The One who is our Creator also is our Sustainer

November 19, 2001

Bible Study for Texas lesson for Dec. 23

The One who is our Creator also is our Sustainer

___Genesis 17:15-17; 18:11-15; 21:1-7
___^17:15God also said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. ¹⁶ I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her."
___¹⁷ Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, "Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?"
___...
___^18:11 Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. ¹² So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, "After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?"
___¹³ Then the Lord said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Will I really have a child, now that I am old?' ¹⁴ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son."
___¹⁵ Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, "I did not laugh." But he said, "Yes, you did laugh."
___...
___^21:1 Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. ² Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. ³ Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. ⁴ When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. ⁵ Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
___⁶ Sarah said, "God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me." ⁷ And she added, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age."

___By Amelia Bishop
___A cobalt blue sky with wispy clouds trailing like a chiffon scarf across it.
___A curving seashore, with white caps rising in the blue-green distance and then pounding the shore.
___A stalwart silent mountain dominating the evening sky.
___All of these are a part of God's creation.
___And then his supreme creation--mankind. And who can hold a newborn baby without feeling the wonder of it all? (Certainly not this grandmother!)
___With our limited human intelligence, we accept with unspeakable awe what we cannot understand and realize anew that God's power is both unlimited and ongoing.
___Indeed it is, for the One who was--and is--our Creator is also our Sustainer.
___Abraham and Sarah found this out.

___A new name, a new promise
___As mentioned in the first lesson in this unit, we have called our leading characters by the names by which they are commonly known: Abraham and Sarah. Originally, they were Abram and Sarai; the name changes are related in Genesis 17.
___The record of Abraham's name change comes in Genesis 17:5, which precedes our first focal passages for today. God was repeating to Abraham the promise of the covenant and giving more details. He also made the name change: "Abram" ("exalted father") to "Abraham" ("father of a multitude").
___Then, in our initial passage of Scripture for today (Genesis 17:15-17), God does the same for Sarah. "Sarai" she had been; "Sarah" she became. Both names mean "princess," however, the first means "my princess"--one family. The new name can be interpreted "a princess"--belonging to multitudes.
___Perhaps Sarah's name change was to ratify a very significant thing that was happening. Whereas Abraham had been designated earlier as the father of multitudes, this is the first time Sarah had been specifically named as the mother.
___At that point, it must have been "shouting ground" for both of them!
___Abraham, for his part, fell down before the Lord. And he laughed.
___Laughter can come from many sources. It can be the carefree laughter of children or the nervous laughter when someone is ill at ease. It could be the sudden joyous laughter that bubbles up when great news is received or perhaps the natural response to a piece of news so startling as to be unbelievable.
___At any rate, Abraham laughed and said to himself, "Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?" These questions make us believe that this laughter came from the startling and unbelievable aspects in the announcement. (An interesting sidelight might also be mentioned here along with laughing: the name "Isaac" means "laughter.")
___However, the "why" of the laughter mentioned earlier is not as important as the fact that this occasion marks a milestone. Sarah is indeed the designated mother of the son through whom Abraham will bless multitudes. God had a plan; they simply had to wait for it.
___Another significant aspect of this scene is found in the fact that God sometimes reveals his will by degrees. He does not always sketch the whole scenario. He did not for Abraham and Sarah. Perhaps the global aspects of his ultimate plan needed to be given bit by bit; perhaps the sheer immensity of it was too broad for "all in one swallow" comprehension.
___
___The power behind the promise
___Before we approach the second of our Scripture passages for today (Genesis 18:11-15), let's look for a moment at the verses preceding them in the first part of Chapter 18. Abraham was sitting outside the entrance to his tent. He looked up, saw three men and hurried to meet them. Bowing low, he said, "If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by" (Genesis 18:3).
___"My lord," he said. He was apparently speaking to one person. However, some scholars translate this as "O Lord," which gives rise to an unanswered question. Did Abraham know when he first saw the men that one of them was the Lord? Or did he come to that conclusion later in the conversation? Which was it? Many authorities seem to favor the idea that he knew at the onset.
___He offered them the traditional courtesies of his day and homeland--water to wash their feet and something to eat. Then he rushed to enlist Sarah's help, and even "ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf." It would appear that he did know who one of the visitors was.
___Here, again, perhaps the "when" of the matter is not important. The fact is that both Abraham, outside the tent, and Sarah, in the entrance behind her husband, did come to recognize the Lord.
___The men asked where Sarah was, and Abraham replied she was in the tent.
___Whereupon the Lord said he would return at the appointed time next year and Sarah would have a son.
___As we pick up this focal passage of our lesson for today (Genesis 18:11-15), we are reminded again that Abraham and Sarah were well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. Hence, when she heard these words of prophecy while standing within the tent, she laughed to herself. Now we have seen this reaction--laughter--in both Abraham and Sarah. Is it joy at the announcement or lack of faith?
___The unexpected happened. The Lord, speaking to Abraham, asked why Sarah laughed.
___Sarah was amazed that her thoughts and feelings were known when she had not spoken aloud. At this point, she must have known who the Visitor was and must have come out of the tent to see him for herself. Feeling guilty, she denied her laughter.
___The Lord then asked a question which was simple and direct in its wording but very powerful in its application and implication: "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" (Genesis 18:14).
___Apparently, this direct reminder of the Lord's unlimited power erased any confusion which Abraham and Sarah had felt about the son-to-be. Inside themselves, as well as with one another, they had alternated between joy over the prospect of a son and then doubt that it could happen. They now reached the platform of total belief. Faith and joy had won out.
___ A promise fulfilled
___The birth of Isaac was both the fulfillment of prophecy and the harbinger of what was to come. He was born in accordance with a promise, born at the specific time God said he would be and born to parents said to be "too old." But it all came to pass, exactly as God had foretold.
___Abraham named his son Isaac, as the Lord had instructed. Then, when the child was eight days old, his father circumcised him, also as the Lord had instructed.
___In all this, Sarah could not contain her happiness. And perhaps making a play on Isaac's name and remembering that it meant laughter, she said, "God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me" (Genesis 21:6).
___The deep desire for a child had come to pass.
___Today, as we study about this happy ending to this part of the story, we rejoice with our leading characters. Yes, we are happy for them, but, as always, there is something to be learned from the different elements that make up the story itself.
___In the matter of names, for example, there was no problem. God changed Abraham's and Sarah's names seemingly to ratify or put a seal on the covenant agreement. No problem there. Abraham was told to give his son by Sarah the name Isaac. He implicitly obeyed.
___But in having been told that in Abraham "all nations of the earth would be blessed," both husband and wife believed yet kept having troubling doubts. Lots of them. Why? Because they could not seem to think beyond the very human fact that they were childless, and the covenant promise was dependent upon an heir. They could see no "humanly possible" solution. So they started thinking of "alternate solutions" in order to move things along.
___Earlier, in last week's lesson, they had tried to solve the problem with Hagar, following through with their mistaken concept that they had to work it out themselves. Apparently they did not consult God. Hagar as "secondary wife" was not the answer. But what was?
___In essence, through this period, they continued to think in terms of human capabilities.
___But God wasn't. So in his own time, in his own way, he simply asked the question, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?"
___And they realized as never before that he was in charge--not them. He would handle it.
___Bull's-eye! Direct hit!
___Of course, nothing is too hard for him. It is just that they--and we--tend to forget that he is in charge and that his power is ever available. Not only that--he offers it.
___Someone put it this way: "We must recognize that human improbability can set up a barrier for divine prophecy."
___Think about it.

