It’s easy to look at the joys in life and come to the wrong conclusions. Over the last several weeks, we’ve seen how wrong Job’s friends were to assume that those who suffer must be wicked, somehow deserving the hardships that come their way. Well, today’s passage also demonstrates that those who receive blessings are not necessarily particularly worthy of them.

The name “Isaac” should remind us of that. After all, when the three messengers showed up to announce the baby’s birth, Sarah had laughed in disbelief (Genesis 18:12). She was not particularly faithful, and yet God blessed her with a baby anyway.

But Abraham wasn’t any more faithful than Sarah. After all, God had promised over and over to bless him and to protect him (Genesis 12:2-3; 15:1). And yet Abraham repeated the same sin in chapter 20 that he had committed in chapter 13, failing to trust in God and relying instead on a lie to keep himself safe, putting his wife in danger by insisting that she pretend to be his sister. No, Abraham didn’t deserve God’s blessings any more than Sarah did.

So, why did God grant them a miracle – a child born to Sarah when she was 90 years old, a child whose birth no reasonable person thought was possible (21:7)? It wasn’t because of their faithfulness, but because of God’s faithfulness. God did what He said. God did what He promised.

And that’s the good news for us as well. For God still chooses to shower His blessings on those who don’t deserve them, on sinners like us. And God still blesses those who confess our sins because He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9). Surely such a gracious and merciful God is worthy of our trust and our praise.

Genesis 21:1-7 (ESV)

The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had promised.
2 And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him.
3 Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac.
4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.
5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
6 And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.”
7 And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”