Reflections on Sarah - Faithful or Faithless?

I was invited to participate in the weekly email service for my Church - they had been working through the Old Testament and each choosing a character to reflect upon, using the headings of "Who", "Where", "When", "Why", and "What can we learn?"

I chose Sarai/Sarah as I had been studying her in my personal Bible study time recently. 

I've been honoured to have been asked to provide some children's craft activities to go along with the stories or characters each week throughout the Lockdown, and so my son and I also made a "touchy feely" textured picture to go with this story.  You can watch it here. 

Sarah - Faithful or Faithless?

WHO
Sarai was the wife of Abram (Abraham), ten years his junior and, sharing a father but not a mother (Genesis 20:12), was also his half-sister through Terah.
Sarai means “contentious” which speaks to her character – she was fierce, impassioned, argumentative, disagreeable – these attributes we will see in her as her story unfolds; both toward Hagar, and even to God Himself.

Sarai is described as being beautiful in Genesis 12:11. In fact, in the Jewish Talmud, legend states that, “all people compared to Sarah are like a monkey compared to a human” (Bava Batra 58a).
Abram’s name means “Father”, which is ironic, considering Sarai’s state of barrenness; however, in Genesis 17:15, Sarai’s name was changed to Sarah, implying a higher status, a healing of her infertility, and a confirmation of her role in the Covenantal Promise. The very fact that Sarah was given a new name is something of significance. God didn’t change names flippantly, and this is the only account in the Bible of a woman’s name being changed.

WHERE
Sarai was born in Ur of the Chaldees, thought to be in modern-day Iraq. The couple were described as being “tent-dwellers”; temporary residents, sojourning wherever they went but never making it their home – they knew that their goal destination was not of this world. Together they travelled through Haran, Canaan, and Egypt. Her final resting place was the Cave of Machpelah, now known as the Cave of the Patriarchs, in Hebron. This was a great demonstration of faith in God’s promise – she was buried in a land in which, at the time, they were still strangers.

WHEN
It is difficult to accurately estimate the timeline of Genesis and this is the topic of many heated debates amongst Bible scholars and theologians much more learned than myself. It is theorised that they lived around 2040 BC. Sarai’s first mention is in Genesis 11:29 and she lived to the age of 127 years (Genesis 23:1). Sarah is the only woman in the entire Bible whose age is recorded at the time of her death. This again is significant as it denotes how highly she was regarded in the Bible. Interestingly we don't have Biblical evidence of this information for Mary, mother of Jesus or any of the other women highly regarded by modern man.

WHAT
Sarah’s story is one of heartache and longing; of doubt and disbelief; but also, one of hope and faith in the Lord.
In Genesis 12:3 the Lord tells Abram, “in you will all the families and kindred of the earth be blessed”. Ten years passed and Sarai still did not become pregnant. They became discouraged and looked for a way to fulfil God’s promise in their own effort. 

Invitation to pause and think. How have you tried to "help" God in the past? Does God ever need our help?

Sarai offered her handmaid, Hagar, to Abram in order for him to manufacture the promised progeny himself, apart from God. Just as Adam heeded the unwise persuasion of Eve, Abram accepted Sarai’s suggestion. In the same way that Adam’s sin caused untold damage for the future of mankind, Abram’s sinful act of unbelief also proved to be a great source of strife for generations to come. This is an illustration that one act of unbelief can have long-lasting ramifications, as can one act of believing faith. Sarai later realised her wrongdoing and in an act of defiance and remorse, sent away Hagar and Ishmael. In Genesis 21:12, Abraham had been struggling with guilt in sending them away but God spoke to Abraham and told him to heed Sarah’s voice, “in all that Sarah has said to you, do what she asks, for in Isaac shall your posterity be called”.

