“Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him”.

(Genesis 21: 1-2)

There are several things in these verses that if you're aware of the story of Abraham prior to this point you will see that these events are all promises God had already made. It said in verse one the Lord visited Sarah, and in verse two that she became pregnant. This is making the point of telling us that what God said he would do many years ago, he did, exactly like he said he would. Another little thing we might notice is that it says then he visited Sarah. It's an interesting way to say it. What makes it significant is that God said that on other occasions like when God intervened to save Israel from the Egyptians in Genesis chapter 15. The word translated visited is used here to indicate that this highlights the fact that this is an event of major significance. God doesn’t just appear He visits Sarah and does something supernatural. That's the point and in this case apparently what he did was indeed miraculous because as we have seen already she was well past child bearing age So, in spite of her age, she gave birth to a son. Later in the passage it's going to tell us she nursed it herself, so this has got to be some supernatural phenomena on the Lord's part.

A few verses later it also says that Abraham was 100 years old when this happened and after this, he had more children. God first told Abraham that he was going to be a father by Sarah when Abraham was 75 years old, and they didn't have their first son, Isaac, until he was 100 years old. So, God made a promise and Abram waited 25 years to see the fulfilment of the promise. This passage highlights the fact that he did exactly what he said he would do.

That’s a biblical principle, God may wait to fulfil his promise but when he fulfils them, he does exactly what he said he would do. Take a simple illustration, he said the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem  in Micah chapter 5 . The Messiah was born in Bethlehem recorded in Matthew chapter 2 He said in Isaiah 53 that the Messiah would heal the sick and of course we know from Matthew 8 for that versus quoted that he did exactly that  He also said his son would die for sin in man Isaiah 53. Of course, we know that that's exactly what he did according to the Gospel accounts and as a matter fact in Daniel chapter nine he even gave the time frame when the Messiah would appear, and that time frame was fulfilled exactly as God said it would be. I have a question; how did Abraham and Sarah respond to that fulfilment of the promise well we shall find out in the next episode.