Genesis 18:13 Commentary and Bible Study

Here now is the reproof. There is no reason to believe her laugh was audible. She laughed within herself. Probably no sound was emitted from her lips. But here is God, here is the pre-incarnate Son of God, and he knows her inner attitude is unbelieving. ‘Shall I of a surety bear a child which am old?’ She did not say those things out loud, but the Lord knows our thoughts, and it is impossible to hide anything from him. Then there is that very wonderful statement which we need to tell ourselves over and over again. ‘Is anything too hard for the Lord?’ This is one of the texts that Christians use constantly to address themselves in all kinds of circumstances. Here it is given as part of a reproof to Sarah. There is the acknowledgment in this question that in order for Abraham and Sarah to have a child, something hard needed to be done, something which only the Lord could do. Yes, it was impossible for them at their age to have a child by natural means, but God had said he would do it in the most specific terms. There are some things which we pray for, even though we do not know if they are the will of God, but this was clearly revealed to them. God’s word should be set against all difficulties when we have such clear revelation, as we do on many things. The promise is repeated. ‘At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.’ The Lord is very gentle with her in this rebuke. ‘Sarah has laughed, but I will return to you and she will indeed have a son.’ It is a matter of shame for us not to believe what God says, and Sarah immediately feels that shame. She is ashamed and she is afraid, and this is what makes her to lie. What was she afraid of? Instant judgment ? No, possibly she was afraid she would lose the blessing, but possibly she was aware of the evil of questioning the word of him who cannot lie. Her sin now went a step further, and she lied, which was foolish, because she knew that the one before her had just read her heart once, and so would now read it again and see the lie. Her response should have been to repent at once. ‘And he said, Nay; but thou didst laugh.’ When God speaks alongside our conscience, it has a voice of thunder within us. Sarah had the embarrassment of having to tell Abraham afterwards, that she had indeed laughed and had then lied about it. But our shame before God is even greater than our shame before one another. Nevertheless, God did not take away the blessing which they had waited for so long, and her subsequent pregnancy must have humbled Sarah further. Sarah stumbled. We don't presume to criticize her. Who of us wouldn't stumble? Something that required a miracle would stretch our feeble and unworthy levels of faith. But the important thing was to correct it, because Abraham and Sarah had to each believe for this to happen. Otherwise, unbelief would block the miracle, and the Lord taught that to the disciples on four significant occasions. It is the same with the church of Christ. You could have a congregation with 900 people of unshakable faith in the power and kindness of God to save souls and to bless and honour the Gospel, and to bless and honour it without rock music and without the trappings of the world and without fleshly things and unbiblical things. You could have 900 people who trusted in the power of God, and 100 who didn't. How that would quench the blessing! Sarah had to be corrected, otherwise it couldn't be done. So this is a very significant visit. She was a woman who loved the Lord. She would have been mortified and convicted. Nay, but thou didst laugh. That would have been enough for her sensitive soul to respond.