Questions for thought and discussion
___ Think of the names in your family, both the family you grew up in and the one you have today. Do the names seem to fit? Often, as parents, we think long and hard about the names to be given our children. Many times there is a special reason for the selection. Is this true in your family? Are names meaningful to you?
___ Sometimes we forget--unless it is the Christmas season and "Joy to the World" rings in the background--that joy is a significant part of the Christian experience. There was joy at his birth and joy during many special occasions along the Christian pathway. Is joy a part of your daily experience? Weekly experience? Is laughter?
___ When "three men" arrived at the entrance to Abraham's tent, he made every effort to extend to them all the customary courtesies of his homeland. (Yes, he probably knew one of them was the Lord, but apparently it was standard operation for him to extend these courtesies.) Does his hospitable behavior remind you of other ministering opportunities in the Scripture? When such opportunities come your way, do you feel an obligation to do what you're supposed to do, or do you welcome the opportunity? Or maybe does it start one way and end up another?
___ "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" Let's return to this for a moment. As Christians, we believe this, but each of us tends to forget it at times. Particularly, do we forget the "everydayness" of it--that it is applicable across the board and is ongoing? Do you have difficulty in either remembering this or in applying it? Which? And do you know why?
___
___ This part of Abraham's story has a happy ending. We like happy endings. But let's look back on our focal Scripture passages and the ups and downs of the story. What parts of it were especially meaningful to you? Why?

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