From Bitterness to Laughter: The Story of Sarah

The woman we meet today described herself in a word we can’t translate easily into English – but which, I think, we might understand very well. Sarah called herself “balah”. Sarah and her husband Abraham were nomadic people – like Bedouins today. Cloth was (and still is) highly valued by nomads. They would use it and when it was too worn to be used for its original purpose, they would utilize it to repair other cloth. Cloth was used over and over and over until it simply could not be used again. Then, when it was so brittle, filthy or thread worn that it could not longer be used at all, it would be thrown out and burned. The word for a completely used up cloth was “balah”, i.e., to wear out a cloth so thoroughly that it is only good to be destroyed. That was how Sarah felt about herself when we see her in Genesis 18. You who are therapists have dealt with a person like Sarah often. If Sarah had shown up for a sermon on “turning points” at LAC, she would have scoffed at the idea. She saw no chance that anything in her life could ever change – but it did. Let’s look at her story.

The Setting: An ancient situation emphasizing an ever-familiar human experience

Many years before we come to Gen. 18, Abraham had received a message (see Gen. 12) from God that he and Sarah would have a child and Abraham would be the father of many nations – bringing blessing to the whole world. As the couple grew older, Abraham went to God wondering if he had heard God’s promise correctly. In a very dramatic and spectacular way, God had reconfirmed his promise to Abraham by sending graphic symbols like a smoking firepot including a blazing torch.

But, Sarah had not been present at either of her husband’s divine encounters. And, by Gen. 16, out of frustration she decides not to trust what God had said to her husband. She decides to help God out by ordering her young, beautiful maidservant Hagar to have a child with Abraham. Of course, Abraham goes along with it. And, Hagar the servant quickly becomes pregnant with Abraham’s child! But, this frustrates Sarah even more. She feels she is cursed. Sarah’s becomes so embittered that she runs Hagar off – even though Hagar had done exactly what Sarah had told her to do.

Many years later, in Gen. 18, Sarah is 90 years old and Abraham is 99. She was convinced that the main thing her society valued in a woman, i.e., the ability to have children, was never to be. Imagine her life: Her relationship with her husband is broken. There is no intimacy in their relationship at all. And, Sarah no longer has a relationship with her own parents and siblings because she and Abraham had long since moved far away. And, she was quite sure that the main thing nomadic people valued in a woman, the ability to have children, was ridiculous even to imagine. Sarah is 99 years old! So, I’m quite sure, she was angry with this God who had spoken with her husband and promised so much – but never carried through. She was bitter. There was no laughter – no pleasure -- in her life. She was “balah” – used up and fit only to be thrown away.

I’ve wondered whether this story of a woman living in a world very different from our own would connect with anyone attending church in Southern California. Do you know of anyone who might have ever felt any of what Sarah felt? Have you? Jesse Oakes, our Pastor to High School Students encouraged me in this. He said: Sometimes dollar bills can get so ratty and worn that they're no longer fit for trade. Banks are incentivized to exchange them and send them back to the fed gov't. The government reclaims them, destroys them, and might print new ones. We read the Bible and see over and over that God reclaims us, but doesn't destroy us; rather, he turns our lives around toward having life-to-the-full, making us (and all things) new. But, I think a lot of people today feel like Sarah did, especially after a big loss – death, breakup, divorce, job-loss, getting rejected from a college, etc. I think a lot of parents feel like this on given weeks, especially single parents.

I think Jesse is right. We all have – or know of people who have – times of feeling like “ballah”. And, I want you to know that God is ready to give us a future. Listen to the words God spoke to another man who felt used up – in Jeremiah 29:11 – “I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

The Turning Point: God comes to us in ways specially suited to the individual.

God spoke to Sarah in a way strikingly different from the way he had spoken to Abraham. There are no fiery pots or flaming swords for her. Instead, the LORD spoke to Sarah by first coming again to Abraham not in a night-vision but while Abraham was doing what he always did in the heat of the day, i.e., he was just sitting at the entrance to his tent in vv. 1-3. Three travelers show up one day at Abraham’s tent. At first, Abraham didn’t even know one of them was the LORD. Some think Abraham knew who the men were because he rushed to provide for them – but I don’t think so. Abraham saw three weary travelers and he did what a good Bedouin would do, i.e., he offered them the hospitality they needed – some food and drink and conversation. But in v. 9, it becomes clear that these men had not really come to see Abraham. They were there for Sarah. The Hebrew storyteller puts it in such a wonderful way: “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked Abraham. Hmm. They knew Sarah’s name. Abraham begins to sense that these were more than just weary travelers.

