Outcry....For the Sake of Ten

As I continue to sit and reread Genesis, I always am hit by something new each time.  The story of Isaac's birth being predicted is always so amazing.  So many phrases that I love happen in this story...

Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years.....How many times have my husband and I felt that way....not just old, but advanced in years.  Now, compared to, say, our parents, I suppose we are younger, but we don't always feel that way, especially when we take on hard physical labour like the garden or the vines.  My husband will often say, "I wish I had started this when I was younger...."  So when we read verses like that, I find it so encouraging that God could have given them a baby when they were younger, but He didn't.  Perhaps just so that Abraham and Sarah would know that it really would be an impossible thing without God's help.  And perhaps that is the same with us.  What we are taking on, as usual, makes no sense, and truly, we can only do this with God's help.

So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, "After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?" In the past, I've read this part of the verse with the idea that Sarah was in disbelief and borderline amusement, but this time I read it with a little sarcasm and annoyance.  Now I get a baby?  When I'm old?  Thanks a lot.  It would have nice if it could have happened when I was young and more able to handle birth and a toddler....In other words, your timing is off, God.  I'm embarrassed to admit that we've said the same things, too.  Why didn't you give us a farm when we wanted it?  Why didn't you give us the ideas we have now much earlier?  Why?  Why?  Why?  Yet, God has so clearly answered so many of our prayers, as He did for Abraham and Sarah, even when "my lord is old" and "I am worn out" and "the way of women has ceased to be" with me (love the way that is worded in Scripture!).  RM literally feels old and worn out.  I asked him when he thinks he started to feel older and it happened when we built the house.  It was so much physical labour and I guess it took its toll.  We don't regret it for a second, but there was some definite impact on his physical well-being.

Is anything too hard for the Lord?  Thank goodness for God's answer to their pleas because it is God's answer to me as well.  Yes, RM feels old, worn out, advanced in years.  Yes it is not in our timing, but in God's that we are doing all these hard things, but NOTHING is too hard for the Lord.  If we had taken on all that we are doing when we were young and in a great financial place and full of strength and vigor than we would not need God.  So His timing is perfect and even though it appears impossible, it really isn't.  Nothing is too hard for the Lord.

For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.  This verse was such a good reminder to me that we were chosen to be the parents of the children we have.  I always tell the kids that if I had gone to the "kid store", they would have been the ones I would have chosen...a "size 8" boy, a "size 9" boy, a "size 11" girl.....etc...they are my favourites!  Knowing I have the perfectly chosen ones for us, it is such a privilege to "command" them to "keep the way of the Lord"....Yes, it is hard, but just as God chose Abraham for Isaac, He chose us for our kids, for the same purpose of teaching them to do righteousness and justice.  Great reminder.

Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me.  What jumped out at me here is that God responds to "outcry".  Because of an outcry he goes "down to see".  He goes down because of "the outcry that has come to me".  The story goes on at the end of chapter 18 to the section where Abraham talks to God about Sodom and Gomorrah.  "...but Abraham still stood before the Lord.  Then Abraham drew near......"  Then he begins a series of pleas, begging God to spare the cities for any righteous living there.  Five times he appeals to God, each time saying something like, "Oh let not the Lord be angry..." as he appeals.  Yet each time, God relents.  Finally, it ends with this, "For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it."  There are so many encouragements for me in these verses.  The fact that God responds to our outcries and that He comes down after hearing them.  The fact that He doesn't get angry at Abraham or send him away after he asks again and again for God's favour and justice.  The fact that He relents, He listens, He allows Abraham to draw near and even stand before Him.  And then, my favourite phrase....."for the sake of ten".  That just happens to be the number of people in our family - ten.  I love that so much!  So yesterday morning, as I had a few of the kids around me, I explained what I had read and how RM and I had been feeling - a little overwhelmed, as usual, by all that we had taken on, a little on the "advanced in years and worn out side", excited about our garden, roadside sales/farmers market, microgreen dynasty, feeding our family for maybe up to a year with what we want to grow, always longing to be financially free, longing to use our skills for God's glory, longing to raise a family that serves God, longing for spouses that will be a blessing....the list goes on and on.  How, I asked, can we keep praying for these things?  Surely, we are driving God nuts!  Yet, I told them, what I read in these verses is that God responds to our outcry.  He comes down to hear, to see.  Though Abraham seemed a little annoying with his constant requests, God never sent him away.  He heard him and responded.  So, even though we've prayed for all these things before, I said, "Let's pray again....."  And we listed the things that are always on our list, our burdens, our concerns, our excitements, our goals, our dreams and we sat before the Lord, drew near and gave up our outcry to Him, asking Him to answer.... "for the sake of ten".