Well, did Abraham laugh God off in unbelief? It's a great question and it comes to us from Jessica who lives in the Netherlands. "Dear Pastor John, hello. In Genesis, we read of Abraham going along with Sarah's plan with Hagar to make Ishmael his heir." That's Genesis 16, verses 1 to 16.

"Later, when God tells him, he and Sarah will bear a child at 190 years old, respectively, he seems to laugh it off in unbelief." That's Genesis 17, 17. "Therefore, how is it that in Romans chapter 4, Paul celebrates Abraham's unwavering faith?" Does it tell us anything about how God views our own wavering faith in the end, Pastor John?

What would you say to Jessica? This is a good example of how careful we should be not to read into a text something from our own experience that makes an interpretation seem likely, but rather let the context decide whether it's likely or not. So the question is, did Abraham's laughter in Genesis 17, 17 signify the kind of weakened faith or unbelieving doubt, wavering as she calls it, because that's the way it's translated in Romans, that Paul said Abraham did not have?

Is Genesis 17, 17 in conflict with what Paul says? So the Old Testament context goes like this. This is Genesis 17, 15 following. "God said to Abraham, 'As for Sarai, your wife, you shall not call her name.'" Is somebody chopping down a tree? Yes, they're sawing somewhere. I hope it's not one of my trees.

Well stop now. Let's see if we can continue. Go ahead and pick it up where you left off. The Old Testament context goes like this. This is Genesis 17, 15 to 17. "God said to Abraham, 'As for Sarai, your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarai shall be her name.

I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her.'" Now this is at 90 years old for her and barren all her life, and now postmenopausal, according to 1811. "I will bless her, and she shall become nations, kings of peoples shall come from her. Then Abraham fell on his face." This is the key verse.

This is verse 17. "Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, 'Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child?'" Now here's what Paul says about Abraham's faith at that time, and the reason this matters for us is that Paul makes clear in Romans 4.23 that these words were not spoken just for Abraham, but for us also, so that the righteousness that was imputed to him might be imputed to us through faith alone as well.

So this is not a merely marginal illustration for Paul. This is central to our own faith. So here's Paul's description of Abraham's response to God at that time. Here's Romans 4.17. "God says to Abraham, 'I have made you the father of many nations in the presence of the God in whom you believed,'" referring back to 15.6 of Genesis, "who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

In hope he believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, 'So shall your offspring be.' He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb.

No unbelief made him waver." Now literally the translation there is, "He did not doubt in unbelief concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong." Literally he was strengthened—passive voice—"he was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

That is why faith was counted to him as righteousness." Now that's the end of Paul's assessment of Abraham's faith there in Genesis 17. So six times Paul affirms Abraham's faith in response to God's promise that he would have an heir from his own 100-year-old body and from Sarah's 90-year-old barren body.

One, he says, the presence of God in whom he believed. Two, in hope he believed against hope. Three, he did not weaken in faith. Four, he did not doubt in unbelief. Five, he was strengthened in faith. Six, he was fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

That's amazing. That is really clear, right? You know what Paul thinks anyway about Abraham's faith from Genesis 17. Now here's an interesting possible confirmation before we turn to the Old Testament context for a minute. Here's an interesting confirmation from Jesus in John 8, 56. Jesus says to the Jewish leaders, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day.

He saw it and was glad." What does gladness refer to when Jesus says Abraham saw the day of Christ and was glad? Could it be the laughter of Genesis 17? God gave Abraham a glimpse of Christ in the sense that Genesis 17, 1 to 19 says repeatedly six times that Abraham would have offspring of his own who would be the heir of the promise.

And we know that Paul in Galatians saw that offspring as Christ. So I just can't help but wonder when Jesus said, "He saw my day and was glad," he might have had in mind, "He saw my day in the promises of Genesis 17 and he laughed aloud with gladness." Well, I can't prove that.

But what is clear is that Paul sees Abraham's faith as strong and exemplary for us, even though not perfect. So here's the question. Whether the clues in Genesis are sufficient to say, "Paul got this right." I mean, that's what Jessica is asking, because when she reads verse 17 of Genesis 17, it sounds to her like Abraham is just blowing it off, like he's laughing it out of court.

That can't be, which sounds like a wavering of faith, a weakening, a doubting of faith. So let me just give a list of clues that I think Paul got it right. In other words, if I ask myself, "What did Paul see?" In the context, this is what I think he saw.

In Genesis 15, 6, Abraham looked at the stars, listened to God, and believed the promise that his descendants would be like that. He says so. He believed God and God counted it to him as righteousness. Second, Abraham asks God what evidence God would give him that the covenant would be kept, and amazingly, in Genesis 15, 18, God acts out a kind of covenant ceremony in which animals are cut in half and God passes between them as if to say, "May I be cut in pieces if I don't keep my half of this covenant to make your seed nations." Third, God renews the promise in Genesis 17, 4 that he would, Abraham would father many nations and he changes Abraham's name from Abram to Abraham to show how certain this is.

This is as good as done. You have a name and Abraham embraces that. And then fourth, in verse 17, it doesn't just say that Abraham laughed. This is really significant, I think. It says he fell on his face. He had already said that once in verse 3. He fell on his face and laughed.

And falling on your face before Yahweh is a sign of reverence and respect and awe and fear. It's not the posture you would assume if you were cynically laughing off the possibility of what God just said. And fifth, finally, as soon as the encounter with God is over in chapter 17, Abraham immediately obeys the terms of the covenant and has all the males circumcised.

So it seems to me that we have good reason not only from the New Testament but also from the context of the Old Testament that Abraham's faith really was astonishing. And when Paul said in Romans 4.20 that Abraham was strengthened—passive voice, strengthened in his faith, giving glory to God—that passive voice is intended to draw our attention to the fact that this amazing work of faith in Abraham was not just his doing.

It was the work of God in him. And that probably is the central lesson for us. Paul is trying to make clear that sinners like us come into a right relationship with God by trusting him, believing, having faith, not by working for him. And even more pointedly, Paul is showing us that this faith itself is a work of God so that in the end, God gets all the glory, not just because of our faith calling attention to his total trustworthiness and all sufficiency, but also because the faith itself is a mighty work of God.

Thank you, Pastor John. Well, tell us if it was one of your trees. That was our tree. Oh my. Oh, that's like losing a loved one. How old is that tree? It was there since we moved in here 40 years ago. Oh my. And it must have been diseased.

I saw a green X on it and I thought, "Oh no, no, they've taken it down. It had a lot of dead branches in it. That means all my shade in the afternoon is going to disappear, and I will leave a legacy with a small tree." Oh man, well, I think your legacy will be more than a sap, Link, but that's still sap.

Well, that's a bummer way to end today's episode, but that's how it's going to end. Thank you for listening to this unexpectedly interrupted episode. You can ask a question of your own. You can search through or browse all 1,600 of our past episodes or subscribe to the podcast. You can do all that at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

How do we find freedom from worry in this life? It's a question that we all face, and it's one we're going to talk about next time. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you back here when we talk about finding freedom from worry. We'll see you then.