Disappointment With God: What to Do When God Feels Silentಮಾದರಿ

LAUGHING AT GOD

WHAT WE FIND OUT ABOUT SARAH

It has now been 24 years since God originally broke through time and space and called Abraham to leave his home of Haran. Abraham and Sarah (their names changed from Abram and Sarai in Genesis 17) still don’t have a child yet, despite God’s clear promises.

Five different times, God has shown up to Abraham and reaffirmed this promise. But He hasn’t shown up to Sarah. And second-hand revelation doesn’t cut it after two-and-a-half decades.

Now for the sixth time, God shows up, saying that the long-awaited child He promised Abraham and Sarah would be born within a year. And this time, God makes this direct promise in front of Sarah, saying:

“I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.” (Genesis 18:10, NIV)

Sarah, overhearing this promise from outside the tent, herself long past child-bearing years, laughs to herself. “Oh goody,” perhaps she thought. “We’re all going to be in diapers together.”

WHAT WE FIND OUT ABOUT GOD

God, who is apparently so powerful that He can turn our internal monologues into dialogues, challenges Sarah’s (completely understandable) negative talk with a perspective-shattering reminder that we all need to hear from time to time:

“Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14, NIV)

This isn’t just a line. It’s a direct challenge to Sarah.

Sarah is not just mildly pessimistic. Pessimism says, “I’m worried this good thing won’t happen.” No. It seems Sarah has slipped into something even darker, into cynicism. It whispers, “Nothing good will ever happen. I just know it.”

Can you blame her? After all, 24 years have passed. Perhaps these are just empty promises, and this Yahweh God is all talk and no action. Or maybe this God is just stringing her and her husband along, giving them just enough hope to keep them engaged without any real follow-through.

To use business lingo, this God sure does seem to overpromise and underdeliver.

Add in the biological realities at play: It’s been 24 years. The text isn’t clear exactly how old Sarah is, but she’s long past her child-bearing prime.

All reasonable reasons to let yourself slip into dark cynicism.

But God confronts this cynicism:

• You think I can’t bring good into the world?
• You think I’ve forgotten my promises to you and Abraham?
• You think that I, the God of all Creation who created all things, is limited?
• You think that I, who created life out of nothing, can’t create life in you?
• You think that I won’t keep my promise to bring good things to you? To the whole world?

Is anything too hard for the Lord?

HOW WE CAN GROW FROM THIS

This is a concept so important that God will say something similar again and again and again to people steeped in incredulity. He says it to Job (Job 42:2), Isaiah (50:2) and Jeremiah (Jer. 32:17). Jesus says it to His disciples, the angel to Mary (Luke 1:37-39) and Paul to the church at Rome (Rom. 4:21).

Maybe you can relate. Maybe you’re facing what seems like an impossible or irredeemable situation.

I invite you: Sit and think about those words for a bit. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Let the deep disappointment and the pain of the waiting give way to hope. Let the cynicism and fear give way to the idea that God is still at work.

“Is anything too hard for the Lord?”

REFLECTION QUESTION
Is there any place in your life where have you started to believe that nothing good will happen? What might it look like to bring that cynicism honestly before the God who still asks, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”

What if the very thing you once laughed at God for—even in disbelief—became the source of your greatest joy? Tomorrow, we conclude our study in Sarah’s story by finding that her life with God ends not in bitterness, but in celebration.