Sarah was the recipient of one of God’s first and most remarkable miracles of restoration. Not only did He open her womb in order for her to conceive Isaac, this in itself being remarkable as she had already surpassed childbearing age, presumably having already gone through the physical and hormonal effects of menopause, but God also rejuvenated her youth, giving her the physical strength to carry, birth, and nurse her promised infant. Even though they were “as good as dead”, Sarah and Abraham became parents, both physical and spiritual, to descendants as "numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore." (Genesis 22:17). 

Galatians 4:23 displays Sarah as a picture of the Covenant of Grace. She is the free woman, who brought forth a child of divine promise, as opposed to Hagar, a picture of the Covenant of Law, who brought forth the children of slaves. Indeed, through the grace of God, we too can be counted as descendants of the free woman, “Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who gave birth to you in pain” (Isaiah 51:2). 

Invitation to pause and think.  Consider what that means, to be a child of freedom and not slavery - to be released from an unobtainable standard or law and instead receive the gift of grace.

WHY
Sarai was twice taken into a king’s harem as a result of Abram’s lack of faith in God’s protection. However, so important was she in the Lord’s plan of redemption, that He intervened in order to protect her womb from defilement (Genesis 12:17, 20:3) – she was to bring forth the son of promise, Isaac, who would eventually bring forth the Son of God; the “greater Isaac”; the Messiah. 

Invitation to pause and think.  Looking back, has God ever intervened in your life or situation for a purpose greater than your understanding at the time?

In Genesis 17, some 25 years after the Covenant was promised, and 13 years of no recorded communication with God, the Lord appeared to Abraham once more, and specifically included Sarai in the Covenant promise. Her name was changed from Sarai to Sarah - where Sarai means “My Princess”, Sarah means “Princess”, signifying the princess of a multitude without restriction. God categorically stated “I will bless her and give you a son also by her” repeating it for clarity and emphasis, “Yes, I will bless her and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall come from her” (Genesis 17:16). Yes, Sarah was blessed and would become a royal princess! God later echoed this to Isaac, saying in Genesis 26:4, “and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” This Seed is Jesus Christ our Messiah, Jesus Christ our Redeemer!

WHAT CAN WE LEARN?
Sarah is often thought of as the embodiment of fear and doubt, however I would venture that her legacy is one of courage, of hope, and of faith.
She left behind her wealthy family to follow Abram into a land that he did not possess or even know where it was! She showed both obedience and courageous, expectant faith.

We are told twice in the Bible to look to Sarah as an example of a godly woman. First, in Isaiah 51:1-2 and then in 1 Peter 3:3-6, which says “for this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.” (1 Peter 3:5-6)
She is also counted in the Hebrews Hall of Faith: “And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise.” (Hebrews 11:11)

In Genesis 18:12-13 Sarah laughed inwardly and very indelicately stated her disbelief that she would bear a child naturally. Of course, the Lord heard and chastised her accordingly. Even though her name had been changed and she was a new creation, Sarah backslid into the impassioned and disagreeable Sarai that she once was, and in doing so, showed us that it is all too easy to slip back into our old selves. This is something that Jacob would struggle with later, as he was given the new identity of Israel, but through his lack of faith, slipped back into Jacob all too often.

Invitation to pause and think.  We are new creations in Christ but how often do we fall back into our old ways? Is there a sin or a habit that you struggle to break? A memory or regret that the enemy uses against you? Do you fall into pridefulness, doubt, or gossip?

I am impatient. I try to “help God” and usually cause more of a hindrance. I can be blunt and lack control over my tongue. I am very similar to Sarai in many ways. Don’t worry though, the Lord still used these people mightily and He can use us too, even when we have slippery moments of our own!

The key to Sarah’s success was that she considered God faithful, even when she herself was not. Even when we are weak, we can put our hope in God who is faithful beyond comprehension, and when things seem impossible to us in the flesh, we can follow Sarah’s example and know that there is no obstacle too hard for God to overcome.

Invitation to pause and think about your own situation. Perhaps it seems impossible. Give it to God. There is nothing, no absolutely nothing, that is too difficult for Him! Give Him your burden and let Him give you rest (Matthew 11:28).