Weaning is a really big step for most of us. This is certainly true for Father Abraham's Pride and Joy, Baby Isaac!
Bible Reading: Genesis 21
1: And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken. 2: For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. 3: And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac. 4: And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5: And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him. 6: And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me. 7: And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son in his old age. 8: And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.
John's Midrash
Chapter 21 of Genesis concerns itself with the miraculous birth of Isaac to Sarah and Abraham. It was miraculous because the proud father was 100 years old and the elated mother was 90. Indeed, in Chapter 18 we had learned that, due to advancing years, “...it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.” Both Abraham and Sarah, when presented with the news that they would have a child at this unusual stage of life, had laughed at God. Chapter 17: “Then Abraham fell on his face, and laughed...” Chapter 18: “Therefore Sarah laughed within herself...” Of course, God replies, “Is any thing too hard for the LORD?” Apparently not. We learn that when he was eight days old, Isaac was circumcised, in keeping with the terms of God’s Covenant with Abraham. For some unspecified period, he apparently breastfed from his elderly mother. “And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck?”
One wonders what the experience of nursing from such an ancient pair of breasts must have felt like both for mother and child. I have spoken to mothers who find this activity to be intensely satisfying. One presumes that Sarah too would have derived great pleasure from breastfeeding her miracle baby. Eventually the day of weaning arrives. Then the period of “suck” must come to an end for mother and child. “And Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.” Today, all sorts of soft foods are available, mashed fruit, yogurt, biter biscuits, for help in weaning youngsters. But given God’s obvious preference for meat over vegetables (so clearly revealed in Genesis 4, verses 2 to 5), one must speculate that it is quite possible that Isaac went directly from milk to lamb chops. So perhaps an even greater miracle than Sarah’s reproductive system was Isaac’s digestive system.