Download I`m sure you`ve had the

I’m sure you all know the experience of being promised something by someone, but thing that was promised
never materialises. Whether it’s the junk mail through the letter box that promises you have won a instant cash
prize, or the builder who promises your loft conversion will be finished in a few months and then years later its
still not complete. You know how it feels - when we first get the promise were excited and full of hope, but
then as time goes by we begin to doubt that it’ll ever materialise. And the longer we have to wait the more
uncertain we get.
Well, in the passage we are looking at today, Abraham must have been feeling a bit like that. In the past few
weeks we’ve looked at the promises God gave him, but here we are in Gen 17, 24 years later and they still
haven’t materialised. Abraham must have been thinking “What is going on?”
The passage contains two little stories. At first sight they might look like very different stories. But actually
they’ve got a lot in common. They are both stories in which the Lord appears to Abraham. Its not often that that
happens in the Old Testament, but here we have two stories like that back to back which take place within a few
months of each other. And in both these stories God confirms his covenant with him. In particular, the Lord
reaffirms his promise to bless Abraham with descendants. And in both of these stories, we get the response the
laughter because this promise seems so unlikely. In the first, Abraham laughs when he hears God reaffirm this
promise. And in the second story, his wife Sarah laughs.
So these stories have several things in common they fit together to teach us something very important about
God. Something that Abraham needed to learn, and Sarah needed to learn, and we need to learn too.
To understand what this is, we need to think about the context of this passage. In fact if we look at verse 1,
that’s exactly what the author wants us to do. He wants us to take note of when these things happened. He tells
us that these things happened when “Abram was 99 years old..”. And he does this to remind us that God’s
promise to Abram remains unfulfilled.
When God first made his promise to Abraham back in chapter 12, we are told Abram was 75 years old. That
was a quarter of a century before these events. Even the time when God reaffirmed the promises in chapter 15
(the passage we looked at last week) happened at least 13 years previously.
God promised Abraham that he would have descendents as numerous as the stars, that he would possess the
whole of the land to God had brought him to, and that the whole earth would be blessed through him. He had
waited 24 years and what had he got? Nothing. Just one son, Ishmael by wife’s servant Hagar.
And the question we are prompted to ask here is why? Why the delay?
And surely Abraham must have been asking similar questions. He’d had the fine sounding promises of ch. 12
and ch. 15.
It had sounded great, but that was years ago. Decades ago. Why haven’t these promises materialised?
Well, I want to suggest a reason why God delays in fulfilling his promises. He delays make sure that fulfilling
his promises is humanly impossible. By the time we get to this stage in Genesis, God makes it humanly
impossible to fulfil his promises.
Lets have think about how God does this. Well first of all, according to Genesis 11:30, Abram’s wife Sarai was
barren before they even came to the Promise Land. Was this a coincidence? Of course not – it was planned by
God. Sarai says as much in chapter 16. She says “The Lord has kept me from having children.” It was God that
did it.
So when God promised that Abraham would be a great nation and that his descendents would be as numerous
as the stars or the dust, he had already put something in place that would make the fulfilment of that promise
impossible. He closes Sarai’s womb and then he gave the promise.
So for Abraham to believe that promise, it means believing that God doesn’t just know the future but is able to
create a future – a future which is humanly impossible.
But we don’t naturally trust God so easily do we? It goes against our fallen nature. When we are in the sort of
situation that Abram was in, what usually happens is this:
We try to think of ways that we can actually make it happen by ordinary human means.
And actually that’s exactly what Abraham does. He looks for humanly possible ways to fulfil God’s promises.
We see that first back in ch. 15 that we looked at last week. God reminds Abram that he will make him into a
great nation and Abram says to him, “I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of
Damascus. You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
Abram can’t work out how God is going to fulfil his promise. “Lord you promised to make me into a great
nation, but how can it be? I haven’t got any children. My servant Eliezer is my legal heir. Surely, you are going
to build this nation through him? That must be your plan right? That must be how you will fulfil your promise.”
But God cuts off Abrahams escape: “No Abraham, my promise will not fulfilled in that way. My way will be
humanly impossible. You will become a great nation through your own physical seed”
15:4 “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body.”
But there’s another way that Abraham tries to make God’s promise humanly possible.
You see, God only said that the son of the promise would come from Abraham’s body, not from Sarah’s body,
so its technically possible for God to fulfil his promise by Abraham sleeping with someone else. And that’s
exactly what Abraham tries in ch 16.
“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; so
she said to Abram ‘The Lord has kept me from having children. Go sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can
build a family through her.”
And Abram does what she says and v. 15 “Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the
son she had borne.”
An ingenious plan. Since Sarai was barren, surely this was what God had in mind.
But that’s NOT the way God was going to fulfil his promise. And we see this here in chapter 17 where God
elaborates his promises to Abraham. Look at v. 15-16.
“As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and 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.”
