11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” 13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 14 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.” 15 But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”
Genesis 18:11-15, ESV
I love that Abraham and Sarah both had the same response when God told them Sara would have a child. They both laughed.
17 Then 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 ninety years old, bear a child?”
Genesis 17:17, ESV
I honestly can’t imagine responding the way Abraham did when God told him he and Sarah would have a son. Falling on his face and laughing? Today, we don’t see this as being respectful but I have to wonder if this happened because of the close relationship Abraham had with God the father. Many times in Genesis, Abraham is called a friend of God.
On one hand I think it’s kind of cute that they both laughed at the idea of becoming parents at nearly 100 years old, but upon further speculation it seems their laughter was very different. Abraham fell on his face and laughed but God just continued assuring him of His promises. But when we see Sarah laughing she gets a very different response from the Lord.
Maybe God responded in a corrective way because He wasn’t even speaking to Sarah at that time; He was speaking to Abraham and Sarah was eavesdropping from the tent. Also I wonder if her laughter was less from amusement and more of a disbelief-sort-of-laughter. I do feel like she had a complaining heart when she said some thing like oh now that I’m old I will have pleasure. More or less saying, “Wait, you could’ve done this the whole time? Why did you wait so long, why did you wait till now?” Also her heart is revealed in the fact that she then denied the fact that she was laughing when the Lord asked her. When we are hiding something from God we should be concerned.