Trusting God
To help others overcome their skepticism and unbelief, we are first and foremost to trust
God to intervene in their lives.
Here now is Gene Getz:
What we have here for Abraham, is another dilemma.
And the dilemma is simply this: he believed God and God counted him for righteousness (Gn 15:6).
Sarah did not believe God.
And so consequently, she was doubting.
And what did Abraham do?
And this is kudos to Abraham.
He waited.
He didn't try to fix it.
He waited.
Now, he learned a real significant lesson here. See, because God in this case is in control.
And He is the one who's going to deal with Sarah.
And we see that happening here in Genesis chapter 18, verse 1:
"Then the LORD appeared to Abraham at the
oaks of Mamre while he was sitting in the
entrance of his tent during the heat of the day..."
Now, who appeared? The LORD.
And "...he looked up,
and he saw three men standing near him."
Now, we can let our minds wander a bit on the three men. But the fact of the matter is
this is the LORD.
And one of those men represents God Himself.
And God is revealing Himself regardless of the three.
We could say, well that illustrates the trinity. You know--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and so forth.
All we can say is that God was one of those.
God appeared through these three men.
And what we read next is very important because God is now speaking through one of these individuals.
"Where is your wife Sarah?"
they asked him..." That is, all three are involved here.
"...There, in the tent," he answered.
[And then] the LORD said..."
And we don't know which one of the men was
the LORD speaking because the mix is there.
The three. And God is involved there.
And "...The LORD said,
"I will certainly
come back to you in about a year's time, and your
wife Sarah will have a son!"
Now something is interesting here.
Sarah was listening.
And God knew she was listening.
She just didn't know that God was listening. But He was.
"Sarah was listening at the
entrance of the tent behind him..."
And she hear what God said.
"...Abraham and Sarah were old
[and] getting on in years.
Sarah had passed the age of childbearing."
So, when she heard (God say) this man--who she
didn't realize was God--speaking through this man.
"...[So] she laughed to herself..."
Not out loud. But to herself.
This was her moment to laugh.
Like Abraham had done before.
And so she says to herself in her mind:
"After I have become shriveled up
and my lord is old, will I have delight?"
But the LORD asked Abraham,
"Why did Sarah laugh..."
Can you imagine?
Her eyes must have gotten this big because she didn't laugh out loud.
She didn't laugh out loud.
"...The LORD asked Abraham,"
"Why did Sarah laugh, saying,
'Can I really have a baby when I'm old?'..."
and He quotes her thoughts.
He quotes her thoughts.
"...Is anything impossible for the LORD?" God said:
"...[And] at the appointed time I will come back
to you, and in about a year she will have a son. ..."
Now immediately "...Sarah denied it."
And said, "...I did not laugh..."
She lied. But God knew she was lying.
And the reason she lied: she was afraid.
Sometimes fear brings on prevarication.
But God replied, "No, you did laugh."
And God just gave her the message, and left her to ponder that.
Now we're not sure how long she thought about this before she was able to receive the truth.
But in Hebrews, chapter 11, we have a commentary on this event and what happened after this event.
Because we read in Hebrews 11-- she's included there in that great Hebrew hall of faith.
"By faith even Sarah herself, when she was barren,
received power to conceive offspring..."
At some point she believed what God said.
"...even though she was past the age..."
And what activated this? It was her faith.
Even though she was barren.
Just like Abraham in his old age believed God. That God could do this. El Shaddai.
She came to believe that He was the Almighty God. Because we read:
"...she considered that the One who
had promised was faithful."
There was a point during that process where she believed what God said was true.
And you know, I actually believe that's the moment of her conversion to God.
That was her moment of justification by faith.
Just as Abraham was out under the stars, chapter 15, and God said:
as the stars of the heavens so your seed be.
And it says Abraham believed God.
Believed in Him.
And it was counted to him for righteousness.
And just so--at this point in time--years later, Sarah believed and it was counted
to her for righteousness.
And she believed and trusted God.
And there's a very interesting New Testament correlation here with a story.
And I focus that in the question on Reflection and Response:
When Jesus dealt with Thomas and his doubts, how does this event correlate with the way
God dealt with Sarah and her doubts?
Now let me just summarize that for you and you'll see the correlation.
And that is, that after Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead, the disciples were gathered
in a room. Doors were locked.
They were afraid of the Jews.
Things were really tense in Jerusalem.
And Jesus suddenly appeared.
Came through closed doors.
And there He stood.
They could see the print of the nails.
They could see the thrust where the sword went in.
He said: peace be to you [John 20:19].
And they rejoiced because they saw the Lord.
But Thomas was missing.
And then Jesus disappeared.
Thomas came back. Don't know where he was.
Maybe he was going to take off for Galilee and decided, boy, it's too dangerous out there.
And so he came, knocked on the door. And they let him in and he walks in.
And they said: guess who we saw?
We saw Jesus.
He said: I won't believe it.
I will not believe it unless I put my fingers in His hands where the nail prints were.
Unless I thrust my hand into His side [John 20:24-25]
I won't believe it.
A week went by.
This time they were all gathered again.
The doors were locked.
Suddenly, there stood Jesus.
And He walked right over to Thomas and He said: put your fingers in My hand.
Thrust your hand in My side [John 20:26-27].
What do you suppose Thomas thought?
Who told Him what I said?
Just like Sarah had these thoughts in her heart, in her mind.
God knew what she was thinking, knew that she had laughed in her spirit, though she didn't
laugh out loud.
Knew the thoughts of her mind.
And she denied it.
But God said: I know what you were doing and I know what you were thinking.
And just so with Thomas, He walked over. Took the thoughts out of his mind that he said--
I don't know--three days before. Or a week before.
Put your hand right here, Thomas. Because I heard what you said even though I wasn't here.
And what did Thomas do?
He fell on his knees and he said: my Lord and my God [John 20:28].
You see the correlation?
How God reached out to him in his search,
and revealed Himself so that he might have faith? Some point--at some point that happened to Sarah.
Because in Hebrews we read that she too,
by faith, conceived and bore the child Isaac.
And God of course counted that to her as righteousness when she believed.
So my point being, and let me reread the principle so we don't miss it:
In order to help others overcome their skepticism and unbelief, we are to first and foremost
trust God to intervene in their lives.
And that's what Abraham did.
He waited.
And God revealed Himself to Sarah.
Now that doesn't mean we shouldn't be active or responsible in sharing our faith.
But there are times when we have to wait for God to break through to a person who's doubting.
And God did that in a very, very unique way.