Genesis 18:9-15, The Message

The men said to him, "Where is Sarah your wife?"

He said, "In the tent." One of them said, "I'm coming back about this time next year. When I arrive, your wife Sarah will have a son." Sarah was listening at the tent opening, just behind the man. Abraham and Sarah were old by this time, very old. Sarah was far past the age for having babies. Sarah laughed within herself, "An old woman like me? Get pregnant? With this old man of a husband?" God said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh saying, 'Me? Have a baby? An old woman like me?' Is anything too hard for God? I'll be back about this time next year and Sarah will have a baby." Sarah lied. She said, "I didn't laugh," because she was afraid. But he said, "Yes you did; you laughed."

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I can remember quietly sitting crosslegged on the Sunday school room floor as a child and listening to this Old Testament story. (By the way, I always loved the mental image of gray-haired Sarah baking bread over a fire in a hot tent one afternoon and taking advantage of the opportunity to eavesdrop to the conversations on the other side of the tent canvas. I can see her smirk as she silently laughs at the prediction of these men.) As a child, the emphasis was always on the fact that Sarah didn't believe that God could do what He said He would do. This is still the emphasis I get from the story today.

Is anything too hard for God?

Jeremiah 32:27, "I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?"

Matthew 19:26, "Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.""

1 Samuel 14:6b, "Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few."

Luke 1:37, "For nothing is impossible with God."

Mark 14:36, ""Abba, Father," He said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.""

Job 42:2, "I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted."

Jeremiah 32:17, "Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you."

Luke 18:27, "Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God."

I submit that there is not.