Abraham Series 08
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Is Anything Too Hard for the Lord?
Is Anything Too Hard for the Lord?
And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. He 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 said, “O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quick! Three seahs of fine flour! Knead it, and make cakes.” And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man, who prepared it quickly. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
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.”
INTRODUCTION
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1 ABRAHAM’S HOSPITALITY, vv. 1-8
The sun sits high on its perch above Abraham’s camp, outside the town of Hebron, under the great trees of Mamre. The morning chores are finished, sheep, donkeys and camels gathered together in the shade, the workers are back in their tents. It is time for the customary siesta. Everyone rests when the scorching heat at midday is too much for humans to be working. Abraham is sitting at the entrance of his tent, enjoying the shade, enjoying the chance to rest.
Precisely at the time he is dozing off to sleep - Abraham’s siesta is interrupted. When the man of faith peers out through the shimmering heat waves - much to his surprise, there are three men, standing outside. Verse 2 says: “… they were standing in front of him.”. He didn’t hear them coming - didn’t see the approach - this is not exactly the middle of a busy, noisy city - you would expect to be aware of someone approaching. There was nothing. They are just, suddenly here - standing in front of the man of faith.
Now, standing outside a tent is the Ancient Near Eastern equivalent of someone knocking at your door today. They are waiting for an invitation. Abraham sits up - and acknowledges them. But he doesn’t just ‘acknowledge’ their presence.
As soon as he sees them … Verse 2, “… he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth.”
He begs the travellers to stay and refresh themselves at his place. This is not the time of day when anyone should be out in the oppressive heat.
Verse 4, “Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.”
Now, hospitality like this isn’t strange in Abraham’s ancient near eastern world. In fact, in a world where there are no gas stations along the road, no fast food restaurants conveniently placed at the freeway exits every few miles - and no motels to stop at for an overnight rest - in that society, with its harsh climate, on top of the other challenges - if a guest shows up at your door, you are responsible for that guest’s needs and safety as long as he or she is under your roof. Abraham didn’t receive this kind of treatment when he was a visitor down in Egypt and as we will see next week - things don’t work out quite the same when these same visitors show up in Lot’s city of Sodom. But Abraham is being a GOOD host.
“Go ahead … Do as you have said”. The guests accept the offer.
Now Abraham’s offer is so modest … ‘a LITTLE water and a MORSEL of bread ...”. But look at what he does.
First, see the way he springs into action. Verse 6: “Abraham went quickly into the tent, to Sarah ...”. He doesn’t say, “Sarah, honey - some guests have shown up at the door, do you think we could put a little extra water into the soup, so we can share our dinner with them?” No - look at the text:
“Quick! Three seah’s of fine flour! Knead it and make cakes.” In fact, notice how, throughout this story, the man i in a hurry. Verse 2, “When he saw them, he RAN from the tent door to met them ...”; verse 6, “(He) went QUICKLY into the tent, to Sarah ...”. He says to her, “QUICK! Three seahs of flour ...”.
Then, verse 7, “Abraham RAN to the herd and took a calf ....”. At the end of the verse: “… gave it to a young man, who prepared it QUICKLY.” The sleepy camp flies into turbo mode.
These preparations happen full speed ahead and are covered in three short verses - verses 6-8. But you know they took hours - bread has to be made, a calf has to be butchered and barbecued.
Remember how all this started? Just let me bring you a little water to keep you hydrated, and so you can clean your feet … and I’ll bring you a morsel of bread to keep you alive.” No pretence at all. But what does he actually serve them? Water and bread turns into a lavish banquet for his guests: three seah’s of grain … that’s six gallons of fine flour. Centuries later, when David was on the run from Saul, with his band of outlaws - and starving - Abigail comes to meet them - she feeds them and gives them provisions for the road - and does it all with 5 seahhs of grain. We’ve got just three visitors here - that’s a lot. This is more than they can possibly eat.
And a whole, choice and tender calf (in a society where fresh meat is not a normal part of the diet) - with a side of yoghurt and milk to enhance the flavour. This becomes a royal banquet. This is the polar opposite of Cain. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” - he asked, when not only did he fail to offer anything to help sustain Abel and keep him alive. Far from it, he actively murdered hi own flesh and blood brother.” Abraham is showing extravagant hospitality.
Finally, the feast is ready and the host serves it up and Verse 8 ends with him, standing by them under the tree while they eat. You can almost picture him, like a waiter at the Keg, “Hi, my name is Abraham, and I’ll be taking care of you today.”
Now, what’s going on here? The Bible isn’t overly concerned with keeping records of ancient dinner menus.
The text tells us what this narrative is all about. Verse 1: “And the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre ...”.
This is a theophany - There are three men who show up on Abraham’s doorstep … and one of them is none other than the LORD of the universe - he’s here with 2 angels.
