Abraham and Sarah
Iif there was ever a “soap opera” in the Old Testament, this is it. Here’s the bullet points:
- God promises Abram that he is descendants will outnumber the stars (Genesis 15:4-6)
- Sarai comes up with an idea and tells her husband to sleep with her servant and get HER pregnant so they can start off this promise of God.
- And he does.
- When Hagar gets pregnant, all kinds of jealous emotions come up in Sarai.
- Hagar knows this hurts Sarai, so there is a lot of drama.
- Sarai complains to her husband and he basically says “keep me out of it!” and Sarai mistreats her so much that she runs away….but God stops her and sends Hagar back to Sarai’s home.
- God meets with Abram again and reminds him of his promise of descendants and God changes his name and Sarai’s name.
- They move and Abraham is afraid when they get to a new place that people will see how beautiful his wife is and try to kill him…so he tells everyone she’s his sister.
Genesis 18: 1-8
The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. 2 Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.
3 He said, “If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord,[n] do not pass your servant by. 4 Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. 5 Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant.”
“Very well,” they answered, “do as you say.”
6 So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. “Quick,” he said, “get three seahs[o] of the finest flour and knead it and bake some bread.”
7 Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. 8 He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.
Genesis 18:9-12
9 “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.
“There, in the tent,” he said.
10 Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”
Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. 11 Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”
There are some facts to keep in mind about what may be behind Sarah's laughter:
- She knows that God has promised to make Abraham a great nation.
- She is old (88) and well past child bearing years.
- She has been barren all her life.
- She had though she'd taken care of giving Abraham an heir through her maid, Hagar and her son Ishmael 13 years before this.
Genesis 18:13-15
13 Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”
15 Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.”
But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.”
Being a mom is not random, it’s a God ordained thing
Proverbs 139:13
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb’
Proverbs 22:6
“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.
Hebrews 11:11
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.”
God’s not expecting you to be a perfect mom. He’s not expecting you to respond the right way the first time every time…. He IS expecting you to respond in faith when He speaks and model a life of going after God so your kids will follow in your footsteps of faith in Him.
So learn from Sarah that despite your fear, despite your total inadequacy and inability, and despite you trying to take over from God and make things happen; God keeps His word to us.
2 Timothy 2:13
“if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.”
Genesis 21:1-7
Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. 2 Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. 3 Abraham gave the name Isaac[a] to the son Sarah bore him. 4 When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
6 Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” 7 And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
