Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: SMILE (08/13/20)
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TITLE: Smile, Don’t Laugh! – Laugh, Don’t Smile! | Previous Challenge Entry
By Bruce Phenix
08/19/20 -
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God tells Abraham in Genesis 17:15-22 that he will bless his wife Sarah and give him a son by her the following year. Abraham falls on his face and laughs incredulously at the apparent impossibility of a child being born to a man of 100 and a woman of 90. God does not rebuke Abraham but repeats that Sarah will bear a son, to be named Isaac – meaning ‘He laughs’ or possibly ‘May He (God) smile (upon him)’.
In Genesis 18:1-15 God, or the Lord, appears to Abraham in the form of a man at his encampment by the oaks of Mamre, just north of Hebron. He comes with his two companions, suddenly and inconveniently, at the time of the midday siesta, ‘in the heat of the day’. Abraham does not recognise his visitors but nevertheless rushes to greet them and treats them with lavish respect and hospitality, modestly describing the meal of choice cakes, veal, curds and milk that he provides as ‘a morsel of bread’; he even remains standing while they sit and eat in the shade of an oak tree. The strangers ask Abraham, ‘Where is your wife Sarah?’, showing their supernatural knowledge, and the one who is the Lord repeats to Abraham the prophecy of Sarah’s childbearing. Sarah, listening secretly at the tent entrance, laughs to herself at the impossible prediction, reducing the idea to a sensual level: ‘After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?’ Abraham has probably already told her of the promised birth, so her scornful laughter indicates her continued disbelief. She demonstrates this shallow attitude further by fearfully denying to the Lord that she has laughed.
The Lord fulfils his promise to Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 21:1-7, impossible though it has seemed to them and in spite of their very human reactions and behaviour. Sarah says: ‘God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me. Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children?’
Genesis tells us that if we are promised the apparently impossible, it is understandable if we smile (or even laugh) in amused incredulity or astonishment. This is what Abraham does, but God does not rebuke him because he knows that he is essentially a humble and faithful man. What we should avoid is a derisive, scornful or contemptuous expression of disbelief. This is what Sarah is guilty of – and yet God forgives her too. Then, if the promise is fulfilled – and ‘Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?’ (Genesis 18:14) – we and others may laugh with unrestrained joy and delight at the miracle.
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I enjoyed your vision on the topic and how you presented it Thank you,
Blessings~
Blessings~