Does Abraham know who he’s hosting? Commentators are divided. Some think that he does know it - that’s why he bows himself to the earth and calls one of the visitors, ‘Lord’. We can’t be 100 percent certain, but I would agree with the commentators who say, “No - Abraham doesn’t know who he’s welcoming … not at FIRST.” He doesn’t fall on his face. There’s something different about these three, for sure … but the LORD and His angels seem to conceal their identity from Abraham, when they show up. This is one of those places the writer to the Hebrews is thinking about when he says, in ...
Hebrews 13:2 “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”
The man of God is a model of godly hospitality. There’s application here for us today. Christians don’t serve a Lord we can see in a visible body. But we can’t forget that in his parable of the final judmgment, Jesus commended those who fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, welcomed strangers, clothed the naked, cared for the sick and visited those in prison. Remember the reason for the
Matthew 25:40, “… as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it unto me.”
Hear this, brothers and sisters of Maranatha - you have a well-earned reputation for following the Lord in this area: Keep it up. Your love in action, behind the scenes - it isn’t trivial. When you are hosting people for Easter dinner, driving brothers and sisters to doctor’s appointments, checking in on them with a text or a phone call, giving a financial gift to someone in the church who’s struggling … you are bearing the mark of being a child of Abraham, by faith. You are evidencing that you love the Jesus who saved you, who you cannot see right now. So, keep loving lavishly - your labour isn’t for nothing.
Having said that, the centre of this story isn’t Abraham’s hospitality … the centre of this story and every other page of Scripture - is the glorious character of our God.
That’s what starts the chapter: “And the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre ...”. Don’t miss the wonder of this.
This is God here - walking through the ugly section of town - Lot chose the beautiful area of the land … Abraham took the leftovers. But here is the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, paying him a visit, accepting his hospitality, eating his food, sitting under his tree. Do you see what that tells us about God’s character?
It’s mind-blowing enough that God would walk with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day, in the paradise of Eden - BEFORE the Fall. But after our human rebellion against Him … here on a scorched outpost, next door to the city of Sodom, that’s facing judgment … that He would visit His servant … and eat HIS FOOD?!
Solomon builds the magnificent Temple in Jerusalem, as the place for the eternal God to dwell on earth - and then he’s overwhelmed with the seeming futility of all of that effort.
1 Kings 8:27 ““But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!” It blows the mind.
How much more so, when God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, doesn’t just choose a temporary building to call home … but joins himself to human flesh and takes on a human nature - for all eternity. Jesus is no Christophany - He is fully God and Fully man - come to save a hell-bound race - by joining himself to us.
Remember Jesus - looking up into the tree at Zaccheus -that wee little man - and crooked, to boot. “Zaccheus, come down right now, for I MUST stay at your house today.”
After the resurrection, he walks into the humble accomodations of two disciples he met up with on the road to Emmaus - and breaks bread with them there - but only after he walked with them from Jerusalem, trying to dry their tears as they went.
Remember him, on the night he would be betrayed - in that upper room, looking around at the friends he had poured his life into for the past three years, knowing the suffering that he was going to endure in a matter of hours; knowing that every single one of these men will abandon him, in his time of greatest need, to suffer alone - and still, with love in his eyes, he takes the bread, he blesses it, breaks it - and gives it to them - He FEEDS THEM.
Remember what this Jesus says, in the book of Revelation to the church at Laodicea - and to every Christian everywhere: “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and eat with him and he with me.”
What a fitting message for us on this Communion Sunday morning.
Andrew Bonar once said to his people at a Lord’s supper celebration: ‘Jesus is walking today among the seven golden candlesticks, and he will stop here, at our Communion Table, to see if any of you want anything from Him.’ That is the friendship of the Lord.
If you feel that God is anything less than a perfect friend who wants tofeed you … then the problem isn’t that He is reluctant, or locked up in a distant heaven. The problem is our sin.
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2 PROMISE MEETS REALISM, vv. 9-12
In verse 9, the frantic pace slows right down and Abraham isn’t ‘doing’ any more - he’s standing under the tree, watching his guests eat. Now the LORD takes the initiative. There is a lull in the dinner conversation - and the guests ask the host a question,
Verse 9, “Where is Sarah, your wife?”
Wait a minute - these stangers have never met his wife. How do they know her name? Sarah made much of this meal, but she hasn’t been seen at all. This is the first undeniable clue that these are not ordinary travellers at his table.
We get a picture here, of the accomodation of the Incarnation - this is a way of expressing God’s involvement in his world - He is walking through the scorching heat of the day with His people and, in His grand all-knowing character ... He knows them by name.
He asks where she is. That’s a rhetorical question. The LORD knows what Sarah is doing behind his back … He knows full well where she is.
