been waiting for,
for multiple chapters now.
Five, six,
seven chapters ago, it was promised to Abram and Sarai
that they would have offspring,
they would have a son,
that they were going to start a family.
And typical of the Bible,
the happening of it is described pretty basically.
There’s not a lot of details.
There’s not a big lead up.
We just kind of jump in.
So let me read this for you,
then we’ll talk about it.
Verse 20, verse 1 of chapter 21.
“The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said,
and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised.
Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age,
at the time of which God had spoken to him.
Abraham gave him the name Isaac,
whom Sarah bore.
And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old,
as God had commanded him.
Abraham was a hundred years old when his son was born to him.
And Sarah said,
‘God has brought laughter for me.
Everyone who hears will laugh with me.’ And she said,
‘Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children,
yet I have born a son
in his old age.'” So lots of interesting stuff about this text.
This really is
a crowning moment, a pivotal part of the story.
The most significant detail I think that can’t
be missed in terms of translation is that the name Isaac means laughter.
And we’ve seen this
woven throughout the story.
Abraham fell on his face laughing.
Sarah laughed.
That was the laughter
of doubt.
That was the laughter of the absurdity of what God had said.
This is the laughter of joy.
And Sarah’s words here,
as she calls her son Isaac,
and each and every time Abraham and Sarah
call their son by name,
they are linking that to this story when they laughed in doubt and
ultimately laughed in joy as God fulfilled the promise as he said he would.
God has brought laughter to me,
and everyone who hears will laugh with me.
Names always matter in the Scripture.
I shouldn’t say always.
Names often matter in the Scripture.
They’re often important.
They often mean something.
But I can’t think of a better example,
Michael, than this one. Yes.
So on one hand, Clint,
you know, this story is rather self-contained, right?
That God does a miraculous thing.
This couple receives a child when they by no means physically should
have been able to do that.
And that’s this story.
That when you really pull back and you’re willing
to look at this story in the context of everything that’s come before, it’s clear
that by now we’ve spent plenty of time fleshing out Abraham and Sarah,
Abram and Sarai, their doubts,
their fears, the struggle of the journey that they’ve been on,
certainly that core struggle
to trust God through it all.
And now here at the climax of this story where God physically makes
that promise come to pass,
they receive not only a gift,
but they receive really a kind of continual
reminder in that name,
Isaac.
They receive this continual reminder that God does amazing,
miraculous things.
Even in the face of those who laugh,
ingest,
there’s a kind of laughter that
comes on the other side of God’s work.
You know, I think there’s a beautiful playfulness
in the way that this story is told.
There’s some important details here,
Clint.
We shouldn’t miss those.
For instance,
Abraham circumcises his son by the time he’s eight days old.
This is in keeping with that covenant that God called Abraham to.
And so Abraham is being faithful.
He’s doing his part in the story.
And the story goes out of its way to make that known.
Of course, the details how old Abraham is,
that connects back to the promise that God said,
you know, that you will have
a child even in your old age.
So all of this together, Clint.
On one hand, it’s a simple story.
It’s a completion of the thing that God said was going to happen.
On the other hand,
I think it has
so many of these themes built together.
It does so in an economy of words.
And I think it strikes
me for that, for being really interesting.
It’s really beautifully written in a couple of different ways.
One,
this is told with simplicity,
which given the challenge and given the
unlikelihood of this result,
given the doubt that has gone into it,
we would expect a long narrative
about the fulfillment of this promise and how amazing it is.
But the scripture has known from
the get-go that God does what God says he’s going to do.
And so there’s no need to expand this.
It tells this.
This story has been promised to us for four or five chapters.
And it tells the whole
thing in six verses,
seven verses.
The Lord did what he said,
“Sarah and Abram have a child,
they name him Isaac, and they rejoice.” And there’s a certain power to telling this story simply
and quickly that I think is really commendable.
And then secondly, there’s this line at the end
where Sarah says, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children?” And this
is masterful writing because we,
the reader, all know the answer.
Who would have possibly said this could happen?
Well, God did.
We all know that.
We’ve been listening.
We’ve heard that for
chapter after chapter now.
Who would have said this is possible?
Yeah, we all know the answer to that.
And there is this moment here,
if you’ve ever spent considerable time worrying over something
that turned out you needn’t have been worried,
there is a freedom in that to laugh at it.
There not only responds to the situation,
but responds to the silliness of the worry and the
difficulty you’ve invested in something that didn’t come to pass.
And so the laughter here
is not just relief.
It is also, I think at some level,
a recognition of we had no reason to ever doubt.
We had no reason to be concerned.
And there is a…
I think there is something that
we’ve most likely all experienced in that.
