"Sarah Laughed..."

I'm currently re-reading the Bible in 90 days thanks to the lovely folks at YouVersion who designed quite a few Bible reading plans that you can read on your Blackberry.  I read through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation from late June to late September, and I've decided to work through it again.

I tell you this, of course,  to demonstrate how much more spiritual I am than you.

Just kidding.  (But admit it, you were both fired up into judgmental rage against me and simultaneously shamed into picking up your Bible!)

So, I'm re-reading Genesis now and I have a few observations...

First of all, those Old Testament Genesis folks were crazy.

I mean what with all the incest (Lot's daughters getting Daddy drunk so that they can sleep with him) and the "spilling of a man's seed" and sleeping with presumed prostitutes (see also harlots) in Judah's family, the book of Genesis alone has several eerily similar plotlines to Jersey Shore.  Although, admittedly, none of the folks in the book can rock a spray tan like Snookie and "GTL" is never actually mentioned in scripture.

So, one story I just re-read was the story of Abraham and Sarah.  What a faithful couple!

Of course, while waiting for God's promised child to them, Abe and Sarah got impatient.  Sarah, thinking God needed help, seriously handed off her servant Hagar to sleep with her husband, which is a little weird.  Imagine going to your small group (circle of friends, reality group, life group, whatever cool and trendy name you have now applied to a regular Bible study among friends) and having the infertile couple you've been praying for offer up the following:

"Yeah, so we decided that since we aren't getting pregnant that God wants my husband to sleep with the house-cleaner.  We figure that since we can't have kids together, he might as well get her pregnant.  And since she's an illegal alien, it will provide her with an anchor baby, so it's a win-win.  Go God!"

You'd probably give your spouse some knowing looks that say "we are so talking about this in the car on the way home and then later to everyone we know under the guise of a 'prayer request' so as to avoid gossiping!"

It just is a little bit off.

But of course so is the idea of two geezers having a baby when they should be focusing on changing their own diapers.

So, while that has always struck me as weird, I guess I understand that whole not wanting to wait for God and trying to fix things my way approach to faith.

In Genesis 18:10 the LORD promises the following:

10 "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son."

And we also learn here that, "Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him.  Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced ("stricken in age" in the KJV) in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing."

So the LORD makes a promise to Abraham that makes no sense.  Abraham listens intently and probably harbors some confusion and doubt, but it is Sarah that steals the spotlight:

"12  So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, 'After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?'"

I happen to think that laughing is a good thing.  It expresses joy and is medicine to the soul.  However, probably not laughing at God.  I'm sure Sarah didn't mean to be disrespectful to God, but rather was just so overtaken with the lunacy of a prophecy that claims that an elderly woman will have a baby.  A baby that was promised so very long ago.  A baby that probably was unmentionable now after years of disappointment and layers of a deep emotional sadness.  Years spent dealing with the painful ache that only childless infertile couples understand.

The LORD, however, being perfect and all, and able to do EVERYTHING, wanted to touch base with Sarah:

"13.  Then the LORD said to Abraham, 'Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Will I really have a child, now that I am old?'  Is anything too hard for the LORD?  I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son."

In verse 15, Sarah even tried to deny laughing because she laughed when it was inappropriate.  I've been there.  Usually when someone falls.  For some reason, people falling is hysterical to me.  The worse the fall the better.

I personally love the first episodes of Biggest Loser for that very reason.  The 400 pound people are falling on the tread mill, hitting their face on the way down and flying off the back of the treadmill into the wall over and over again.  Usually this footage is re-visited week after week amd I giggle every time.

So, I can understand uncontrollable laughter.

Sarah laughed.

But God showed up and showed her His glory and His faithfulness.

The same God that stopped the sun for Joshua (insert shout out to the "Sun Stand Still" book here) also parted the Red Sea, delivered his people time and time again, and conquered the grave stepped into Sarah's aching disappointment and pain and brought real laughter to her life in the form of Isaac.

Why is it then that we laugh when He tells us He's still in the business of doing big things?

Like Sarah, we must learn to experience the "joy of the Lord" in His strength, not our unbelief and derision.

Like Sarah, we might have to wait for dessert until after we eat our veggies.

Like Sarah, we will find our God faithful.

Now if I could only master that whole not laughing at people when they fall thing...