Thank you for the interpretative question on Genesis 18:11–12, “What are your thoughts on the Bible verses Genesis 18:11–12?”
As one reads the broader context, this help us to understand the response of Sarah overhearing a conversation between Abraham and God. My thoughts on this passage are as follows.:
A. Sarah may be saying, “God, you gotta be kidding. Abraham and I tried for decades to be pregnant, and I can’t get pregnant. End of story.”
Abraham tried for years to have Sarah become pregnant. In all of his attempts, she never conceived. It’s not for a lack of effort on his part.
B. Sarah may be saying, “God, you don’t know our biological clock has run out at least my clock has stop ticking. Nothing in this world is going to make my clock tick again!”
Sarah was nearing 90 years old and Abraham approaching 100. Sarah knew her menstrual cycle has stopped. She couldn’t get pregnant even if she wanted to. There was no way under heaven that her biological clock would restart. That’s an impossibility.
C. Sarah may be saying, “What my husband and I are going to intimate again! I thought it was all over.”
Abraham loved Sarah but his loved has shifted to Hagar and to Ishmael. Perhaps he was spending more time with Hagar than with her. She didn’t complain too much since it was her idea to give her servant to her husband.
D. Sarah may be saying, “How silly of an idea that an old lady nursing a baby. I would be the laughing stock, the gossip of the town. It’s the young or even middle age women who can breast feed a baby, not an old woman!”
Sarah may have thought that would be a strange sight of an old woman carrying a baby. They must think that I am the grandmother, but I am the mother! I wonder if people may be saying, “Nay, that can’t be her baby. She adopted one!”
Is it possible that Sarah had all those feelings and more when she heard that Abraham was going to be intimate with her and that she will have a child? That’s a chance of 1 in a billion that this was going to be pregnant.
In many ways Sarah was joyful that her husband would be intimate with her again. This does not mean that Abraham wasn’t intimate with her as she became older but perhaps less frequent. This intimacy will result in a child that she hoped for all her life and God said it was going to happen within a year. Her biological clock has been reset by God whether she believed it or not. The text does not state the response of Abraham to this declaration by God to him. Did he had any doubt or did he believed the word of the LORD God? I like to think that he was a man of faith and accepted God’s words.
When one reads the promises of God like all things work together for the good of those who love God or that God will never leave or forsake us, there are times we question the promise of God. We just can’t see how this is going to work out for our good, but only for our worse nightmare. Our dreams and hopes are dashed to pieces and some how God is going to make it better than before. You gotta be kidding! Our emotions control us rather than the word of God controlling us.
SUMMARY: God is not bound by our emotions except that we bind ourselves in our emotions. God can overcome emotions and even give us new ones.
For more perspectives:
https://www.quora.com/What-are-your-thoughts-on-the-Bible-verses-Genesis-18-11-12