Genesis 17:15-22

Can you think of a time when you were disobedient to God and had to live in the midst of the consequences of your disobedience, always being reminded of your mistake?  

Such was the case with Sarai.  It had been her idea for Abraham to take Hagar and have a son.  Now every day this teenage boy was running around the compound, a fresh reminder of a failed attempt to do for God what God Himself had promised to do.

What grace we see in this passage.  God affirms that He will glorify Himself, both through Sarai as well as through Ishmael.  

Concerning Sarai God reaffirms His plan, that she will have a son.  Sarai’s name is changed from “princess” to “noblewoman” (Sarah) so that she might have a constant reminder of God’s faithful plan to bless her.  

The place of laughter in the story is significant.  Sarah, when she hears God’s promise to her laughs at the thought of having a child in her old age (18:12-15).  She is reproved for her lack of faith.  Abraham also laughs in today’s reading, but he is not reproved.  Many have surmised that Abraham’s faith did not show unbelief but rather showed “joyful and grateful wonder (Albert Barns, John Calvin).  That may be the case.  But it may also be true that he laughs in unbelief, the difference being that he comes to faith later when he obeys God in the matter of circumcision, while Sarah adamantly denies her unbelief.

Concerning Ishmael there is an interesting conversation between God and His friend.  Abraham pleads with God to let Ishmael be the son of promise.  Some think this is evidence of Abraham’s love for Ishmael, and certainly by this time he truly did love his son.  

But even with that love, Abraham is still pleading for something less from God than what God has planned.  Perhaps, in a sense, as God beckons Abraham on to a better and higher plan Abraham takes a last lingering look at his own self-made plan.  Let us remember when we come to the Lord: we come to inquire, not to tell God what is the best thing He can do in our situation.

Thus is the walk of faith.  We must come to the end of our will and submit ourselves to His will.  There will yet be the laughter of deep satisfaction in the home when God’s answer, Isaac (which means he laughs), is born.  Let us trust God’s plan and wait on the Lord.