Hi everyone. Sorry I missed a day. My Mom has been ill and between running to the hospital as well as taking advantage of the weather, it’s been a little crazy.
I got to thinking during my time that I was so excited to talk about Tamar and Rahab that I totally should have started from the VERY beginning of Jesus’ genealogy. Duh on my part. So I should have started w/ the wives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Instead, I skipped accidentally to Judah’s wife Tamar. So..without further ado I’m backing up to talk about Sarah.
Sarah, really endured a lot and to not talk about her would be a big mistake. Sarah is considered the matriarch of the Hebrew Bible. According to research she was not only Abraham’s wife but also his possible sister or half-sister. There is some that point that Abraham, Sarah and Lot went to Egypt during the famine. When they got there Abraham told Sarah to lie to the Pharaoh and say that she was his sister so that the guards wouldn’t kill him and take her. It’s also believed that it was during this time that Sarah obtained her handmaiden Hagar. When the Pharaoh figured out that Sarah was Abraham’s wife, he made them leave Egypt.
Unfortunately, like many women Sarah had a difficult time getting pregnant. She wanted nothing more than to have a child. She wasn’t getting any younger either. It was over 10 years that had passed and Sarah made the decision to ask Hagar to sleep with Abraham in order to conceive a child. Abraham agreed. (today this would have been like having a surrogate, however the surrogate doesn’t sleep with your husband directly). Hagar did get pregnant and conceived a son Ishmael. By this time Abraham was 86 years old (can you imagine!!!) I know women today are having children older but that’s even old for today’s standards. What came next is to be expected. Hagar started to not respect Sarah and tensions grew. Hagar left but after being approached by the angels, she returned.
God asked Sarah to be patient that he would give her a child. By trying to take charge of things herself, this was not the intended child God wanted to fill his prophecy. In Genesis 17, Abraham was 99 years old. God declared that, “he was the father of many nations”. I remember learning a song in Sunday School: “Father Abraham had many sons, and many sons had Father Abraham. I am one of them, and so are you.” Oh my. I remember stomping around and marching and having a great time to this song. (must I digress).
Sarah overheard Abraham talking to one of three visitors that came to speak to her husband. It was then she heard the stranger say that she would get pregnant with his son. She laughed, and the stranger asked why she would laugh. She was laughing because it was crazy to think of herself being pregnant at their ages. He said your age doesn’t matter to God. Sarah did in fact get pregnant and had a son they named Isaac aka as “laughter” in Hebrew. Isaac was the first boy circumcised when he was 8 days old. Ishmael by now was a teenager and after Sarah heard him mocking them ask him and Hagar to leave. Abraham didn’t like this idea but after God told him to listen to his wife, he agreed to send Hagar and Ishmael away.
Sarah and Abraham eventually made their way to Kadesh where he lied again telling the King she was his sister. The King tried to take Sarah for himself and God came to him in a dream telling him she was a married woman. The King questioned Abraham about this and he responded by telling the King she is my sister. She is the daughter of my Father but not my mother. She is also my wife. The King returned Sarah to Abraham and paid him with silver, Oxen, sheep and servants to vindicate Sarah.
Sarah died at the age of 127. Abraham bought land near Hebron and buried her in a cave that is today known as The Cave of Patriarch’s. This was also the first land owned by
Israelites.
Sarah’s story again reminds that we have to wait on God’s timing. His timing is not our timing. We can try to do all sorts of things to change it, but we need to remember that he’s in charge.
“Lord, I pray that whoever is reading this message allows it to bless them and that they continue to seek your word. I pray that they set aside time each day to talk to you and listen. I also pray for this who don’t know you as their savior and that can pray for that forgiveness. I pray that they know that they only way to the father is through the son. You are the only way to heaven. ” Amen.
The Carpenter’s Daughter 