"Sarah says, 'God has brought me laughter...'" (Gen 21:6)
Ty Cobb (1886-1961), the 1st man inducted into the baseball hall of fame, was one of the greatest baseball players of all time. At the close of his life, he reportedly said, "Life sucks!" Pictures of him in his old age is that of a very dark, angry, irritable, unapproachable, misanthropic (dislike of the human species) unhappy man with no trace of joy or laughter on his face. All of his fame, popularity, success and wealth did not generate any laughter in his soul. In his old age, perhaps progressively through out his life, he lost the ability to laugh. Can any man live without laughter?
Theme: Laughter. When God fulfilled his purpose for Sarah, God brought laughter to her. God transformed her previous laughter of skepticism/cynicism to "real" laughter from the grace of God.
Goal: When God fulfills his purpose/gives grace, God brings laughter to our soul.
Application: Do you experience the deep wonder of the grace of laughter?
The point and climax of this text is that when God comes to Sarah, God brought laughter into her heart. In Gen 21:6, "Sarah says, 'God has brought me laughter...'" God had transformed her bitter cynical laughter (Gen 18:12) into real joy. How did this happen? How can God give us this kind of deep permanent joy that everyone wants and needs? In this text when God comes to Sarah, notice 4 things about God:
- That He comes (God comes to Sarah)
- How He Comes to Sarah
- Why He Comes to Sarah
- How God can Come to Us
God promised Abraham to raise a great nation of people through him/his descendants, and that through his seed (one of his descendants), God would bless all peoples on earth (Gen 12:2-3). For this to happen, God promised to give Sarah a son (Gen 15:4; 17:16; 18:10). But Sarah is barren (Gen 11:30; 15:2-3; 16:1-2). 25 years had gone by. Abraham is 100. Sarah is 90 and past the age of childbearing (Gen 18:11). One day 3 guests came and Abraham served them wholeheartedly (Gen 18:1-8). When they find out where Sarah is, the Lord reveals himself and promises her a son next year (Gen 18:9-10).
At this visit, God came primarily for Sarah's sake, since God had already appeared to Abraham in the past. What do we learn? It is not good enough to just know about God or to know God through somebody else. Sarah knows about God, but she did not know God personally and experientially. What does this mean? On his 80th birthday, John Stott, an English Anglican minister, explained how he found Christ at age 17 when a pastor, Rev. Nash gave him Rev 3:20. Though Stott went to church all his life, read the Bible regularly, and believed Jesus, yet until that moment, he felt distant from God, as though he was only knowing God through a key hole. But at that moment, the door was opened, and he came to know God personally, intimately, experientially. Though he had known about God, he had not had a personal encounter, the door was not yet opened, and Jesus was still on the outside of the door. What does this mean? It is mysterious. It is not just about intensity or degree. It is whether or not the door is opened. It is whether or not Jesus is outside (distant) or inside the door (central to our hearts and lives).
Rev. Nash asked him, “Have we ever opened your door to Christ? Have we ever invited him in?” Stott later recalled:
This was exactly the question which I needed to have put to me. For, intellectually speaking, I had believed in Jesus all my life, on the other side of the door. I had regularly struggled to say my prayers through the key-hole. I had even pushed pennies under the door in a vain attempt to pacify him. I had been baptized, yes and confirmed as well. I went to church, read my Bible, had high ideals, and tried to be good and do good. But all the time, often without realizing it, I was holding Christ at arm’s length, and keeping him outside.Later that night, at his bedside, Stott
made the experiment of faith, and “opened the door” to Christ. I saw no flash of lightning . . . in fact I had no emotional experience at all. I just crept into bed and went to sleep. For weeks afterwards, even months, I was unsure what had happened to me. But gradually I grew, as the diary I was writing at the time makes clear, into a clearer understanding and a firmer assurance of the salvation and lordship of Jesus Christ.The above is quoted from The passing of John Stott (1921-2011).
Sarah had to open the door to meet and know God personally, to have a personal encounter with God himself, and not to have more information about God, since she already knew about God. Each person needs to have a personal encounter with God. Nothing else is sufficient.
