“Laughing in the Face of God”

Genesis 17:15–18:15

We’ve all laughed in the face of God. It's not always audible, but it's happened. We've laughed in our doubt. We've laughed as we crafted plans of our own. We've laughed in disbelief that God could really do that. 

Abraham and Sarah quite literally laughed in the face of God, too. God had promised to make them the parents of a great nation but nearly 25 years later, they saw no sign of a child. When God finally said, “Sarah will bear a son,” Abraham laughed. Sarah laughed. Not with joy, but with disbelief.

But God wasn’t joking. “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” he asks. And with that question, God cuts to the heart of our own disbelief. We try to take matters into our own hands. We make our plans and expect God to bless them. We talk about grace but quietly (or not so quietly) trust our own strength. We scoff at the idea that God might actually work through weakness, barrenness, or impossibility.

Yet that is exactly what He does.

God named the promised child Isaac—“Laughter”—as a sign. Not of mockery, but of joy. Not human laughter at God, but divine laughter that brings life from death, joy from sorrow. That’s what God does. In Jesus, He turns our laughter of disbelief into the laughter of Eden—full of abundance, delight, and grace. 

“Is anything too hard for the LORD?” Just ask Him. He'll show you.