Cross a pessimist with a comedian and you get Woody Allen. His brand of off-beat, self-deprecating, hang-dog humor can be sometimes insightful, sometimes depressing, but usually, pretty funny. A sampling of his best one-liners:
“I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam: I looked into the soul of another boy.”
“I’ve often said, the only thing standing between me and greatness is me.”
“Some drink deeply from the river of knowledge. Others only gargle.”
“More than any time in history mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction. Let us pray that we have the wisdom to choose correctly.”
“It’s not that I’m afraid to die. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”
“I feel so much better now that I’ve given up all hope.”
And yet, that’s not so funny after all; can we live without hope? Say what you will about Jesse Jackson, it’s hard to argue with his three-word motto: “Keep Hope Alive”. Jesse understands what is so important for us to understand as Christ-followers, that without hope, life is hardly worth living; in fact, we are hardly even able to live without hope. Paul lists hope, along with faith and love, as the three greatest spiritual virtues. This series is about living by faith; we hear a lot about faith and love, but not nearly so much about hope. Yet it strikes me that these passages give us substantial theological basis for just that: hope!
3 themes emerge from these texts that form the basis for hope in the life of the follower of God: His presence, His power, and His grace.
Our Basis for Hope:
1. God’s Presence
• Physical Appearance to Abraham
When visitors approached a dwelling, it was customary for the owner of the tent to offer a meal to the strangers, winning, at least temporarily, their friendship. It was customary to offer a meal, but then to outdo the original offer, and Abraham does this, coming through with roast beef, which wouldn’t have been a normal part of a meal in these times, as well as milk and yogurt, by-products of the herd as well.
The time of day was the midday siesta, but this does not prevent Abraham from treating these visitors as royalty. At this point, it’s difficult to know whether or not Abraham recognized these visitors as anything other than sojourners who happened by; we cannot be at all sure that he knew that this was a heavenly entourage. Hebrews 13:2 indicates the importance of hospitality, noting that some have even entertained angels without knowing it! But whether or not Abraham was aware at first of the nature of these visitors, we ought to be reminded of our Savior’s words in Matthew 25, when He tells us that we serve Him when we visit those in prison, care for the sick and dying, feed the hungry, and the like.
It’s a bit of a comical picture; Abraham “ran” back to the tent, and said, “Quick, Sarah, bake some bread”. We can imagine Sarah responding by reminding Abe that she was 89, that she no longer did anything particularly quickly, that if he’d hold his camels, she’d get it done as soon as she could. Then Abraham “ran” to the herd and picked out a fat calf for the day’s meal. Here’s a guy who obviously understood that something important was up!
Three visitors; one is the “Lord”. The entire chapter has to be understood in this context: God has chosen to appear (again) directly to Abraham for the purpose of imparting truth to him that he needs to understand. The God of the Bible is “One who makes Himself known intimately and concretely to His covenant people”, said John Sailhamer. In fact, honestly causes us to admit that we do not know precisely the arrangement here. Abraham addresses the three men together as “Lord”; though some have been tempted to see the Trinity incarnate, that seems a stretch. At certain times in the Old Testament, we see what is called a “theophany”, which is a “pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus”. This would seem to be Jesus in a pre-incarnate state, but the other two men are not deity, but rather, most likely, angels. An alternate interpretation would be that the three visitors, taken together, represent the presence of God, instead of any particular one being Jesus Himself; this would be a parallel situation to, for instance, the presence of God being in the burning bush, but the bush not actually being God Himself.
The significance of the visit of the three guests is that we see God being present on the scene, conversing with Abraham, showing up in an unmistakable way. Three times, the Scriptures record that Abraham was a “friend of God”, not the least of which is Isaiah 41:8, where God speaks of “my friend Abraham”. Here, under the oaks at Mamre, were two friends conversing; what an incredible conversation it must have been. And yet, we too have the promises of God regarding His presence:
• Christ’s Promises to Us
• John 15:14-15
Jesus is speaking to His disciples, and by extension to all of His followers, when He says these words: “You are my friends if you obey Me. I no longer call you servants, because a master doesn’t confide in his servants. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father has told Me.” What a source of hope it should be to us that the very God of the universe, and the Savior of all men, Who has every prerogative to be our Judge, instead deigns to refer to Himself as our Friend. And further,
• Matthew 28:20
At the close of what we refer to as the Great Commission—you’ll be hearing more about that in a few weeks—Jesus makes a statement that we usually sort of just run by; He says, “I am with you always.” Again, He is speaking to His apprentices, but by extension, He is speaking to all of us who follow in their train. God is with us. God is with you. His presence is real, whether or not we feel it or sense it. We are never alone, no matter where we are, as Christ-followers. There is reason for hope! But it goes deeper than His presence.
Hope based upon
• God’s presence – but what if He can’t accomplish anything? His presence alone might be little more than the comfort of a puppy…
2. God’s Power
We find several demonstrations of God’s ability in this narrative in chapter 18. First, there is
• God’s Knowledge of Sarah
Sarah was listening in on the conversation in which the Lord reveals the truth that Sarah will give birth to a little baby in a year’s time. The words are spoken to Abraham, but the attention in the text is directed toward Sarah, and her response. She laughs at God; her laughter demonstrates her unbelief in the possibility that this could happen, since she is thinking on a purely human plane, and such things just do not happen! As Kent Hughes said, “It was melancholy, hopeless, and nonbelieving laughter… The fact that she would be rebuked (however mildly) indicates that she had heard the promise from her husband but persisted in unbelief. For the present. Sarah’s faith did not match that of her husband. She inwardly laughed in unbelief.”