God is going to fulfil his promise by giving Sarah a son. Abram can’t quite get his head round that at first. He
still seems to want God’s promise to be humanly possible. He laughs at the thought of Sarah bearing a child and
says:
“Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety? Abraham said
to God ‘If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!’”
And so God has to tell him again “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a Son, and you will call him Isaac. I
will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him”.
What a setback for Abraham, He thought he figured out a way to have heirs from his own body just as God said
he would.
But God says, No, I’m going to do it the impossible way. And so Abraham’s faith wavered. And he laughed at
the idea.
And in the next chapter, chapter 18. We get this amazing promise repeated, this time, in the hearing of Sarah.
And similarly, when she hears it, she laughs. Look at 18:10:
“Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already
old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she
thought, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure.”
Sarah’s words tell us another thing that makes God’s promise impossible to fulfil. Sarah was past the age of
childbearing. Not only had she been barren for decades, but by delaying, God had ensured that now she was
past the menopause. She was already infertile when she was young, but now she was also too old.
God has delayed in fulfilling his promise to Abraham – to make it humanly impossible.
Its no wonder that Abraham and Sarah both laugh about it in this passage. It seemed unlikely enough 24 years
ago, but now (if you’ll pardon the pun) it was in conceivable!
God makes sure of that from the beginning by making Sarah infertile before he even makes the promise. Then
slams shut the door on every attempt of Abraham to fulfil the promise in a humanly possible way. And then just
to make absolutely certain he waits 24 years so that Sarah is past the menopause and Abraham is (in the words
of Paul and the author to the Hebrews) is as good as dead.
But why? Why does God do this? Why wont he opt for anything less that the path of impossibility.
Well I think the clue is in the opening and closing verses of this section. Look at 17:1.
“When Abram was 99 years old, the LORD appeared to him and said “I am God Almighty, walk before me and
be blameless.”
The Lord reveals himself as God Almighty. There are a lot of new names in chapter and they are all important.
Abram is given the new name Abraham – meaning father of a multitude. It will serve as a sign to him of God’s
promise that he will be father of many nations. To affirm her part in this promise, Sarai is given a new name too
– Sarah. The name of her child is also given – Isaac meaning “he laughs” – a reminder of both Abraham’s and
Sarah’s reaction at hearing the promise of his birth. But also God is given a new name here – he says “I am God
Almighty” – in the Hebrew “El Shaddai”. This is the first time this name has been used of God in the Bible. It
speaks of God’s power – his omnipotence. He is God Almighty – he is able to do anything, even the humanly
impossible.
So right at the start of this passage God makes this claim that he is El-Shaddai - the all powerful, all mighty
God.
And look at the end of this passage in 18:13-14
“Then the LORD said to Abraham, ‘ Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am
old?’ Is anything too hard for the LORD?”
You see God wants to demonstrate that he is El Shaddai – God Almighty. He wants to show that nothing is too
difficult for him.
God makes it humanly impossible to fulfil his promises so that he magnifies his glory. He doesn’t want
Abraham or Sarah to get any of the credit. He wants all the glory when those promises are fulfilled.
In plain English – he wants to make himself look good. When it happens, he wants everyone to know that was
him El Shaddai that brought it about! He wants to magnify his own glory and keep his people humble
dependant on his sovereign grace.
And there is a pattern of God acting in this way in the Bible.
For example, it happens with Gideon in Judges 7. I don’t know if you remember the story, but Gideon was
facing an army of Midianites and Amalakite which was as numerous as the sand on the seashore. And Gideon
had just 10,000 men to face this vast army. And what does God say? He says this to Gideon:
“You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful saying
‘My own power has delivered me”
So God whittles down Gideon’s army to just 300 men. It was already looking bad for Gideon with 10,000 men,
but now it was impossible. Why does God do it? Because he wants all the glory for the victory. He doesn’t
want the Israelites taking any of the credit. His purpose is to display his glory and help the Israelites see how
utterly dependent they are on his sovereign grace.
Another example is Elijah. Do you remember the story of Elijah and the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel in 1
Kings 18. God sets up a scene so that he can reveal his glory. The priests of Baal set up an altar with a sacrifice.
And Elijah does the same. And both parties call on the name of their god and the one who answers with fire –
he is God. And the priest of Baal call out and dance and cut themselves but of cause their God doesn’t answer.
And then the time comes for the Lord to show himself. But He wants to make absolutely sure that everyone
knows it is him, so he gets Elijah to dowse the sacrifice with gallons of water until its soaking wet and then
when it is impossible to set fire to it – God does just that.
God acts in such a way as to magnify his own glory and keep his people humbly dependant on his sovereign
grace.
And that’s what he does with Abraham. God planned and worked in such a way as to make his promise to
Abraham humanly impossible, so that when he fulfils his promise, he gets all the glory. He shows himself to be
El-Shaddai- God Almighty. The God who can do the impossible.
As you sit here this morning you, perhaps many of you are in situations like that.