Abraham answers the question, but before he even has a chance to go get his wife, so she can come back and take a bow for her part in the banquet … the LORD speaks … and He makes a promise.
Genesis 18:10 “The Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.”
Now hang on - if you’ve been with us on our journey through Abraham’s life, so far, you know that this is far from the FIRST promise from God that this couple is going to have a child. It’s the promise that has driven this story, since God called Abram from his home in the far off city of Ur. That was 25 years ago. Is this another in a long line of promises that Abraham and Sarah are going to have a child? Well, it is - but it isn’t JUST that. Notice how specific this promise is:
Verse 10 - the LORD says, “I will surely return to you about this time next year ...”. There’s a date on the calendar. NEXT YEAR … “I’ll be back and we’ll be having a baby shower for your new son.”
That’s what God says.
But we’re two and half decades into the wait … we’ve seen nothing yet. And unforgiving time keeps marching on. Just in case you forget the challenges in Abraham and Sarah every having a child … especially together - the narrator remins us and reminds us and reminds us again.
Verse 11, “… Now Abraham AND Sarah were old ...”. That’s not all, “Tey were ADVANCED in years ...”. And, just in case we’re still not getting it, he goes on, “… The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah.” Menopause is in her rear-view mirror.
If there was always a fertility problem that would take a special work of God to overcome for this couple of faith … now that problem has been compounded by the effects of old age. To be blunt: When it comes to reproduction - Sarah’s body is already dead.
“I’m coming back next year for the baby dedication,” God says.
I’m reminded of the, “Far Side” cartoon that has two miniscule spiders at the bottom of the slide on a children’s playground. They’ve just spent days weaving a giant web, that stretches from the safety bar on one side of the slide to the bar on the other. One spider says to the other, “If we pull this off, we’ll eat like kings.”
Well, from a human point of view - those spiders had a far greater chance of feasting than Sarah does of having a baby.
And it turns out that Sarah is standing, just on the inside of the tent flap, hearing everything that’s being said outside … and verse 12 tells us her response:
Genesis 18:12 “So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?””
Sarah gets it. She laughs. The verse tells us she laughs to herself - nobody hears … but she laughs at this promise - how could she not?
Her flesh is shriveling, she cannot imagine having pleasure again … and, besides, her husband is old - he’s pushing 100!
The couple has accepted barrenness as normal.
“Come on, LORD … be realistic! Can’t you see the situation for what it is?”
Oh but friend, the God of the covenant doesn’t just DRAW near … He draws near to DISRUPT our normal.
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3 IS ANYTHING TOO HARD FOR THE LORD? vv. 13-15
Sarah hears the promise and laughs. But verse 12 tells us that she laughs, ‘… TO herself’. In other words - this is a silent laughter and her words are unspoken words. But the LORD hears anyway and He proves it - He responds to her doubt by repeating her words:
Genesis 18:13 “The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’”
Notice that he leaves out the part about Abraham benig an old man. I would say that’s just tactful … after all, there’s no point in discouraging the guy about his virility a the very time he’s expected to cohabit with his wife so they can finally have their son.
But the point is: God knows every inner thought - whether the thoughts of humans or angels. Whether you are in a tent, in a hardscrabble corner of the Ancient Near East, or a 21st century New York penthouse. Whether you are studying for a test, at your bedroom desk - or deep in the back rooms of government power, making decisions for millions … no human being has ever had a thought that God does not fully know. He has never been taken by surprise; never forgotten anything - He has never had to guess at anything.
All it takes is one sentence for Sarah to understand that her unspoken thought is fully known by God. Hagar, face to face with death in the desert, learned that God SEES her; Sarah learns here that God sees INSIDE her. As her descendant David would put it centuries later, in Psalm 139 ...
O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.…
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
A. W. Tozer has summed up the truth of divine omniscience this way:
“God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters, all mind and every mind, all spirit and all spirits, all being and every being, all creaturehood and all creatures, every plurality and all pluralities, all law and every law, all relations, all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas, all feelings, all desires, every unuttered secret, all thrones and dominions, all personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven and in earth, motion, space, time, life, death, good, evil, heaven, and hell.”
This is your God, Christian.
And notice that He doesn’t stop by calling Sarah out for her lack of faith. He does that … but He keeps right on speaking - He asks a question: Genesis 18:14, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
Stop right there. That question is the key to understanding this whole story. It’s a rhetorical question. God isn’t asking it because He’s not quite certain Himself … He’s asking the question to force Abraham and Sarah to engage their minds: It is NOT reasonable to believe that a 100 year old man and a 90 year old woman can have a baby - when the woman has been barren all her life and is now procreatively dead.
