Too good to be true: Incredulity and Grace - Genesis 17:17-27

After hearing all that God had planned for him and his descendants, Abraham falls face down before God.  Genesis 17:17 says that he laughed to himself.  What God was saying was beyond what he could imagine.  He says to himself, "Will a son be born to a man at a hundred years old?  Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?"  Here he has put words to his feelings.  He cannot believe that what God said could be possible.

In verse 18, Abraham shifts the conversation to Ishmael: "If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!"  We aren't given an insight into why Abraham did this, but I can think of a few possibilities.  He might have simply wished God to bless Ishmael.  He might have realized he made a mistake by producing an heir for himself and wanted God to clean up his mess.  He might have been making an attempt to redirect God from what seemed impossible to what was reasonable and tangible.  This last view is the one that Derek Kidner takes in his commentary "Genesis".

In a way, redirecting to the reasonable and tangible is what Abraham had already done.  He saw a way to produce an heir that was reasonable and tangible and did so (through Haggar).  Now, perhaps, he wanted God to get on board and work through Ishmael.

God, for his part, handles Abraham very gently.  He does not show anger and he does not ridicule.  He first tells Abraham that Ishmael will also be blessed.  But God immediately steers the conversation back to the promised child and makes no mistake that the NEW child is the child of the covenant (verses 19 and 21).  While Ishmael will be blessed, he is not the one with whom God will establish His covenant.

When we encounter what we consider impossible, we have a few choices.  Reject it, believe it, or try to understand it.  So, which of these does Abraham choose?  It is clear that he struggled with what God said to him.  But, he does what God asked in spite of his struggles.  Verses 23 through 27 detail his efforts to keep his end of the covenant.  In a sense, Abraham makes all three choices.  There is an element of rejection when he laughed and essentially said what God was saying was impossible.  There is an element of trying to understand when he tries to redirect God's blessing on to Ishmael ("perhaps this blessing is transferable - let me find out").  And there is an element of acceptance and belief when he acts according to what God told him to do.

For God's part, He is patient and gentle with Abraham's struggles.  Once again, a God worth believing and serving...