“Is Anything Too Hard For The Lord?”
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin Articles Tags: Bulletin Article on God's AbilityWhen the messengers of God told Sarah and Abraham that they would have a son despite their great age — Abraham being ninety-nine years old and his wife Sarah ninety — Sarah’s reaction was perfectly understandable:
“Sarah laughed within herself, saying, ‘After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?’” (Genesis 18:12).
However, let us seriously consider the reply of God 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” (Genesis 18:13-14).
God did not see the impossible when He foretold what would happen to Sarah and Abraham. In fact, nothing the Almighty purposes to do is beyond His power to accomplish (Isaiah 55:11; cf. Numbers 11:23 – NKJV; Jeremiah 32:17; Matthew 3:9; Matthew 19:26; Mark 10:27; Luke 1:36-37; Luke 18:27).
Of course, Sarah quickly denied that she had laughed, but God knew better when He remarked: “No, but you did laugh!” (Genesis 18:15). God was not angry at Sarah’s normal reaction — quite the contrary, He completely understood why Sarah reacted as she did. She didn’t question God’s ability — she questioned her husband’s ability to impregnate her and her own ability to conceive. This conclusion is supported by the Hebrew writer, who noted:
“By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised” (Hebrews 11:11).
This passage clearly shows us that Sarah never doubted God’s power — “she judged Him faithful who had promised” — but rather her own. And Sarah “received strength” to do what God wanted her to do.
On one occasion when Jesus’ disciples asked Him, “Who then can be saved?” He answered them saying:
“With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:25-26).
We have to remember that though we as frail human beings are limited, our God is not limited! Like Sarah, if we judge God faithful to keep His word, He can enable us to accomplish what we believe we cannot. Can we save our own soul? Obviously not, but God has provided the means (the gospel — Romans 1:16; 1 Corinthians 1:18), if we but trust Him and act in faith — “with no doubting” (James 1:6).
Thus Sarah did conceive and bore the son that God had promised in the exact time frame that He had promised (Genesis 17:21; Genesis 21:1-2) — Isaac — A name that means “the laughing one” in Hebrew. As a result, Sarah stated:
“God has made me laugh, so that all who hear will laugh with me” (Genesis 21:6).
Sarah laughed with joy, knowing that God had enabled her to achieve the apparently unachievable. The apostle Paul once affirmed:
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
As followers of Christ, if we will fully embrace this statement with confident faith in the Lord’s power, we too can “laugh” as Sarah did, and accomplish in Christ’s service what we thought we could never accomplish (cf. Romans 4:12-21).