The God Over All Impossibilities

After all the years of waiting for God’s promises to be fulfilled, imagine what it was like for Abraham and Sarah to tell their neighbors and friends that their names were changed to mother of princes and father of many when Abraham was 99 years old? Do you think they were ridiculed? Sometimes the people of God, in order to follow Him wholeheartedly, must endure ridicule in their walk of faith. Here are the verses that relate to the impossibility:

³Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, ⁴“As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. ⁵No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations (Genesis 17:3-5).

¹⁵God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. ¹⁶I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.” ¹⁷Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” ¹⁸And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!” ¹⁹Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him (Genesis 17:15-19 Emphasis mine).

Inside the tent, Sarah laughed within herself (Genesis 17:12), when she heard the LORD say that she would be a mother at ninety years old. She thinks of the impossibility of it all, a woman of ninety worn out with age and long past childbearing ability, and Abraham being ten years older than her, how could this be possible? She utters not a sound, but the Lord knew her thought. He asked Abraham: 

“Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ ¹⁴Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”¹⁵Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.” But he said, “Yes, you did laugh” (Genesis 1813-15).

God knew the thoughts of Sarah, and He knows our thoughts too. We have a theological word for this ability of God to know all things, we say that God is omniscient. He knows all things in the universe and in all creatures at all time, whether it is something in the past, present or future. God knows them all perfectly. God’s knowledge is absolute and unacquired. He never has to learn anything. This is omniscience. 

²⁹Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. ³⁰And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows (Matthew 10:29-31).

A.W. Tozer has spoken of God’s omniscience in this way:

“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 creature hood 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.”[1]

There was a gentle rebuke about Sarah’s laugh of unbelief. How would you feel about hearing from a total stranger that you were going to have a baby next year when you have been waiting for a baby all your married life? Oh yes, and now that it is physically impossible, you hear that it is going to happen at the age of ninety! Sarah realizes that this person called the LORD (YaHVeH) has heard her thought while she was in her tent—her laugh was not audible, and He is speaking about her personal future and the dream she and Abraham had waited for all this time! To realize that God knows her every thought is to also know that this same God can do anything. She is told by the LORD, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Verse 14). Whatever you are dealing with, know this; God understands your frustration, unbelief, and your struggles, and is aware of your thoughts. It does not stop Him from being able to provide the answer. Keith Thomas

This is a shortened version of the more detailed study found here

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[1]A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (New York, Harper and Row, 1961) p.63.