Genesis 18:10: “And Sarah heard it in the tent door which was behind him.”
I was reading in an ancient rabbinical work which noted that there was no preposition in the original text before the word door. Rabbi Shimon in this ancient text translated this as “Sarah heard the opening of the tent (dwelling place).” The word tent is ’ahal. This basically means a dwelling place only this is not the usual word for a dwelling place. The
Aleph, Hei, Lamed (‘ahal – tent) indicates that this is the dwelling place of God or the dwelling place of divine information. What Rabbi Shimon is putting forth is that what Sarah heard was not the opening of the tent flap, but that she heard the Shekinah, the opening of a portal into the divine realm.
In Acts 2:2 we learn that there came a sound from heaven. In the Aramaic it is literally translated as: “And suddenly there was the calm from heaven and a sound as a violent wind.” Now to use the English word calm would be contradictory to its description of a violent wind. The word calm is shali’a in the Aramaic, it comes from the root word salah which means to pause or have peace. The Aleph at the end of the word could be an article which would mean that shalah in this case is a noun and one way to express this as a noun is to say the one bearing calmness or peace. We learn from this passage that this is the Holy Spirit. The word sound in the Aramaic is qala’ from the root qol which means a loud voice or noise or it could be from the root qalal which means swift or rushing. It would seem that the Holy Spirit brought peace like a rushing mighty wind. You know that whoosh sound when you open a can of soda on a hot, thirsty day and then drink in the contents? That is the picture. It is like the opening of a portal or gateway giving a distinctive sound as the Holy Spirit brings peace. There is an old Gospel song that best describes this:
There came a sound from heaven
As a rushing mighty wind,
It filled their hearts with singing
And it gave them peace within.
The point here, however, is that the message of Sarah having a child was clearly a message from heaven and yet she found it hard to believe. That is quite amazing. She is 90 years old. After all those years of walking with God and seeing his miraculous work and care, she still questions the reality of a miracle even when it is confirmed through the portals of heaven opening with a distinctive sound.
There is the story in Luke 1 of a man named Zacharias who was a priest. He was a man of God who faithfully served God. He and his wife prayed for years for a child, but it never happened. One day as Zacharias was alone in the temple, preparing incense, the Angel Gabriel appeared to him. He must have been some sight as Zacharias was filled with fear. Yet the angel assured Zacharias that all was ok, in fact he had good news, he would soon be a father, he and his wife’s prayers would be answered. However, Zacharias and his wife were beyond the child bearing years. So here we have the glorious Archangel Gabriel appearing before Zacarias and telling him his wife will have a child and what is Zacarias’s reaction. It is not a praise alleluia or even a yippee, he responds by saying: “Give me sign so I know it is true.” The angel responds: “I’m Gabriel for crying out loud, I came right from the throne of heaven. A sign he wants, so what am I, chopped liver?” You know Christians would not recognize a sign from God if it knocked them in the head. Come to think of it, sometimes He literally does.
When I look at myself, I begin to think that I should not be so hard on old Sarah and Zacharias. After many years of seeing God work in my life, experiencing his faithfulness, you would think that when I run up against some difficulty, it would be a simple matter to just trust in Him. But it is so easy when the situation looks so hopeless in the natural. Yesterday I had to take my yearly physical to be recertified to drive the Pace Bus where I transport seniors and the disabled. Not that I need the job, I consider myself retired, but I view driving this bus as a ministry and a service to God. I have a week eye and I need to get a minimum of 20/35 in that eye to be certified. The best my eye doctor could do was about 20/40 with a special contact lens. Maybe I would get 20/35 if I blinked enough. All day I fretted and worried over this physical. I sat in the waiting room for three hours waiting to be called and I worried and fretted the whole time, imaging how they would break the news to me that I failed the eye exam. Can you dig it, a ministry or service that God called me to and I worry about qualifying. I was too busy fretting that I could not hear that sound from heaven, the opening of the portal bringing the presence of the Holy Spirit. It was not until I looked into that machine, blinked once and saw the bottom line perfectly reading 20/20 that I finally heard that sound from heaven. Ok, we were in the midst of a major thunder storm and a violent wind had just blown against the building, but to me I was instantly reminded of Sarah and Zacarias, I knew I was in the same league with them.
I think the Talmud gives a little clue as to the problem. “A person is shown only what is reflected by his mind.” Berakhot 55b, Sarah, Zacharias and I were being given something that seemed impossible and because we would not let our minds go beyond the natural realm, we failed to be shown the true wonder that God would perform. We could only be shown what was reflected in our own minds. We are approaching a day; perhaps it is even now, when God is ready to do something that seems impossible in our natural minds. But unless we allow our minds to move beyond the natural world, God will not be able to show us the greater work that He plans to accomplish. Sometimes we just have to believe God for the impossible. He may give us a promise and years can go by without a fulfillment. Then as Sarah and Zacharias when we have given up all hope and it seems impossible for God to fulfill that promise, that is when He will fulfill it.
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