Monday,
April 24, 2023
The Lord appeared again to Abraham near the oak
grove belonging to Mamre. One day Abraham was sitting at the entrance to his
tent during the hottest part of the day. He looked up and
noticed three men standing nearby. When
he saw them, he ran to meet them and welcomed them, bowing low to the ground. “My lord,” he said, “if it pleases you,
stop here for a while. Rest in the shade of this tree
while water is brought to wash your feet. And since
you’ve honored your servant with this visit, let me prepare some food to
refresh you before you continue on your journey.” “All right,” they said. “Do as you have said.”
So Abraham ran back to the
tent and said to Sarah, “Hurry! Get three large measures of your best flour,
knead it into dough, and bake some bread.” Then Abraham
ran out to the herd and chose a tender calf and gave it to his servant, who
quickly prepared it. When the food was ready, Abraham
took some yogurt and milk and the roasted meat, and he served it to the men. As they ate, Abraham waited on them in the
shade of the trees. “Where is
Sarah, your wife?” the visitors asked. “She’s
inside the tent,” Abraham replied. Then
one of them said, “I will return to you about this time next year, and your
wife, Sarah, will have a son!” Sarah was
listening to this conversation from the tent. Abraham and
Sarah were both very old by this time, and Sarah was long past the age of
having children. So she laughed silently to herself and
said, “How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when
my master—my husband—is also so old?” Then the Lord said to Abraham,
“Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say,
‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ Is anything too
hard for the Lord? I will return
about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” Genesis 18:1-13
Abraham had no
problem understanding what was happening, and how important his three visitors
were. This was not his first rodeo; many
years prior God had appeared to him and invited Abraham to uproot and become a
follower. On that journey he’d seen the hand
of God move in miraculous provision, protection, and promise-fulfillment. Abraham’s scurrying to get a meal and resting
place ready for this triune theophany visit wasn’t just hospitality, this was
an unannounced blessing of the presence of the eternal, almighty God, Jehovah;
you pay attention, and listen like it’s the most important conversation ever!
If Abraham was busy
thrusting every bit of attention to the Lord’s visit, Sarah simply
eavesdropped. God knew where she was,
but the series of questions was asked out loud for Abraham’s benefit (and Sarah’s
instruction). Where is she? Why did she laugh? Why did she question my announcement of her
pregnancy? Leading questions are
followed by the interrogative that ends excuse-making, and makes your head
spin: Is anything too hard for the
LORD? In the face of laughing at
a promise God makes, you can always expect a challenge of faith. And once God asks you to declare your faith with
a “yes” or “no” the debate is over!
For You Today
If you’ve been on Abraham’s journey
with God for a good while, you certainly know what it’s like to pant, out-of-breath,
just trying to keep-up. And you’re also aware
you don’t question the direction, you just cooperate! You learn that lesson when you laugh like
Sarah, and a brief time later the evidence of how right He was, and how foolish
you were, is getting large in your belly cementing the lesson forever in your
mind. So, the next time God points you
in a direction you hadn’t seen coming, whether it looks possible…good, or bad…or
just too good to be real…try not to laugh.
God’s biggest and best blessings tend to happen in the unplanned and unimaginable!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a
blessed day!
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author)
Title Image: via Pixabay.com Images without citation are in
public domain.
Unless noted, Scripture quoted
from The New Living Translation©
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