… Oh, but when you add the living God, who created the cosmos - to the equation … then, NO - MOST DEFINITELY, NOTHING IS 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.””
See the grace of God on display here: Sarah laughs at the impossible promise of God - and that unbelief doesn’t abort, or hold up the fulfillment. She’s going to conceive right on schedule, whether she thinks she can or not.
Verse 15, she lies: “But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh”, for she ws afraid. Just like Abraham deceived years before, when he was afraid of what the Egyptians would do to him so they could take his wife … Now it’s Sarah’s turn - she’s afraid because she has laughed at a word of commitment from God himself. She’s already committed the sin of unbelief - and now she breaks the ninth commandment to cover up the other one: “You shall not bear false witness ...”.
Still - God’s promise stands firm. He calls her on it. “I did not laugh” … “No, but you DID laugh”.
..... Just remember that next year.
We read God’s words, “Is anything to hard for the LORD?” … and we want to apply it to our own lives. I hope you do - this word is FOR YOU. But there’s a temptation to name what I want and expect it from God. Verse 14 is not teaching that God will do anything incredible for you if you simply name what you want, claim it for yourself … and exercise enough possibility thinking to get it.
What it DOES teach is that God will do nothing less than everything He has promised - even though it is completely unreasonable.
It is not reasonable for 90 year old Sarah to expect a child with her 100 year old husband. “Next year ...
It’s not reasonable for me to expect that a holy God would take a sin-stained wreck like me and rescue me from the mess I’ve made of my life. But there’s the promise in Ephesians 1:7, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,”
It’s not reasonable that God would put up with my fickle love for Him - AFTER I’ve tasted the sweetness of His grace and lovingkindness. The return on His investment in my life is so pitiful. Surely He’s going to get sick of me. And yet there’s the promise in John 6:37, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”
It’s not reasonable to expect that people with physical bodies who die will be physically resurrected from the dead - especially after years and decades of decomposing. And yet, at every single Christian graveside, I look around at grieving loved ones and declare with all the confidence of God’s Word, and all the assurance that the resurrection of Jesus Christ Himself brings: “Where O death is your victory? Where O Grave is your sting?” .... “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command … and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left,will be caught up together with them in the clouds to met the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”
O the comfort that brings.
And in the meantime, when you look at the society we live in right now - it’s NOT reasonable to believe that there could be any future for the Christian Church … Not HERE. But Jesus himself has promised: “I WILL build my Church and the gates of hell will not be able to stand against it.”
Is ANYTHING too hard for the LORD?
CONCLUSION
In 1967, teenager Joni Eareckson took a dive that changed her life forever. Many of you are familiar with her story - She was 17 years old, swimming in the Chesapeake Bay, misjudged how deep the water was, dove in and broke her neck. We’ve spoken about her before. But there’s an important point about her story that’s missed— a point that gives us a glimpse into how God works out his promises in our circumstances.
When Joni found herself in a hospital room - a quadraplegic - unable to move her arms OR her legs - she went through the normal stages of grief - denial, anger, bitterness, suicidal thoughts and doubts about God.
She got to the place where she came to terms with her reality and When Joni began to confront her paralysis, some friends encouraged her to have the faith that God could miraculously heal her. After all, “nothing is too hard for God.”
As she explored this faith, she struggled with the difference between faith that God could heal her and faith that God would heal her. Would it take just as much faith to believe that God would heal her spirit without healing her body and use her in his service regardless of her limitations?
Healing her body would be a hard thing for God to do … it would be a miracle. But Joni came to the place where she concluded: “Doesn’t God ALSO do a hard thing when he uses any of us DESPITE our limitations?
If you had told Joni then that fifty years later, in the future she would be an award-winning author of more than 48 books (translated into dozens of languages), founder of Joni and Friends - a Christian ministry to disabled people that runs numerous programs across the US and around the world that put her in the national and international spotlight, as a spokesperson for the disabled ...
that she would be an advisor to multiple presidents, serving on national councils,
That she would produce 51 episodes of Joni and Friends TV, record several musical albums, star in an autobiographical movie of her life ...
… that she would be An inspirational and conference speaker whose radio broadcasts are being aired by over one thousand stations daily AND an internationally known mouth artist - renowned for the paintings she does with a brush held between her teeth ...
she may have thought that healing her paralysis would be the easier miracle for God. As it turns out, Joni’s faith that she could be transformed was of far more use to God than her faith that she could be healed.
What God is about to do to fulfill His promise to Abraham is something TOO wonderful even for his own people to imagine … And that, friend, is the way He is at work today. Anyone here feeling barren or broken, with a difficulty you face that seems too much for even God himself to fix - if He cared enough to try?
Hear His own words to Sarah - hear God speak them to you - because He doesn’t change: “Is anything too HARD for the LORD?!”