"Pull one over on God" [Genesis 18:11-15]

Gen 18:11 Abraham and Sarah were old and getting on in years. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.
Gen 18:12 So she laughed to herself: "After I have become shriveled up and my lord is old, will I have delight?"
Gen 18:13 But the LORD asked Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh, saying, 'Can I really have a baby when I'm old?'
Gen 18:14 Is anything impossible for the LORD? At the appointed time I will come back to you, and in about a year she will have a son."
Gen 18:15 Sarah denied it. "I did not laugh," she said, because she was afraid. But He replied, "No, you did laugh."

Abraham and Sarah had been promised a son by God many times, although God never told them when they would receive their son. At one point they even tried to speed up the process by Abraham sleeping with Sarah’s handmaiden, Hagar. There was a son from that union, but not the son of the promise.

What we read here is the Lord appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre. Abraham had his servants prepare a meal for his visitors and he served them under the tree. The Lord then inquired of Abraham “where is your wife Sarah?” “There, in the tent,” he answered. Then the Lord makes a statement to them that they had been waiting on for many years, “I will certainly come back to you in about a year's time, and your wife Sarah will have a son!” The time had come for them to bear their heir! We would expect to see uncontrolled excitement from them, but we see in verse 12 that Sarah just laughed about what God had said. She began to reason in her heart, “After I have become shriveled up and my lord is old, will I have delight?” She laughed at God and did not truly believe he had to power to bring her a son in her and Abraham’s old age.

Lets look at verse 15, “Sarah denied it. ‘I did not laugh,’ she said, because she was afraid. But He replied, ‘No, you did laugh.” She tried to hide the fact that she did not believe in God’s promise. She tried to hide the fact that she did not believe nothing was impossible for Him, but God knew her heart. She could not hide her inner thoughts from Him.

When we look at our lives, it is safe to say that we do a lot of thing that are not pleasing to God. How many times do we try to “hide” our thoughts and even our sins from Him? Almost as if we think we can “pull one over” on God. We read in Psalm 94:11, “The LORD knows man's thoughts.” We can’t hide from God. I would encourage you to make your sin known to God. Don’t try to keep it from Him. He already knows about it, so go ahead and put it on the table.

God is good!

Aaron Taylor