A situation where it feels impossible. Perhaps it’s a difficult relationship – a marital situation, a child. It could
be a situation at work. Perhaps its a physical situation, or a financial situation. And you say to yourself “This is
impossible. I’ve tried everything. I don’t know what to do. There is no Godly way out of this. This is
impossible.”
Answer: Is anything too hard for the Lord?
And if your attitude to your situation says yes, then you’re wrong.
Because the Lord is El-Shaddai: The God Almighty. The God who can do anything. And the Christian life is
full of situations like that. So that God may magnify his glory and keep you humbly dependent on his sovereign
grace.
Do you have faith in this God?
Do you have faith in God as El Shaddai?
Do you have faith that God can do the impossible?
Let me ask you: What evidence is there in your daily life that you have faith in a God who can do the
impossible? What evidence is there? Is your daily life marked by human self-reliance or utter dependency on
God’s sovereign grace?
Or what evidence is there in you prayers? Think about your prayers. What things do you pray for day to day?
How often do you prayer for things that are humanly impossible? If someone was able to read a transcript of all
your prayers from this week. Would they conclude “This man or this woman has faith in a God who can do the
impossible.”
Would they conclude that?
Now I’m not saying that God will grant us anything we ask for that is humanly impossible. But if we believe
that God can do such things, then surely that would be reflected in our prayers? Wouldn’t it? I think, far too
often our prayers are small, because our faith in God is small.
Jesus said “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mountain ‘move from here to
there’ and it will move”.
If that’s the kind of prayer that accompanies mustard seed sized faith. Then how big is your faith?
Or what evidence is there in your evangelism? Are there members of your family or close friends or people at
work, about whom you think “There’s just no point trying to tell them about the gospel. They couldn’t possibly
become Christians.”
Perhaps you’ve witnessed to them for a long time, and its just made no impact. You just think “Its impossible.
They are just too lost”.
Well God would remind you from this passage that his is El Shaddai: Is anything too hard for the Lord?
And that leads me to my final application. Which is this: that all of us who are Christians have evidence that
God does the impossible, because he has done the impossible with us.
You see, you may think that its impossible for that friend, or colleague or family member to become a
Christian. Well you’re right. Humanly speaking, it is impossible. In fact its impossible for anyone to become a
Christian. It was impossible for you to become a Christian. But God did the impossible. For you to become a
Christian was not a matter of human initiative, but of God’s sovereign grace.
Turn with me to Romans 9 were Paul refers back to the story we have been looking at in Genesis.
Romans 9… in this chapter Paul is struggling with the heartache of seeing many of his fellow Jews are not
believing in Jesus Christ. Does this mean that God’s promise to the Jewish people has failed? That God’s
promise to Abraham had failed? He answers in v6, No “It is not as though God’s word had failed.”
He goes this on to explain this. “For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his
descendents are they all Abraham’s children.”
In other words, to be an heir of the promise made to Abraham you can’t just be the product of ordinary human
reproduction.
And then Paul refers to our story and the way in which Isaac came into being to explain what he means. He
says in v7b “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned”.
In other words, Not Ishmael, the fruit of Abraham’s human self-reliance, but through Isaac the child whom God
brought into the world when it was humanly impossible.”
Then in v. 8 Paul states the general principle that he is drawing out of the story “In other words, it is not the
natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s
offspring.”
What is the difference between "natural children" and "children of the promise"? The difference is that ordinary
human resources bring natural children into being, but the sovereign power of God brings children of promise
into being. You see this in verse 9: "For this was how the promise was stated: 'At the appointed time I will
return, and Sarah will have a son.”
In other words, Abraham tried to make an heir for God's promise by the human initiative, “If only Ishmael
would live under your blessing”, but God said, "No, heirs of promise come into being through supernatural,
divine intervention. That is what it means to be a Christian - an heir of God's covenant promises. That is how
you became a Christian.
The fact that you are a Christian is evidence that God does the humanly impossible. And he did it in order to
magnify his glory and keep you humbly dependent on his sovereign grace.
You can’t take any of the credit. You’ve got nothing to boast in. It was all God. He gets all the glory.
In the passage this morning, Abraham is not depicted as someone who lacking faith completely. In fact we saw
last week that he believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. But he is depicted as one whose
faith had not yet matured. His was faith was growing. His faith needed to be pushed beyond its present limit.
God wanted his faith to be in El-Shaddai - faith that God is able to do what is humanly impossible.
If you are a Christian today, then you have faith. You have shown faith in your decision to follow Jesus just
Abraham showed faith by following God’s call. But does your faith need to grow. Does it need pushing beyond
its present limits?
Is your faith in a God who can do what is humanly impossible?
Is that reflected in your daily life?
Is that reflected in your prayers?
Is that reflected in your evangelism?
Or does our faith need to mature to that level?
What are the impossible situations that God has put you in? What are the opportunities he has to magnify his
glory and make you humbly dependant on his sovereign grace?