Day 2 of 12
Sarah: Laughing at the Impossible
When God's Promise Defies All Reason
Scripture Readings
Today's Reading
Read Genesis 18:10-14: "The LORD said, 'I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.' And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him... So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, 'After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?' The LORD said to Abraham, 'Why did Sarah laugh?... Is anything too hard for the LORD?'"
Then read Hebrews 11:11: "By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised."
Reflection
Sarah's story is a story about the distance between promise and fulfillment — and what happens to faith in that gap.
God had promised Abraham a son decades earlier. Sarah was young then, or at least young enough for the promise to seem plausible. But the years passed. Ten years. Twenty years. Twenty-five years. Sarah went through menopause. Abraham grew old. The promise began to look not just unlikely but absurd.
So when three visitors arrived at the tent of Mamre and announced that Sarah would have a son within the year, she laughed. Not the laughter of joy — the laughter of a woman who had given up. "After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?" It was the bitter laugh of someone who had been disappointed too many times.
God's response is one of the most important questions in the Bible: "Is anything too hard for the LORD?" The Hebrew word translated "hard" is yippale — it means "wonderful, extraordinary, beyond comprehension." God is not asking whether He is moderately capable. He is asking whether there is any limit to what He can do.
The remarkable thing is what happens next. Hebrews 11:11 tells us that Sarah came to faith. Despite her laughter, despite her doubt, she ultimately "considered him faithful who had promised." Her faith was not instantaneous or uncomplicated. It was hard-won, wrested from decades of disappointment. But it was real. And through that faith, the impossible happened: Isaac was born, and the line of promise continued.
Going Deeper
Sarah's story gives permission to be honest about doubt. She laughed at God — and God did not strike her down or withdraw His promise. He challenged her doubt and then fulfilled His word anyway. Faith does not require the absence of doubt. It requires choosing to trust the One who promised, even when everything visible says the promise is dead.
The name Isaac means "he laughs." Every time Sarah spoke her son's name, she was reminded that God had the last laugh — turning her bitter laughter into the laughter of incredulous joy.
Key Quotes
“Abraham and Sarah are the beginning of a family through whom God's plan to rescue the world will be put into effect. The point is not just that God can do remarkable things with elderly couples but that God's plan of salvation works through the most unlikely people.”
“God always works through people, and often through the most unlikely people, to bring about His purposes for the world.”
Prayer Focus
Asking God to strengthen your faith in His promises, especially the ones that seem impossible from where you stand today
Meditation
Is there a promise of God that you have privately laughed at — not out of joy, but out of disbelief? What would it look like to take God at His word?
Question for Discussion
Sarah laughed at God's promise and then denied that she laughed. Have you ever found yourself doubting a specific promise of God while outwardly professing faith? How did God respond to your doubt?