There is a…
I want to be careful because I don’t think
the text is judging Abraham and Sarah,
but there is a foolishness
in doubting God.
There is a foolishness in worrying whether God will be faithful to His promise.
That’s all wasted energy.
And I think part of this is the release of that
from the way this story is told.
So I want to quick point out to your point about the laughter here,
Clint.
This is verse 6 that
we’re looking at top of your screen here.
Sarah said, “God has brought laughter for me,”
which that makes sense.
“Everyone who hears will laugh with me.” And that’s a really interesting way
to say this, right?
Because there’s a sense in which
the reader is actually tempted to laugh at
because there’s been so much foolishness wrought in this story up to this point,
trying to take over God’s plan,
trying to keep God’s promise for God.
And here God doesn’t need help.
We knew that.
And so as the reader,
the idea that Sarah says,
“This is such a good thing that it will
bring laughter to the lives of those
who are with me.
Those around me will see the goodness of it.”
We’ve all had that thing to happen where you worried about a thing or you fretted about it.
And then at some point God is faithful and either the season passes or there’s a turning point,
and then you feel that freedom,
that weight that comes off of your shoulders.
It does bring a kind
of levity, a kind of joy.
We can empathetically understand what Sarah is saying here.
And I think that that is a wholesome way to frame this.
Not, like you said, Clint, not judgmentally to say,
“Hey, look, blockheads.
Look, God finally did it.
It took you chapters and chapters of messing things
up and God did it.” No, it’s really,
“Look at what God has done.
We’re going to celebrate and rejoice in it.” And
it’s seven beautiful verses and that’s where we’re going to live today.
That’s what we’re going to highlight today.
I think it’s worth noting that if you hang with us early next week,
it’s a very short window of just pure joy.
The story that follows this on the other side
is going to bring challenge and trouble again.
And so it’s just,
it’s a short moment of respite
where God is faithful.
The levity comes from the fears and anxieties leaving and trust filling
their hearts, seeing that God has done this thing.
And some seasons of life are like that.
And when we’re in that season,
that’s a beautiful gift.
There are not
a great number of funny parts
in the Bible as we understand humor.
The Bible is not a funny book in the sense of
jokes and stories that are humorous,
but there are moments that are lighthearted.
And I would argue
that this is one of them.
Imagine that God tells these people,
“You’re going to have a son,” and they both laugh.
And God says,
“You’re going to call your son laughter.
You’re going to name him laughter.”
So you remember how unlikely and you remember how incredible this is.
You’re going to have a child literally named laughter to celebrate this unlikely gift that I’m giving you.
And I think a good place for us to end today,
a short section.
We’ll get on into this chapter next week,
but I think this is a good ending word for the week,
that joy in Scripture is always greater than worry,
that the work of God is always bigger than the anxiety of the world.
And this is,
in Genesis—is it rare, Michael?
This is perhaps the best example of it in Genesis that I can think
of.
I think you raised an interesting point there implicitly to talk about remembering
Clint, because that is such a chief theme that goes throughout the entire Old Testament.
It’s not explicit here, so I’m kind of reaching.
But I do think that that is a component of this story,
that the name Isaac is a constant reminder of God’s faithfulness later,
especially when you get
beyond into middle-late Exodus and beyond after the giving of the law.
There’s a lot of language
about “remember the God who carried you out of Egypt,” “remember the law that I’ve given you all
of this kind of language.” Here,
Isaac physically represents the keeping of God’s covenant.
It’s the next link in the chain.
And so there’s an inherent kind of reminder built into that,
and I really think that we find in a story like this a hook for our own lives.
This isn’t devotional, but where can we see and name and put in our lives the things that help us remember God’s faithfulness,
especially if you’re not in this season?
If you’re not in the season of laughter,
you may be in the
season of grief or in the season of pain.
Whatever season you’re in,
I do think that a story like
this has some implicit call to remember the God who’s been faithful, because we certainly—that’s
at least in play in this naming.
I don’t know if I would have thought to put it that way,
Michael, but I think you’re on to something,
and I think you see that in the fact that nearly all the
characters in Scripture whose names matter are named for something they did or named for their
own story.
Isaac is the one example that I can think of off the top of my head—there may be
others—whose name really bears another person’s story.
His name symbolizes Sarah and Abram’s story,
not something that he did or not something that he was given a name on his own accord.
It’s a continuation.
His name is to remember their journey,
and so, yeah, I think that’s a good way of saying that.
Well, Donna, thanks.
We enjoy this study with you.
Good to come to an end of another
week with you.
Have a great weekend,
everybody.
We look forward to seeing you next week Monday.
Thanks, everybody.