Remember that they were next to the tent. That means they spoke in a place and a way that they knew Sarah could hear what they would say. Look at v. 10: One of them, (now clearly identified as the LORD) said, “I will surely come to you about this time next year and Sarah your wife will have a son.”

The way the story unfolds makes it clear that this message from God was for Sarah. God’s blessing to the world – a blessing that through one born in Abraham and Sarah's line – has even reached Pasadena, you know. And, that blessing was to come as much through Sarah as through Abraham. And Sarah heard it. Look at her response in v. 12: So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out (ballah) and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

I believe this beautiful story is one of the most misunderstood in the Bible – and I don’t want you to miss it. It’s one of the most moving stories in the Bible as it tells us about the grace and care of our Creator God for each of his people. Let me point out a few things to help you:

1. 1) The laugh (Hebrew, tsa-hak) is a mixture of shock and joy. By laughing, Sarah is not declaring, “That’s ridiculous. I won’t believe a word of it.” She’s communicating something more like, “Can such a good thing be real? Can I truly experience what I have always longed for?” We should note here that Sarah had been faith-less in Ch. 16 when, out of frustration, she had told her servant Hagar to have a child with Abraham. So, you can see how this is a laugh mingled with a lot of emotions: Can God really use me after I’ve disbelieved him? Can God really give my marriage back to me? Can God really give a 90-year-old woman a child by a 99-year-old man? It’s a laugh of mingled joy and shock.

I understand Sarah’s laugh very well. My Mom, who was the 11^th of 11 children in a less than affluent home, was a brilliant person who had to leave school to work in a prisoner camp during World War II. She always regretted not finishing her education and going to college. I’ll tell you: there was no way that her son would not go on to higher education. And she wanted me to go all the way to a PhD. I remember sitting with her and showing her the piece of paper that said Doctor of Philosophy. She was weeping and laughing for joy. She said, “I just really never thought it could happen – that my own son could have a PhD.” That’s the kind of laugh that Sarah laughed. And, the son was named Isaac – (a variation of tsa-hak) “the son of my laughter” – the one who brought “pleasure” back into her heart and soul.

1. 2) Sarah’s comment about this news bringing “pleasure” -- edhenâh -- has to do with the pleasure intended in a marriage relationship, when the two are one. There had been no pleasure in her relationship with Abraham for years. And they were both old! Too old to change. Too worn out to start again. Too late in life to have sexual relationships and family closeness. Her comment is, “Is it really possible that we can have the joyous fulfillment that we are supposed to have in marriage. There had been no “pleasure” of any kind in her relationship with Abraham for a long time. Now, she will have a child? (Think about it – it wasn’t a virgin birth.)
2. 3) The response of the LORD to her in v. 14 was not, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” It was, “Is anything too wonderful (Hebrew, ha-yip-pa-le) for the LORD.” The language draws us back to Genesis 1 when God created by speaking. He says, “God does wonders by speaking things (dabar in v. 14) into being. This is what God does. Remember that he’s the creator. God took the world from chaos to order – from darkness to beauty. God does the miraculous – in his way and in his time. If it seems to good and too wonderful to be true, then is anything too wonderful this kind of powerful, loving, and gracious God?” That’s what the Bible is saying.
3. 4) The response of the Angel of the Lord to her laughter is not one of judgment but of affirmation (v. 15). Sarah embarrassingly says, “I didn’t laugh.” And the LORD says, “No, you did laugh. You haven’t laughed for a long time. But no longer call yourself ‘ballah’. Laugh and keep laughing for I have turned your life around.”

Putting this all together, when Sarah hears the promise from God personally, she knows that God is not done with her yet. She hadn’t trusted God to keep his promise in Gen. 16-17. She had treated her servant poorly. She was filled with self-loathing. But, God is gracious to her. He comes personally and gently to her and turns her life around. The “shalom” that people were made for is still hers to embrace. God was going to reestablish the relationship with him, with her husband and with her world -- relationships for which she was made. All this was so wonderful to her to fathom. The Point: The once worn out and embittered woman became a woman who could laugh again. No longer was Sarah “ballah”. She was beautiful.

