¹⁹ Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son,^(A) and you will call him Isaac.^[a](B) I will establish my covenant with him^(C) as an everlasting covenant^(D) for his descendants after him.

¹³ But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid,^(A) Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John.^{(B) 14} He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth,^{(C) 15} for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink,^(D) and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit^(E) even before he is born.^{(F) 16} He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. ¹⁷ And he will go on before the Lord,^(G) in the spirit and power of Elijah,^(H) to turn the hearts of the parents to their children^(I) and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”^(J)

¹⁸ Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this?^(K) I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”^(L)

¹⁹ The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel.^(M) I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. ²⁰ And now you will be silent and not able to speak^(N) until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”

²⁸ Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise.^{(A) 29} At that time the son born according to the flesh^(B) persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit.^(C) It is the same now. ³⁰ But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”^{[a](D) 31} Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman,^(E) but of the free woman.^(F)

God’s Sovereign Choice

⁶ It is not as though God’s word^(A) had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.^{(B) 7} Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”^{[a](C) 8} In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children,^(D) but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.^{(E) 9} For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”^[b](F)

⁶ Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter,^(A) and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.”

² Sarah became pregnant and bore a son^(A) to Abraham in his old age,^(B) at the very time God had promised him.^{(C) 3} Abraham gave the name Isaac^[a](D) to the son Sarah bore him.

¹⁶ “About this time^(A) next year,” Elisha said, “you will hold a son in your arms.”

“No, my lord!” she objected. “Please, man of God, don’t mislead your servant!”

¹⁷ But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.

¹⁰ Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year,^(A) and Sarah your wife will have a son.”^(B)

Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. ¹¹ Abraham and Sarah were already very old,^(C) and Sarah was past the age of childbearing.^{(D) 12} So Sarah laughed^(E) to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord^(F) is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

¹³ Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’^{(G) 14} Is anything too hard for the Lord?^(H) I will return to you at the appointed time next year,^(I) and Sarah will have a son.”^(J)

³ Stay in this land for a while,^(A) and I will be with you^(B) and will bless you.^(C) For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands^(D) and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham.^(E)