Preparing the Bride for GOD’s Story
How do we prepare as the Bride of Christ? One aspect is to learn GOD’S STORY. He created us in His image…. Piece by piece, and peace by peace, we learn to walk as He has walked. And we learn His perspective.
Genesis 18:10-15
“And He said, “I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.”
“(Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him.) Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?”
“And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”
“But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid.
“And He said, “No, but you did laugh!””
The Message
The old and childless woman shall have a baby.
Sarah’s Response
To be in a tent is to have privacy, yet with ears to hear. Sarah heard the men approaching, heard her husband tell them to sit and to eat. She would not necessarily have seen them (unless she saw them coming and went into the tent before they’d arrived), but she knew they were there. And the natural curiosity in humanity would have suggested she’d be listening to whatever these strangers had to say.
When one of them said she’d bear a son, she laughed.
Isn’t it quite natural that she’d laugh — at the impossibility of the spoken word, and perhaps at the joy of it!
The Cover-up and Exposure
It is possible but unlikely that Sarah spoke through the tent. At some point, she may have come outside. Certainly, she was frightened as this is the reason given for her denying she’d laughed. How formidable the guests must have seemed to her.
But the guest held His ground. Jesus is the master of Truth! Yes, she did laugh. But there is no evidence she was in any way punished for it. She was held to account. But she was not punished.
What does it speak to us?
GOD loves us. He may confront us but He promises to us, and He keeps His promises. We can bank on it!
2 Corinthians 1:20 says, “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.”