It was probably for some silly, childish reason.

Life on the road was not something Sarah was accustomed to; it was something she had to learn to embrace. Sarah is the wife of Abraham, the mother of Isaac, and thus the ancestress of all Israel. By him following her suggestion, there was disharmony and jealousy in … Sarah was 127 years old when she died and is found on the Bible timeline during 1986 BC to 1859 BC. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names discusses the name Sarai under the article on Sarah, but translates Sarai … Like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord.

Abraham at 99 and Sarah up in years, herself, are told, by God that they not only would have a son, but that he would be the instrument to make Abraham’s descendants into the great nation that God had promised.
The earthly majesty of Pharaoh had to bow before the divine majesty, which plagued him and secured the stranger's exodus, thus foreshadowing those later plagues and that later exodus when Abraham's and Sarah's seed "spoiled the Egyptians.".

Article Images Copyright © 2020 Getty Images unless otherwise indicated. Grab yours below. In fact, there are hints that she may have been something of a pampered beauty; a classic prima donna. It is significant that verse 12 says a deep sleep fell on Abraham; then the Lord single-handedly carried out the covenant ceremony. In fact, that is practically the first thing Scripture mentions about her. Help us continue to create Bible study resources by supporting Study and Obey for as little as $1. God also promises Abraham that he would make him a great nation and bless him: “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; And so at Abraham’s suggestion, she agreed to pose as his sister (v. 13). Ur was the heart of a sophisticated pagan culture. Only gradually did the dangers associated with inbreeding arise. And the stamp of God’s approval on her is contained in those New Testament passages that recognize her for her steadfast faithfulness. Gen. 11:30, Idolatry: 16:2 (We know we have an idol when we are willing to sin in order to get something we want. She was afraid because she had not laughed aloud, but “within herself.” As soon as she realized this stranger had such a sure and thorough knowledge of her heart, she knew instantly and definitively that it was the Lord. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him” (21:1–2 NKJV). But this verse intimates that she was not afraid, that she followed fearlessly.

(Centuries later, David will pay the Jebusites 50 shekels for the site of the Jerusalem Temple.). I don’t know about you, but this part of the story always bothered me. By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised (Hebrews 11:11 NKJV). Marriage with half-sisters seems to have been not uncommon in antiquity (even in the Old Testament compare 2 Samuel 13:13). The Lord also formally extended the Abrahamic Covenant across the generations, making the whole land of Canaan “an everlasting possession” for Abraham’s offspring forever (17:7–8 NKJV).

Connect with CBN's prayer center - let us pray for you! There was probably as much relief and gladness in the laughter as there was incredulity. Having said all that, the Lord then turned the subject to Sarah. ), Apparently submissive to husband: 1 Peter 3:5, Considered Him faithful who had promised: Heb.
Consider the Women: A Provocative Guide to Three Matriarchs of the Bible. Notice that He spoke to Hagar in the first person as YHWH, not in the third person, as an angelic messenger speaking on YHWH’s behalf would do. Abraham and Sarah named the child Isaac as God had told them to do. Often, we pray for something and if God doesn’t seem to answer in what we consider a reasonable time, we think that He’s not going to answer. 1 Pet. Heb. She was to be not only Abraham’s princess, but the princess of a large race of people. The name given to her at birth, Sarai, means “my princess.” (Her name was not changed to Sarah until she was ninety years old, according to Genesis 17:15.) Salem Media Group. He loves us too much to do that. Hagar suddenly became haughty and contentious toward Sarah: “When she [Hagar] saw that she had conceived, her mistress [Sarah] became despised in her eyes” (Gen. 16:4 NKJV).