II. How God Comes to Sarah
The manner in which the Lord comes is interesting. In Gen 15 God comes to Abram in darkness and as an awesome fiery torch (Gen 15:9-18). But here God comes in daylight, with sore feet, and very gently. Sarah laughs to herself (Gen 18:12). The word "worn out" means useless, good for nothing. It is self hating and full of loathing, despair and despondency. The word for "pleasure" seems to mean that her age would preclude her from the pleasure of having a child? But the Hebrew word means sexual pleasure. She is crudely saying that she and her husband are no longer having sex, and that her husband has not touched her in years. It is self-disdaining, as well as disdaining the promise of God.
How does God react? Quite differently from God's fiery awesome previous appearance to Abram. God is so gentle. What did God do when Sarah laughed at God (Gen 18:12)? Did God say/suggest/imply/insinuate, "How dare you laugh at me? Do you know who I am? And do you know who you are?"
When God restates her objection, he removes all of Sarah's self-hating terminology (Gen 18:13), and simply reassures her that he will do what he said (Gen 18:14). When Sarah lies, saying, "I did not laugh," God again does not explode at her, but says, "Yes, you did laugh" (Gen 18:15). It is as though God was chuckling, smiling at her. We should not be afraid to tell God our weakness, fears, doubts. God is a gentle Wonderful Counselor (Isa 9:6). He will not blow up at us like an angry drill sergeant.
Why was God so different with Abram as with Sarah? We can't put God in a box. God also does not put us in a box. We humans default to putting God and others in a box, but God does not do that. God does not work off a template: Daily read 10 chapters of the Bible, pray for 30 minutes, evangelize others 2 times a week, tithe >10% of your income, etc. God has an infinite variety of ways that he comes into people's lives.
Sometimes God works dramatically, suddenly; sometimes God works extremely gradually, through a process. But everyone who meets God personally has to meet God in their own experience of need and weakness, and experience his provision of love and grace. Which comes 1st? Some come through the conviction of sin/guilt, that later leads to the realization of God's love/grace. Others come through the gentle door where they were assured by the love, grace, gentleness, mercy, goodness of God. Only later do they realize the depth of how flawed, broken, sinful they are. No one needs to worry that their Christian experience needs to imitate another. Also, do not project your own Christian experience on someone else. God can show up in countless different and diverse ways.
What about those who lie and deceive us? We do not need to feel insulted, or to react/retaliate. Why not? If the God of the universe was not insulted by Sarah lying, why should we think that we have a right to be?
III. Why God Comes to Sarah
This is the heart of the narrative. Why did God come to Sarah? God came to transform her laughter. God asked, "Why did Sarah laugh?" (Gen 18:13) "Why did she disdain herself and me? Why is her laughter so bitter, cynical, skeptical?" God gives the answer in the form of a question. It is the explanation of why Sarah is the way she is. God says, "Is anything too hard for the LORD?" (Gen 18:14). The Hebrew word for "hard" is "wonderful" (1 Chron 16:9; Ps 105:2). God is saying that Sarah's laughter is filled with disdain and bitterness, because her laughter is devoid of wonder. What is wonder?
G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), an English writer, explains wonder/enchantment/astonishment in The Ethics of Elfland, why children's lives are better than adults. Children never say, "Life stinks." Or, "What is the meaning of my life?" because their life is filled with wonder. The more our life is filled with wonder, the more meaningful it is. It takes hardly anything to fill a child with wonder. Any little nonsensical thing that I say or do fills my grandson with wonder. But their sense of wonder wears off. The older one gets the harder it is to fill the heart with wonder. What is the difference between taking a 4 y/o and a 14 y/o to the zoo? It takes more and more to fill the heart with wonder. Things have to get bigger and bigger. Without wonder, we lose the meaning of life.
Western society is the most wonder killing culture in all of civilization. So-called "brilliant" professors in major universities may explain that love and beauty are just chemical reactions, that it's how we are wired, that it's evolutionary biology. Every claim of morality or truth or justice or right is socially constructed and just a power play. This kills the wonder of life. Since our world view no longer has wonder, we steal it through art, stories, literature, plays and movies. Momentarily we have wonder, if the story has these 3 elements:
- There are mysterious powers "out there" beyond ourselves.
- A situation of doom and hopelessness.
- A heroic key, which unlocks the barrier between the impossible situation we are in, and brings forth a resolution, redemption, rescue, deliverance, salvation.
