Nothing Too Hard

“Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son." 

—Genesis 18:14

Nothing is too hard for God. There is nothing He cannot do, except, that is, fail or go against His nature, which means that if God is good—which He is—then He cannot be or do evil. He cannot lie, because that would mean He would violate who He is in His essence, and thus, He could not be God. God is God, and as God there is nothing too hard for Him. There is nothing that He cannot do, no person that He cannot transform. In Him are the answers to the greatest mysteries ever thought of by man. He is God, and as God He is free to do whatever He wants to do. In our passage for today, we have God appearing in the Old Testament as what theologians have called a preincarnate Christ. He showed up, along with two angels, at Abraham’s tent. Abraham made a meal for Him and the two angels, apparently without fully knowing the extent of who it was He was serving. While God was eating, He said to Abraham,  

“I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son"—Genesis 18:10.

It was a startling revelation for Abraham. He had traveled several hundred miles, settled in a foreign land, and been given a promise that God would provide for him a male heir. When the heir wasn’t showing up, Abraham and Sarah his wife took matters into their own hands and Sarah gave Abraham her servant girl, Hagar, to be his wife. Hagar got pregnant and then threw it back into Sarah’s face. Sarah, angered by such meanness, mistreated her, which finally resulted in Hagar fleeing Sarah. God met Hagar while she was running away and assured her that He would make the son in her womb a great man, but that she needed to return to Sarah. She complied, returned to Sarah, and gave birth to a son, and Abraham named him Ishmael. But God wasn’t through with Abraham and Sarah yet. He comes to Abraham while on a reconnaissance mission to Sodom and Gomorrah, delivering the news that they will be parents. Abraham would be a Dad again at the age of 100, and Sarah would be in labor and delivery, giving birth to a son at the age of 90.

Abraham was conversing with God and the two angels privately, away from Sarah. But Sarah stood at the doorway and heard the conversation. When her name came up and God revealed that she would be having a baby, she laughed to herself. But God heard her. He said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?'” (v. 13).  He then said,  

“Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son" (v. 14).

Sarah denied that she laughed, but God knew better. And sure enough, the following year they had a baby boy. God had fulfilled His promise by giving Abraham a legitimate heir, from whose line eventually came the holy Christ of God.

God delights in doing things that only He can do and invites us to participate, as we can see from Abraham’s life: God provided an heir for Abraham, but it could only be through God that such an heir could come. Why? Because God is the God of the impossible. He does things that only He can do and delights in doing them in such a way that He is seen and delighted in.

What is the struggle you are facing right now? What is the mountain that appears impossible to maneuver? What is the sin that smothers? What is the relationship that you cannot relinquish? What is the crisis that confronts? The trial that troubles? The temptation that tugs? God can help! Why? Because He is “a very present help in trouble”—Psalm 46:1. Nothing is too hard. No relationship, no responsibility, no pain, problem, or predicament. There is no despair, depression, darkness, or dilemma that He cannot conquer. God is there for you, my brother or sister. He wants to make Himself known and He delights in doing so. But be prepared, because as with Abraham, He might help in ways that we do not imagine or expect, but He will when we trust in Him. Amen.