Bearing at child in our elderly years? The truth, however, is that every party in this whole affair was guilty, and all of them ended up reaping bitter fruit from what they had sown. Sarah and Abraham would have lived there during the very height of its power and affluence. Sarah was Abraham's wife. It appears, however, that she was a daughter of Terah by a different mother from the mother of Abram. That is, according to contemporary law and custom as witnessed by the Code of Hammurabi (see ABRAHAM, iv, 2), a son born of this woman would be the freeborn son and heir of Abraham and Sarah. All rights reserved. We are introduced to Sarai in Genesis 11:29. We meet Sarah next in the narrative of the birth of Ishmael and of Isaac. She therefore adopts the expedient of being "builded by" her personal slave, Hagar the Egyptian (see Genesis 16:2 margin). But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.” When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.”. Paul was reminding the Galatian believers that “we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise” (v. 28 NKJV)—saved by grace, not vainly hoping to be saved by works. The Lord’s purpose in choosing and calling Abraham was to make him the father of a great nation that would be His witness to the world. No good has ever come from any violation of the “one-flesh” principle of monogamy. God doesn’t use infertility to punish us for our sins. Sarah is able to nurse and raise Isaac even though she is 90 years old; Abraham is 100. She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife” (NKJV). Ten years pass by without Sarai getting pregnant.

But as she considered her circumstances, Sarah concluded that a kind of surrogate parenting was the only possible solution to her predicament. Initially, he asks for permission from the Hittites to have a burial plot.

He didn’t really consider Sarai in this but made a totally selfish decision. God comes to Abimelech in a dream by night and says to him, “You are about to die because of the woman whom you have taken; for she is a married woman.”. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. A section of the book of Proverbs deals with precisely this situation: Under three things the earth quakes, And under four, it cannot bear up: Under a slave when he becomes king, And a fool when he is satisfied with food, Under an unloved woman when she gets a husband, And a maidservant when she supplants her mistress (30:21–23 NASB). In Gen. 16:1, Sarah followed the custom of her culture and suggested that Abram enter into an immoral relationship with her maid. Was Sarah really being overly harsh? We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.". A famous Moslem tradition teaches that Sarah resembled Eve. Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.” – Genesis 12:11-13. The result was a mess!

Scripture says, “Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was weaned” (21:8 NKJV). If those things were all we knew about Sarah, we might be tempted to picture her as something of a battle-ax—a harsh, severe woman, relentlessly self-centered and temperamental. Predictably, the consequences of such a carnal ploy nearly tore her life apart and seemed to leave a lasting scar on her personality. God also made a covenant with Abraham that he would be the father of many nations, but that all males were to be circumcised as part of the covenant.

Still childless at the age of 75, Sarah induced Abraham to take her handmaid Hagar as a concubine. In fact, all we know about that era in their lives is the bitter truth that perpetually grated on Sarah’s own consciousness: “Sarai was barren; she had no child” (Gen. 11:30 NKJV). What does the Bible say about Sarah? She was the half-sister, as well as the wife, of Abram, who would be called Abraham. The full spectacle of Sarah’s amazing faith doesn’t really become apparent until we contemplate the many seemingly insurmountable obstacles to that faith. We don’t know how long Abraham and Sarah remained in Haran. Initially, her name is Sarai. SARAH, SARA, SARAI (Heb. “Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife” (Gen. 16:3 NKJV). Sarah’s birth name was Sarai, meaning “my princess”, but God instructs Abraham to change her name to Sarah which means “princess”. Sarah is summoned before Pharaoh and she tells Pharoah that Abraham is her brother, as Abraham instructed her to do. But we are reminded again that Sarah “judged Him faithful who had promised” (Heb. There was no question that Sarai would follow her husband. Abraham’s hometown was a famous urban center known as Ur of the Chaldeans. Yes, he could have said no and not had sexual relations with Abraham, but he was just following her suggestion! Besides, according to the promise of God Himself, Isaac was Abraham’s true heir, promised by God to be the one through whom the covenant blessing would eventually see fulfillment. Please enter your email address associated with your Salem All-Pass account, then click Continue. Such was in fact the position of Ishmael later. Which promises of God look impossible to you? It confused things beyond measure for Ishmael to be in a position to claim the right of the firstborn over the one true heir appointed by God to succeed Abraham. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. This is what made her so extraordinary. He can do wondrous and mighty things! It has been held that the author (or authors) of Genesis 11 knew nothing of the relationship announced in 20:12. It was there, for the first time, that Abraham tried to pass Sarah off as his sister. She was an elderly woman!