Genesis 18-19, Matthew 6:1-18 • Key Verses: Genesis 18:13-14

Rhetorical questions are ones asked for effect. No answer is expected. In these chapters there are two such questions. No answer is expected because the answers are obvious. The questions are intended to remind us of two truths about God.

“Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (18:14). Of course not. But sometimes that is easier to affirm than to live. Abraham would have answered “yes” immediately, though his situation might have caused him to balk internally. He and Sarah had just been told that they would have a baby.

Sarah laughed to herself at the thought. “After I am worn out and my master is old?” she asked. The first rhetorical question answered her question.

Sometimes people struggle with the truth that God is a God of love, grace and judgment. We might ask, “How can God do that?” Abraham himself tried to avert judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah by bartering with God.

His struggle with judgment was answered with the second rhetorical question: “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (v. 25). Of course He will. He will do right even in exercising His judgment on those cities.

God can do anything, and whatever He does is right. A birth announcement arid a judgment pronouncement remind us of these truths.

Is there something you think is too hard, even for God? You just read how God taught Abraham and Sarah that He can do anything and whatever He does is right. Learn both parts of this lesson.

Woodrow Kroll & Tony Beckett
www.backtothebible.in