The Never-Old Lessons: Real-life encounters teach us about God

There is so much I could say about this deeply moving story but I think the main thing I want you to take home is what Sarah’s turning point teaches us about God. Remember that this is recorded in Genesis – the book that introduces us to God in its opening 3 chapters. Genesis 1-2, as I read it, contains God’s self-revelation as he declares, “I exist. I am God. This is what I am like.” In much of the rest of the Old Testament, we see how the God we meet in Genesis 1-2 deals with people. The Bible is always relevant because of this. Whether a Bedouin woman or a 21^st C Southern Californian, we see issues of human need and longing that are the same. And, the God who created all is the same too. So, what do we see about God in Sarah’s turning point story?

1. God is a God who takes things from chaos to order – from darkness to light – from emptiness to beauty (Gen. 1). The encounters with God we will see will assure us that God meets us not to do us harm but to bring us joy – to renew our pleasure with the life he has given us – to enable us to laugh again. But notice that when God gives, he doesn’t give without changing us. He gives a child, yes – but he gives a new relationship in the marriage. God’s gifts are a part of a plan ultimately to make everything new about us. God gave Sarah a child but he also changed her. Often, we want God to give us something but not to change us. We want to stay self-centered – or always complaining instead of being people who allow God to do what he will in and through us. But, God always has our whole well-being in mind. His gifts to us always are a part of his remaking of our whole lives.
2. God is ready to walk with people (Gen. 2). Gen. 2 uses a beautiful Hebrew idiom that we translate “walk with”. It is an idiom for a very personal and caring relationship. God is not an impersonal force but a loving father. But Eve and Adam didn’t trust God’s goodness. They wanted to rule their own lives. They didn’t want to stay away from the one tree forbidden. So, we see that God requires that we walk with him, obey him and trust his goodness. He is God – not we.

We see this with Sarah. He deals with her very differently from the way he had dealt with Abraham. So, as we tell our stories of our journeys with God in this series of sermons, we dare not expect that God will deal with any of us in exactly the same way. I don’t want you to miss this point. The early Puritans thought that everyone who came to faith in Jesus came the same way: first with and experience of utter darkness and overwhelming conviction of sin. And then a step of grateful faith for the grace of God. Jonathan Edwards’ father doubted the genuineness of the faith of anyone who did not come that way. And then, Edwards himself was drawn to God very differently – simply through reading a passage of Scripture: Now unto the king eternal – the only wise God.” Edwards read that and believed. It took a long time for his father to accept his son’s conversion.

CS Lewis came to God in a way very different his friend JRR Tolkien. After, he would write his Narnia Chronicles to emphasize the different ways God enters into our lives. You remember it don’t you? No one gets into Narnia in the same way as before – but it’s always through Aslan’s drawing us in. So, the way God breaks into our lives will often be very, very different. The Lord met Abraham with a bombastic display of smoke, fire and a flaming torch. And, he met Sarah with a gentle word that brought laughter.

So, let me tell you this: You may not understand what he is doing in your life for a long, long time. Sarah certainly didn’t. In our video testimony we have seen the remarkable way that the Lord was weaving his work into the lives of the Okamotos and the Yamadas. The stories were intertwined but so different. It’s because God is not a force but a person who walks with us. And let me declare this to you: God is worthy of your trust! Sarah should have trusted him even when she did not see what he was doing. She was never “ballah” in the sight of God. He was getting something ready for her that was more wonderful than human words can describe. I know the plans I have for you…

1. God seeks after people (Gen. 3). The God of the Bible did not give up on Adam and Eve even when they disobeyed him – and even when they were hiding in the bushes with fig leaves. God never gave up on Sarah even when she no longer trusted him and when she did some foolish things. Hear me clearly right now: God never gives up on you. You are made in his image. You are not ballah! God seeks after those who have given up on themselves. You are made in his image. He wants you to laugh again.

And that brings us to communion. How much does God love? How much will he sacrifice to give us life? Jesus would say at his last supper, “This bread is my body. It is given for you. This cup is my blood. It is poured out for you. I have come to seek and to rescue the lost. Thieves come to steal, kill and destroy. I have come that you may have life and have it to the full…”