Scripture: Genesis 18:10, 14; 21:1–2
“At the time appointed I will return unto thee… Is any thing too hard for the LORD?”
“And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken.”
God had promised Abraham a son, but the years following that promise did not appear to bring him closer to its fulfilment. Abraham grew older, Sarah passed the age of childbearing, and the promise remained unfulfilled. By Genesis 18, they did not only lack a child; they had lost the natural ability to have one.
It was at this point that God visited them. God came when no one could claim that the miracle happened through human strength. If Isaac had been born earlier, his birth could have been explained naturally. God allowed Abraham and Sarah to reach the place where the fulfilment would point to Him alone.
During that visitation, God said, “I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son.” He was no longer speaking only about what He would do; He was declaring when He would do it. The promise now had an appointed time.
Sarah heard Him and laughed within herself. She had lived in that body long enough to know what it could no longer do. Her laughter revealed the effect of prolonged waiting: she still remembered the promise, but she could no longer imagine herself experiencing it.
God did not ignore her laughter. He asked, “Is any thing too hard for the LORD?” The answer did not depend on Sarah’s age or strength. The One who had made the promise was now present, and her inability could not make Him unable.
Genesis 21 shows what that visitation produced: “And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken.” God did not visit her with words alone; Sarah conceived. The woman who had passed the age of childbearing carried a child, gave birth and nursed him. God intervened in a condition that could not change itself and changed it.
Isaac’s birth also changed Sarah’s laughter. In Genesis 18, she laughed because the promise sounded impossible. In Genesis 21, she said, “God hath made me to laugh.” She was now holding the reason for her laughter. Everyone who knew her age and her years of barrenness would know that God had intervened.
This is what makes divine visitation more than a moving encounter. When God visits, His presence leaves evidence. For Sarah, the evidence was not a feeling she described after God left; it was Isaac. The visitation reached her body and brought forth what years of waiting had not produced.
There are areas in our lives where we have become used to the absence of change. We have waited until expectation has almost disappeared, and we now approach God already prepared for nothing to happen. Sarah’s story asks us to look again at the sitatuation we have quietly accepted and answer God’s question: “Is any thing too hard for the LORD?”
Consider the weight of what happened when God visited Sarah. A womb that could no longer conceive received life; a wait of many years ended. Isaac was born, the covenant continued, and generations yet unborn were carried in that one intervention. Sarah wanted a child, but God’s purpose reached far beyond her lifetime.
What if the situation before you also carries more than you can presently see? What if your family, your calling or the lives of others are connected to the intervention you are asking God for? This is not the time to let delay close your mouth. Sarah’s age did not weaken God, and the deadness of her womb did not make His promise difficult.
Let faith rise again. Call upon God concerning the place where all human help has ended. Ask Him to come into it Himself. One visitation ended Sarah’s barrenness and released a promise that still speaks today. Do not settle for strength to live permanently with what God can change. Let the depth of your need draw a deeper cry from you: “Lord, visit me, and do as You have spoken.”
Prayer
Lord, visit me as You visited Sarah. Intervene in what has remained beyond my strength and do what no human effort can accomplish. Bring Your word to pass and let the impact of Your intervention reach beyond me to every life connected to Your purpose for me. Lord, do not pass me by. Let my life carry undeniable evidence that You have visited me. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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