Then, she lies to try to cover up her laughing at God—but if it’s true that you can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, you can’t fool God anytime! The Lord calls her on her lie, and reiterates to Abraham the truth of His words, that indeed Abraham and Sarah will become Daddy and Momma. “But how does this visitor know that I laughed under my breath”, Sarah must have been thinking. Again, Hughes says, “Sarah was doused with the reality that God is omniscient or all-knowing. Sweetly and ironically, her future son David would put this reality in unforgettable verse:
0 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, 0 LORD, you know it altogether.:
(Psalm 139:1, 2, 4)
A.W. Tozer had this to say:
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.
God demonstrates His power by virtue of the fact that He knows her laughter, hidden though it was from the view of others. This is an opening for us to understand the important theological point that the writer, Moses, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wishes for us to understand; it is articulated in verse 14.
• God’s Question for Abraham
“Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Sarah was barren, first of all; she and Abraham had been married for many years, but with nothing to show for it by way of children. Next, Abraham was a pretty old fossil himself, 99 years of age (though interestingly enough, after Sarah’s death, the old boy fathered other children by Keturah, his second wife. But most significantly was Sarah’s advanced age, the fact that women at 89 don’t have kids (and that’s a good thing, right?).
How big is your God? Is anything too hard for Jesus? Is there any circumstance of life that you find yourself in that is beyond redemption and relief? Can you outrun the long arm of the Lord? Can you fall so far that Jesus cannot pick you up? With God, all things are possible.
• Christ’s Promises to Us
• Acts 1:8
Jesus promised us the power to be His witnesses, the delegation of His authority to speak and act in His name. When we seek to influence others toward Christ; when we seek to be a witness for Him, we do so knowing that it is the work of the Holy Spirit to empower our efforts. Further,
• Philippians 4:13
Paul says that God will supply the strength we need, the power, if you will, to do whatever it is God asks of us. This is a promise of God that we can take to the bank right now, that Jesus will provide for us the power to live life pleasing to Him. In the event you ever feel incapable of doing right, incapable of overcoming temptation, incapable of coping with a situation, remember that you do, in Christ, have the power you need.
Hope based upon
• God’s power – but what if He isn’t good in the use of His power? His power might destroy me, and thus I hope, not only in God’s presence and power, but finally, in
3. God’s Grace
We can imagine old father Abraham, at the words of the three men, approaching his wife after their leaving with a little grin on his face, and while reminding her of his faith in God’s promise, also reminding her that, “hey baby, faith without works is dead!” And God miraculously opens the womb of the barren woman Sarah, and we see
• God’s Fulfillment of the Promise: Isaac
As we look at chapter 21, we find the fulfillment of God’s years-long promise to Abraham: Isaac, the child of the promise, is born! Can you imagine the celebration in the camp? They’d watched this 90-year-old woman begin to swell with the development of the fetus within her womb—ladies, if you think having a baby was a difficult experience, try to imagine it being 90 years old! But then the day came, and the little baby’s cries were heard throughout the camp, evidence of God’s miraculous goodness in keeping His promises.
Notice the grace of God despite Sarah’s unbelieving laughter: He doesn’t call off the plans; He doesn’t insist that she is out as the mother of a nation. He did chasten her for her unbelief, as we saw in chapter 18, because sin must be dealt with (and unbelief is sin), but at the same time, He shows Himself to be a God of grace in continuing with His promised blessing by providing a child to her.
A key point in reading these verses is to note that twice, in the semi-perfunctory note about the birth of Isaac, do we read the almost matter-of-fact statements, “just as God said it would happen”. It’s not a big deal in one sense; if God says it, then it will happen! We should expect nothing less. Note also the stress on the rightfully-expected response of Abraham: he obeys God just as God has commanded by circumcising young Isaac on his eighth day of life.
:6 – “God has made laughter for me.” – What Abraham had done in incredulous belief, and what Sarah meant as a reproach, an unbelieving mocking of God, almost, God has turned, in His grace, into a tribute of joy, for Isaac means “laughter”. How fitting a name: besides overwhelming thankfulness to God, what else fits better? Abraham laughed at the very idea; Sarah laughed at God’s proclamation; now, they and all the camp laugh with God at His goodness to them in sending the promised son. God’s goodness brings joy that overspills into laughter, and everyone who would greet little Isaac would speak laughter when they spoke his name! As they held their little baby Laughter, these two octogenarian parents laughed. The whole camp was filled with the sound of laughter. And as God saw His own goodness, His own miraculous provision of the promise that would culminate in the eventual coming of His own Son through this godly line, He must have smiled—dare we even say, “laughed”?
• Christ’s Promises to Us
• Romans 3:24
It is by the grace of God that we have been justified, Paul tells us; when God justifies us, we know that it means that we stand before Him just as if we had never, ever sinned. That is your standing before a holy God, on the basis of His grace: He sees you as perfect! If that is not cause for hope, I don’t know what is! There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus—none! And further, we are reminded in
• Hebrews 4:16
“Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it.” When I need God’s grace, I come before Him in prayer, and I find what I need there. Period. Promise of God. Reason for hope. A loving and gracious God stands ready to give me the grace I need.
A formerly-barren old woman and a formerly-idol-worshipping old man, now laughing together with God at the birth of a little baby whom they named Laughter; this is the kind of God we serve, One Who provides for us hope regardless of the circumstance. Keep Hope Alive, because the Bringer of Hope lives!
Hope based upon
• God’s grace – ah, this is the perfect compliment to His presence and His power. He is with me; He has power to work; He is for me.
Without a Net In Your Life
1. In what area(s) of your life do you sometimes struggle to “keep hope alive”? What seems to be “too hard for God”?
2. Which of these three bases for hope is of the most encouragement to you, and why?
3. What other promises of God serve to give you hope?