The Bible is a story for us that is the ultimate story because it is true. If we believe it, our whole life will be permeated with wonder. This is a wonder that will fill every area of our life with meaning, a wonder that lasts, not a fleeting wonder that fades away as in a movie.
What is that story? God goes to Sarah and transforms her story by putting wonder into it. "Sarah says, 'God has brought me laughter...'" (Gen 21:6). What does this mean? She laughed before. She laughed all her life. But this laughter is different. She said, "God has brought me laughter..." or "I have a laughter now that I never had before." It is no longer a bitter cynical laughter, but a laughter filled with wonder.
Where does this laughter come from? Gen 21:1 says, "Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah ..." The grace of God came into her life. The grace of God overcame the impossibility of her situation. She experienced a power outside of her that overcame the impossibility of her situation which had made her bitter. This was the power and the wonder of the grace of God. Without the wonder of grace, there was only the bitter cynical laughter that tries to get rid of despondency, or the nervous laughter that tries to get rid of anxiety. The cynical laughter says, "I'm in an impossible situation and there is no way out." It is rooted in bitterness and fatalism. The nervous laughter says, "I know my situation is bad, but I can do it." It is hiding the lack of confidence. But the laughter of grace says, "God has overcome the impossible situation with his power." Because of the grace of God, there is a wonder in her life that enables her to laugh in a way she was never able to before. She has joy. Her whole life is changed because wonder is there.
IV. How God can Come to Us
There is a common error in applying this text. We think, "Sarah is 90. She could never have a child. But she believed and was blessed. So, if we really pray, trust God, and dream big dreams, we can experience the great, the miraculous, the impossible." But this is not how to apply the text for 2 reasons: It is making a logical mistake, and an exegetical mistake.
- Logical mistake. The greatest person who ever lived had a far greater prayer life that ours ever will be. His faith in trusting God was perfect, and is greater than ours ever will be. Yet he had a horrible/terrible life. His life was filled with sorrow and suffering that got progressively worse. His prayer was turned down. He was rejected by all his friends.
- Exegetical mistake. Does this teach that if we believe like Sarah, God can do the impossible through our faith? The point here is that Sarah does not believe. She is laughing. After laughing she lies. The one time she meets God she laughs at his face.
What God offers in the Bible is the ultimate story--the story upon which all other stories are based. This includes the fictional stories and fairy tales that give us a wonder even for a brief moment. But no adult heart can hold onto that. But God gives us a story, an ultimate story, which is a true story, that if we believe it and take it into our heart and life, it will fill us with wonder and make us child-like once again, but not childish. So, is this the story? Is it the story of Abraham, Sarah and the miraculous birth of Isaac? No. This story points to the story that can do that.
Luke knows the story. Centuries later, an angel shows up to a woman and announces, "You will conceive and give birth to a son" (Luke 1:31). She said, "How can this be?" (Luke 1:34) She was as skeptical as Sarah was. If it was impossible for Sarah to have a child with an old husband, how could Mary have a child with no husband? When Mary asked how, the angel said, "For nothing is impossible with God" (Luke 1:37; NIV, 1984), or "For no word from God will ever fail" (NIV, 2011), which is essentially the same thing Sarah was told: "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" (Gen 18:14) Why does Luke interpose both Sarah and Mary's story with almost the exact same words that the angel says to both of them? Because Jesus is the true Isaac.
Jesus is the ultimate son of promise. Jesus is the ultimate One in whom we hear the laughter of God's grace, triumphing over the impossibilities of our situation. Sarah had to deal with the problem of infertility. But our problem is far graver. The ultimate Isaac came to deal with our ultimate problem of sin and death. What is truly impossible is that you are I should live forever. This is more impossible than having a baby at 90. What is truly impossible is that you and I, in spite of the way we had lived, would be adopted into the family of God. This is exactly what happens through Jesus, the ultimate Isaac, the ultimate Son of Laughter. How could Jesus do this?
Jesus lived in a heavenly world of laughter. Jesus was in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18), which meant that the Father and the Son rejoiced in each other with laughter through out eternity. But Jesus came to this world to become "a man of sorrow/suffering" (Isa 53:3; '84, '11). On the cross, he cried out, but he was forsaken. Why? Jesus lost the divine laughter, receiving all the sorrow, mourning, weeping, gnashing of teeth that we deserve, so that we can have laughter. He took our place. He took the condemnation for our sin, so that we could have forgiveness. He took our death so that we could have life. That is the story.
