Abraham and Sarah’s Promised Son

Context

God’s covenant with Abraham looked far beyond one household and one lifetime. God promised descendants, nations, kings, the land of Canaan, and an enduring relationship in which he would be God to Abraham’s descendants. But Abraham and Sarah were very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. The promised future therefore rested on a question no ordinary human ability could answer: could Sarah herself bear the son through whom God said his covenant would continue?

Story

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and identified himself as God Almighty. He called Abram to live faithfully and blamelessly before him, and he promised to establish his covenant and greatly increase Abram’s descendants. Abram fell facedown as God spoke.

God said Abram would become the father of many nations. His name would no longer be Abram but Abraham, marking the future God had promised him. Nations and kings would come from him. God would give his descendants the land of Canaan, where Abraham was still a stranger, and he would be their God.

God also gave Abraham a covenant command. Every male in his household and among his future descendants was to be circumcised, with each newborn boy receiving the sign on the eighth day. Rejecting this sign meant breaking the covenant and being cut off from the people.

Then God spoke about Sarai. Her name would now be Sarah, and she too would be blessed. God said she would bear Abraham a son and become the mother of nations. Kings would be among her descendants.

Abraham fell facedown again and laughed. He wondered inwardly whether a child could be born to a man of one hundred and whether Sarah could give birth at about ninety. He asked that Ishmael might live under God’s favor.

God said he had heard Abraham concerning Ishmael. He would bless Ishmael, make him fruitful, and make him the father of twelve rulers and a great nation. But God’s covenant would continue through the son Sarah would bear. Abraham was to name him Isaac, and the child would be born at the appointed time the following year.

The promise now had a name and a time. When God finished speaking, he departed from Abraham.

Later, the Lord appeared near Mamre while Abraham sat at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. He ran to meet them, bowed, and urged them to rest. He offered water for their feet and shade beneath a tree, then hurried to prepare a generous meal. Sarah was asked to make bread from fine flour, a young man prepared a tender calf, and Abraham brought milk and curds. He stood nearby while the visitors ate.

They asked Abraham where Sarah was. He answered that she was in the tent. Then one of the visitors announced that he would return at the appointed time and Sarah would have a son.

Sarah was listening from the entrance of the tent behind him. She and Abraham were both old, and she was past the age of childbearing. She laughed to herself at the thought that this could happen when she and her husband were so old.

The Lord asked Abraham why Sarah had laughed and questioned whether she could truly bear a child.

“Is anything too hard for the Lord?”

He repeated the promise: at the appointed time, Sarah would have a son.

Sarah was afraid and denied that she had laughed. But the Lord answered plainly that she had.

Then the Lord did for Sarah exactly what he had promised. At the appointed time, Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age. Abraham named him Isaac, as God had instructed. When Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him in obedience to God’s command. Abraham was one hundred years old when Isaac was born.

Sarah’s laughter had changed. God had brought her laughter, she said, and everyone who heard what had happened would laugh with her. She marveled that no one would have expected her to nurse a child, yet she had borne Abraham a son in his old age.

What We Learned

• God made his promise specific: Sarah would bear Isaac at an appointed time. The fulfillment showed that his word had not failed.
• Abraham and Sarah’s age made the birth humanly impossible, but God’s question directed them beyond their limitations to his power.
• Both Abraham and Sarah laughed, and Sarah denied it because she was afraid. Their responses are not idealized, yet God corrected them and remained faithful to his promise.
• God promised blessing for Ishmael while maintaining that his covenant would continue through Isaac.
• Abraham responded to Isaac’s birth with obedience, giving him the appointed name and the covenant sign God had commanded.