‘The Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.”’ (Genesis 18:10 ESV)

The Lord’s visitation to make a birth announcement concerning Abraham’s wife, Sarah, began a pattern of such divine announcements in the lineage of Christ. Isaac, the child of laughter and of promise, was clearly a miraculous birth. God opened the womb of a woman “advanced in years,” one in whom the “way of women had ceased to be.” This birth announcement was a foreshadowing of the announcement Gabriel made to Joseph and Mary. For in a similar fashion, God chose the young virgin Mary, and caused her to be with child, also visiting Joseph to call him to accept her and to name the boy child, “Jesus,” adopting him as his own. The birth of Isaac points to the birth of Jesus. In fact, the whole Old Testament points to Christ’s coming.