After Sarah laughs, God turns to Abraham, asking, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, 'Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old? ' Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:13-14). Sarah has been caught in the act of her private laughter and mocking commentary, a response which catches God off-guard.
Earlier in Genesis 18, the Lord revealed to Sarah that she would bear a son even in her old age. But she knew that women of her age never had children, so she laughed to herself in disbelief. God responded by asking Abraham about Sarah's laughter.
Sarah laughed in unbelief, Abraham laughed in wonder, and now they both laugh in joy! Sarah's faith was not perfect, but in Hebrews 11 it tells us that “Sara herself received strength” from her faith.
We find the passage where Sarah laughed in the Bible in Genesis 18:12-15. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?” Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Will I really have a child, now that I am old?
When Abraham is informed that he will have a son by Sarah, he threw himself on his face and laughed (Gen 17.17). Sarah too laughed when she heard about bearing a son at her advanced age. However, God asked Abraham, why did Sarah Laugh (Gen 18:13-14)? God didn't ask Abraham why he laughed.
Instead of being excited, she doesn't believe the promise delivered under the guise of a visitor. She laughs to herself, she comments on her old age and the old age and impotency of her husband.
He was the son of Abraham and Sarah, the father of Jacob and Esau, and the grandfather of the twelve tribes of Israel. Isaac's name means "he will laugh", reflecting the laughter, in disbelief, of Abraham and Sarah, when told by God that they would have a child.
Yahweh then told Abraham that Sarah would give to him a son. Sarah, then ninety years old, laughed at this idea. But, as prophesied, she became pregnant with Isaac and she nursed him herself.
Not only did they bear a child after many years of infertility, and at an advanced age; God opened their sexual organs, or even formed a womb for Sarah. Her womb was fashioned especially for the birth of Isaac, who would be the progenitor of the entire people of Israel.
Bible Gateway Genesis 21 :: NIV. Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him.
Sarah was childless until she was 90 years old. God promised Abraham that she would be “a mother of nations” (Genesis 17:16) and that she would conceive and bear a son, but Sarah did not believe. Isaac, born to Sarah and Abraham in their old age, was the fulfillment of God's promise to them.
In 1 Samuel 25, a beautiful story emerges, one of submission and deliverance. Abigail is a lesser-known heroine in the Bible, a humble woman who was married to a wealthy scoundrel.
Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.
The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, 'After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure? '” (Gen. 18:11–12).
The miracles that God performed for Sarah in Egypt have not taught him her importance. God informs him that, although Ishmael will have his own destiny, the promise—as formalized in God's covenant—will come through Sarah. God therefore renames her and blesses her when announcing the birth of Isaac (Gen 17:15–21).
When God spoke to Sarah, He lifted her gaze up from the discouraging horizons of her own life and said, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” (Gen. 18:14). And she bore a son in her old age.
She has stopped menstruating and there is no biological way that she can have children. Without menstruation there can be no fertile mogya (blood), which is what creates abusua (matrilineal family). Sarah has squandered the resources of her menstrual years and she has no child to show for it.
Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age… Sarah was past childbearing. Sarah had clung to the hope of having a child for many years. Then after being ten years in Canaan, Sarah finally concluded she was not going to have children and proposed that Abraham bear a child through her maid Hagar (Genesis 16:1-4).
As I searched the scriptures during this time, I noticed there were many couples who suffered from infertility: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel, Elkanah and Hannah, and Zachariah and Elisabeth.
Abijah married fourteen wives, and had 22 sons and 16 daughters. No attempted harmonization has found acceptance with scholars.
His wife Sarah is the only woman in the Old Testament whose age is given. She died at 127 (Genesis 23:1).
The book of Genesis in the Bible describes the story of Hagar, a servant in Abraham's household. She was a single mother who was betrayed and then banished into the desert.
Notice how the Lord changed Sarai's name to Sarah as a part of the covenant. Just as Abraham was to be the father of many nations, Sarah was to be the mother of many nations.
“Isaac” the name actually means “he laughs” — and God told Abraham to name his son Isaac because laughter is a big part of his story, and we're going to see that today.
Isaac is one of the most engaging figures in Holy Scripture, probably because he is the most associated with the exuberance of laughter.