Genesis 17:17 Commentary and Bible Study

He is only 99 at this point, but he is rounding up his age. Some people interpret this verse very poorly, and they say, Abraham is faithless; he doesn't believe it; he laughs at it. Now it is true that Sarah later on laughed rather cynically and unbelievingly. We do not blame her for it, but Abraham was not doing the same. When Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said, ‘Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old?’, that was a laugh of joy and amazement, and happiness and relief. There is no question about it. He believes it, but he is so happy. He has waited so long for the fulfilment of the promise. Why do we think this is a positive laugh and a believing laugh? Because the New Testament us so. It tells us that he staggered not in unbelief, but he believed the promise (Romans 4:20). It refers to him as somebody who was not shaken for a moment at the promise. So his is a laugh of joy. We know this also from the name that was given to Isaac: ‘He laughed’. You really would not pin such a name on Isaac; God would not give Isaac a name which was a reminder of his father’s sin in scorning the promise. The poor fellow would have to go through life with a name that effectively means ‘my father sinned in unbelief when the promise was given’. No, the name of Isaac meant he was overjoyed. He laughed, he believed, he staggered not. So it is a happy laugh, and all the old Puritan writers used to say that Abraham laughed for joy; Sarah laughed in unbelief. It is a shame that she did so, but you can understand it: it was a staggering, staggering thing that she should conceive at such an age, and she repented of it, we may be absolutely sure. But all the modern writers turn him into an unbeliever. ‘Oh that Ishmael might live before thee.’ ‘There you are’, say, the modern commentators. ‘Not only was Abraham doubting, but he was pleading with God for an alternative solution for the lack of a child.’ No, he isn't saying that. He accepts that there is going to be a child, Isaac, the promised seed, and the seed royal would come through him, but he says – after all, Ishmael is in the world through his failing; Ishmael is in the world through Abraham’s sin – ‘Can he be blessed Lord? Does he have to suffer on my account?’ And the Lord gives no reproof. He says, ‘Yes, he will be blessed in his own way. But though he will be blessed, the seed of the serpent will be removed from the church. God will prosper him and bless him, though he will be a wild man. And he will have many friends and he will have princes coming from him, but God will bless him separately. He is not the seed royal line; he will not be mixed up with the church. So after Sarah and Abraham had mixed things up, God in due course is going to separate them out again.