What is the story? C.S. Lewis says, "A cleft has opened in the pitiless walls of the world, and we are invited to follow our great Captain inside." Jesus' death and resurrection has punched a hole in the impenetrable barrier between our impossible situation and God's glory. Jesus is the ultimate prince that kisses us sleeping beauties. Jesus is the ultimate St. George who slays the dragon. Jesus is the ultimate Hero who dies to save the universe, the world, the city. Jesus is the one who took God's frown so that we could have God's smile, who lost the laughter so that we could have it. Through Jesus, wonder will come into our lives and our laughter will be transformed from cynical nervous laughter into the laughter of grace. A laughter of grace is only possible when it is not due to our performance. How do we know that this has happened?
How do we know that we have moved from knowing about God to knowing God? That we have moved from being religious to a Christian? From performance to grace? From seeing Jesus as just a great teacher to the true Isaac? Here are 4 signs that we are a real Christian from Sarah's life:
- (You laugh at yourself.) She is a source of wonder to herself. It is her counter-intuitive mixture of humility and certainty. She said, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age" (Gen 21:7). If a religious person is asked if they are a Christian, they say, "Of course." Sarah had no "of course" about her life. On the one hand it is a joke that I am a Christian: "Who would have thought..." There is an incredible sense of humility that makes it almost a joke. When you become a true Christian you see your life as a spiritual comedy with you as the star. But along with the humility, there is also a certainty. Radical grace means humility: Who would have thought that I am a Christian. But radical grace also means confidence and certainty: I know who I am, because it is not based on me. If one is a true Christian we don't have to go to the movies to be filled with wonder. We just have to look at our own life and be filled with wonder. Sarah is a never ending source of wonder to herself. The 1st sign that you are a Christian is that you laugh at yourself. You laugh over yourself. You wonder at yourself.
- (You laugh with others who laugh at you.) Nobody else's laughter bothers you anymore. Sarah said, "God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me" (Gen 21:6). The Hebrew preposition "with" is nebulous and could be translated "over" or "at." Robert Altar says that it is hard for the English translators to translate it as "at," so they soften it as "with." He asks what would a 90 y/o woman breast feeding a baby look like? It's ludicrous that she would be nursing. People would surely laugh at her. But she doesn't care. She laughs along with them laughing at her. If you are a recipient of grace, more people will laugh at you than laugh with you. The 2nd sign that you are a Christian is that you no longer need people's approval like you once used to. The touchiness is gone. People laughing at you no longer gets in the way of your own laughter. You can take criticism without becoming defensive and offensive.
- (You laugh at your past failures.) She is reconciled to her past. What was the greatest failure of her life? Very few people had God appear to them. Her greatest failure is that she laughed at God. Her son's name Laughter is a memorial to her own greatest failure, every time she calls him, sees him, takes care of him. This shows what the gospel does to our past. If we think that we are saved by our good works, then the memories of our failure are a never ending source of our discomfort and unease. To get a modicum of comfort, we suppress them, bury them, hide them, forget about them, lie about them. But the gospel is that we have been accepted, loved, saved despite our failures. Then the reminder of our failures shows and magnifies every more greatly how marvelous/wonderful is the grace of the gospel. In other words, the gospel turns our failures into gold, into wisdom, into humility, into compassion. It turns you into one who can embrace, understand and have compassion toward others who failed.
- (You laugh at the world's standards.) Why does God bring Isaac/continue his chosen line into the world through an old woman Sarah rather than a young woman Hagar? Through homely Leah, rather than lovely Rachel? Why does God over and over again choose the weak, foolish, despised things? So that he can shame the strong, the wise (1 Cor 1:27-28). God always prefers to work with the losers, whom the world says are old, ugly, poor, outsiders, useless losers, washed up. Why? Because God is the God of grace. When we realize that God has worked through our weakness, failures and still extended grace to us, then we no longer value the things the world values. Then we begin to love the people on the outside. Isa 54:1 says, "Sing, barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband," says the LORD.
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