Sermon Tone Analysis

Sarah Laughed[1]

 

They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?”

And he said, “She is in the tent.”

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.

Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years.

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?”

The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’

Is anything too hard for the Lord?

At the appointed time I will return to you about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.”

But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid.

He said, “No, but you did laugh.”

[2]

 

Among the most difficult sermons I am called to deliver are those for Mother’s Day.

Some may consider me emotionally crippled because of glaring deficits from my childhood.

Certainly, it was difficult to grow to manhood without the presence of a mother, but I rejoice in the love which my father lavished on me.

You whose mothers are still living are no doubt remembering the loving sacrifice and patience you experienced in your childhood years.

Those whose mothers have crossed over to that fairer home, no doubt still recall tender scenes of home, and the sweet memories of loving mothers will no doubt cause great rejoicing as they reflect on their heritage.

I have no such sweet memories of mother and home, but I do have warm memories of my grandmother who in later years frequently said: “I had to love Mike; no one else would.”

For all that, I am glad that we have a day of recognition for the mothers of our nation.

The day has come to hold sweet connotations for me as I focus my attention on the wife God has provided me—the mother of my children.

I have frequently made much of Mother’s Day for her sake.

Perhaps I have made too much of a fuss about the day, but it was because I had no one else on whom I might focus attention on that day.

Therefore, from a day which left me confused and hurt, the holiday has grown into a day of true celebration of the treasure God placed within my home to enrich my life.

I realise that in many homes today, however, there remains an underlying current of grief.

Though outwardly those couples smile and provide an illusion of gaiety, inwardly they grieve because there are no children to grace the home.

Nor is this absence by their choice.

The couple longs for a child—desires a baby in the home.

For whatever reason, God has withheld children from that home and the wife is ever so aware of her condition which gives her deep sorrow.

In a former congregation I pastored, within the membership was a dearly loved family who longed for a child.

This couple was then approaching the age when it was a biological impossibility to have a child and they were heartbroken.

They never said a word in public about their sorrow, but in private, they often spoke of their confusion and their grief.

I learned something of the trauma of a childless home from that dear couple.

I pity the man who has never known the joy of holding his own child.

Likewise, I pity the individual who has not known the pleasure of watching her child or his child grow in grace and stature.

I truly grieve for that woman who has never known the joy of holding her own child, marvelling at the grace of being permitted to participate in the process of creating a life.

I grieve even more for such a couple when they are pronounced as incapable of bearing children … when it seems that God has kept them from children.

All the rationalisation, all the knowledge that God yet loves them and that He will employ them in some unique manner, does not remove their sorrow, the heaviness of their hearts nor the longing from their hearts.

I am compelled to remind you of the words of Solomon in the *127**th** Psalm*:

 

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,

the fruit of the womb a reward.

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior

are the children of one’s youth.

Blessed is the man

who fills his quiver with them!

He shall not be put to shame

when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

[*Psalm 127:3-5*].

Never speak disparagingly of children.

Though you may consider children today to be less polite then when you were a child, and though the conduct of children may seem to differ in some manner from memories of your own childhood conduct, children are a precious heritage and a gracious reward from God Himself.

It is only our unbelief and sinfulness which leads us into the sin of deprecating the presence of children in the homes of our community and within the precincts of the church.

Background to the Message — Abram and Sarai, though richly blessed of God in many ways and though longing for children, nevertheless remain childless.

God, the Lord, had called Abram to leave the familiar setting of his country and his people, and to leave also his family to trek to a distant land unseen and unknown where God had promised: /I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed/ [*Genesis 12:2, 3*]

For almost twenty-five years, Abram had followed God’s leadership, worshipping the Lord God wherever and whenever he rested.

Repeatedly throughout the years of his travels, the ageing patriarch received promises that he would father a child and that through that child would come rich and eternal blessings to all mankind.

The promises became ever more precise as the years passed, and even the names of this couple were changed by God Himself.

Abram, whose name means *Exalted Father*, received the name Abraham, which means *Father of a Multitude*.

Sarai, which means *My Princess*, was renamed by God Sarah, *Noble Lady*.

Three visitors came to Abraham’s tent and while conversing about judgement of Sodom and Gomorrah, these visitors revealed that within a year’s time Sarah would bear a son.

Sarah, listening at the wall of the tent, laughed.

What would you think, how would you view such a promise if, despite the fact that you received it from the Living God Himself, you were ageing rapidly and approaching the century mark?

Would you still hold onto a promise such as this if your wife were nearly ninety years old?

Sarah had no hope of ever bearing a child!

She no longer was fertile!

What was promised was an impossibility.

Perhaps today with modern technology we can hope to implant a fertile egg and a woman past menopause may bear a child, but we view it more as an aberration than as something to avidly aspire to.

I love my grandchildren, but after they have visited our home, I sometimes comment to Lynda that I raised one set of children and I’m not willing to have another set of children at this late stage of life.

That is part of the joy of grandchildren.

We can enjoy them, spoil them rotten, and then send them home for their parents to worry over.

We can have all the benefits without any of the responsibility.

Though a woman of ninety may want a child, I should expect that it would require quite a bit of talking to obtain the agreement of a scientist to assist in impregnating such an elderly individual.

Do not be surprised that when Abram received the promise that his wife would bear a child, that Sarah, overhearing the promise, laughed.

There are many types of laughter, and not all laughter is jolly or mirthful.

Laughter may be arrogant.

Laughter may bespeak bitterness.

Laughter may betray scorn and derision.

The laughter of Sarah was simply the laughter of unbelief, and the One communicating the promise heard this unbelieving laughter though it was silent to the ear.

I find it interesting that the Lord confronted not Sarah, but Abraham and asked, /Why did Sarah laugh/.

The text instructs us that Sarah had laughed to herself, unaware that those seated on the other side of the wall and on whom she was eavesdropping even realised her presence.

Abraham did not hear Sarah laugh—but God heard.

Overhearing this question, she was greatly frightened knowing that God knew of her unbelief and that she had actually laughed at His promise.

So she burst forth in denial: I did not laugh.

Why would an individual attempt to lie to God?  What can an individual gain by such a vain attempt?

God knows the heart, when even we are deceived by that heart, God knows.

Thus, the Lord simply stated, You did laugh.

It was the first time God had directly addressed Sarah, and His address was in the form of a rebuke.

The Laughter of Unbelief — We may account it a small matter that Sarah would doubt God’s promise; but you must understand that */unbelief is sin/*.

We may reason that Sarah did not realise that included among the three visitors that day was the Lord Himself.

However, the text is quite clear that it was the Lord who voiced the promise yet once more to Abraham.

If Sarah did recognise the visitor speaking as the Lord, her action was all the more reprehensible.

Even if she did not realise at this time that it was the Lord who spoke just beyond the wall of the tent, she had nevertheless received the promise repeatedly during the preceding years.

God had promised Abram that your very own son shall be your heir [*Genesis 15:4*], and the great text which Paul employs to encourage faith in God resulted: he believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness [*Genesis 15:6*].

This is, by the way, the first appearance in the Bible of the word *amen*.

In the Hebrew, the word which is translated believed is the word *amen*.

To say *Amen* is to agree with what is said.

To say *Amen* to God is to believe what He has said.

Think of that the next time you conclude a prayer or voice agreement with what may be said.

Amen?

You may recall that Sarai, knowing that God had promised her husband that he would father a son attempted to apply her own ingenuity to the problem and insisted that he father a child by her maidservant.