Is Anything Too Hard for the Lord? :: Gen 18:1-15, 21:1-7
And YHWH appeared to [Abraham] by the oaks of Mamre as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. [Abraham] lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth. ...
And [YHWH] said, I will surely return to you in the time of life, and behold, your wife Sarah [will have] a son. And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old in advanced years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am old, will I have pleasure? And my Lord is old. And YHWH said to Abraham: Why did Sarah laugh and say, Will I indeed bear a son now that I am old? Is anything too hard for YHWH? (vv 1-2, 10-14).
[Introduction]
When Abraham was seventy-five years old, God told him to leave his country and his home and go to the land of Canaan. God promised Abraham that he would make him into a great nation, and that ALL people would be blessed through him and through his descendants. Though Abraham was childless, he followed God’s words: Abraham took Sarah, a few relatives, and all their possessions to this new land in which they were strangers and foreigners (Gen 12:1-5).
In Genesis 13[:14-18] and 15[:6], the Lord reaffirmed his promise to Abraham. He told Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. It’s written that Abraham believed the Lord’s word ... that is, he had been given faith to receive it ... and God counted it to him as righteousness. Abraham trusted what God said, even without any evidence, and through that faith, that reliance on the Lord’s Word of promise, Abraham was declared righteous before God.
2.
In today’s reading, Abraham is ninety-nine years old, and his wife Sarah still has had no children. She is 89, well past the age of childbearing. But Abraham is still clinging to the word of the Lord’s promise, despite the fact that ... humanly speaking ... it seems impossible that Sarah can bear a son. You can imagine how their faith must have been tested in these twenty-four years. The waiting must have seemed endless and futile at times. It appears that Sarah has all but given up on the promise. She laughed at the idea (v 12). But in the midst of his weakness, Abraham continues to treasure God’s Word.
Advent is all about that sort of waiting ... waiting in humble faith ... went for Christ to come. Not only did Abraham wait for the fulfillment of the promise, not only did the people of Israel wait for the coming of the Messiah, now we too wait for the fulfillment of salvation on the Last Day at the second Advent of Christ. As we prepare to celebrate Jesus’ first Advent, we pause to meditate on the fact that much of the Christian life is characterized by waiting ... looking forward in hope ... longing for what is yet to come.
Sometimes the wait is discouraging. Doubts begin to creep in: Is the promise really real?
We then begin to turn the focus of our hearts to other things that give us more immediate results and gratification. We push the promises of Christ to the side instead of eagerly anticipating their consummation.
Patient waiting doesn’t come easily for us sinners. But it is written in the Psalm 27[:24]: Wait for YHWH; be strong, and let your heart take courage. It is written in Psalm 130, verses 5 and 7, I wait for YHWH, my soul waits, and in his word I hope. ... O Israel, hope in YHWH. For with YHWH there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.
The prophets encourage our waiting. Isaiah says, It will be said on that day, Behold, this is our God; we waited for him, and he caused our salvation. This is YHWH. We waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation (Isa 25:9). And Jeremiah: YHWH is good to those who wait for him (Lam 3:25).
1.
We see that steadfastness being demonstrated here in the life of Abraham and Sarah. In his grace, the Lord comes to Abraham to announce that the waiting is almost over. YHWH appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre (v 1). Abraham then prepares a special meal for his special guest. And in the context of that meal, given by God, the Lord confirms the promise again: I will surely return in the time of life, and behold, your wife Sarah [will have] a son (v 10). The angel of the Lord did the same for Joseph, albeit in a dream. He announced Mary’s pregnancy by the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you will call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins (Mt 1:21).
Sarah and Mary’s reactions though were quite different. When Sarah heard the Word of the Lord, she laughed and said to herself, After I am worn out, and my [husband] is old, will I have pleasure? (v 12). Sarah focused entirely on the implausibility of the whole concept. While Mary also wondered how she, a virgin, could conceive, she didn’t doubt the Word. Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word (Lk 1:38). Mary responded in faith, focusing not on what was humanly impossible but on what was divinely possible. Sarah, on the other hand, when confronted, tried to deny that she had laughed, but the Lord then posed the rhetorical question: Is anything too hard for YHWH? (v 14). The obvious answer is no,
NOTHING IS TOO HARD FOR THE LORD
The angel said to Mary, With God nothing will be impossible (Lk 1:37).
And so it came to be that a ninety-nine-year-old woman gave birth to a son.
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Is anything too hard for YHWH? Certainly not!
He not only causes miraculous births, he saves poor, miserable sinners who were dead in their sin and trespasses. Do you remember when Jesus’ disciples were despairing that even the most exemplary people on earth are not good enough to get into heaven. They lamented in Matthew 20, Who then can be saved? So Jesus reminded them, With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God (Mt 20:27).
Not even the best of us can enter the kingdom of God by our own reason or strength.
But God has made the impossible possible through Christ. Even when you were dead in your sin and trespasses, God gave you eternal life (Eph 2:5). Even when you couldn’t go to God, even when we couldn’t see him (1 Jn 4:12), he showed up in the flesh, born of the Blessed Mother of God. We poor sinners were saved by the holy birth, life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. On account of the work of Christ, God has made us alive together with Christ.
Nothing is too hard for the Lord, not even saving us.
That is the Word of the Lord that God calls you to have faith in.
Abraham had faith that nothing is impossible with God. Abraham had faith, as Romans 4 says, that [God] gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope [Abraham] had faith against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told. So shall your offspring be. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he promised (Rom 4:17-21).
God brought life out of death. He opened the womb, and Sarah gave birth to a son. They called him Isaac, which means “he laughs.” For where Sarah had laughed before, God had now brought laughter and joy to Abraham and Sarah and Isaac by fulfilling his promise.
2.
And God has done the same thing for us. He has brought life out of death. He has given us joy and laughter through the birth of God in the flesh. The long-awaited promise of the Savior has been fulfilled. Jesus carried our sin to the cross. Jesus set you free from sin and fear and death. As God declares in the Book of Hebrews, I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins, and their iniquities I will remember no more (Hb 8:12).
In him, we have hope in the midst of this hopeless, impossible, fallen world. In God and his cross and resurrection, we truly are children and descendants of Abraham. For remember, Abraham was father to Isaac, Isaac to Jacob, and Jacob to the twelve tribes of Israel. Out of Israel came the Messiah Jesus, and we have been baptized into Christ. He has united himself with us, giving us faith that receives the promises of God. Therefore, Abraham truly is our father as Christians. It is written in Galatians, If you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s offspring (Gal 3:29). Just as Abraham was reckoned righteous before God by faith (Rm 4:3), so are we who trust in God’s promises ... in his means of grace ... in Christ.
God has done for us just what he did for Sarah and for Mary. He has conceived new and eternal life in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Out of the barrenness of our sin, he has created a living faith that receives his Word and Sacraments that deliver true peace, the forgiveness of sins. Nothing is too hard for the Lord.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.