Chapter 2, p. 42-50 (part 2)
Sarah: Hoping Against Hope
Genesis 17: 15-17
Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.
I will bless her, and indeed I will give you a son by her. Then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her."
Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”
The rest of this chapter focuses on God's incredible promise to Abraham and both his and Sarah's complete trust that it could come to pass. Interesting that Abraham was not seeking God but He was seeking Abra(ha)m at the time. John M. also discusses the incident with Hagar and Ishmael when Sarah was harsh with them and cast them out. I've always thought that she was cruel for doing that, but according to the culture, she was not being unreasonable. In fact, part of the reason for her sending them away was her belief in His promise.
As I ponder this section I marvel that both Abraham and Sarah are commended in the book of Hebrews as examples of faith. We know from reading Genesis that there were several incidents where neither appeared to be faithful and each behaved in in ungodly ways at times i.e. Abraham's lying 2x to different people about Sarah being his sister; Sarah "helping" God fulfill His promise by having Hagar sleep with Abraham to conceive a child... They were sinful people just like we are. They made mistakes and bad choices, some big ones, too, just like we do. Their behavior was not always perfect or kind or wise, as is ours. I think that these occasions are emphasized for our benefit to show the mercy of God and that He looks at the heart not just on specific occasions but throughout one's life. They were both quite old [Abraham 175, Sarah 127] when they died and these occasions are relatively few when you consider their entire lifetimes which were generally ones of devoted godly people. Nevertheless, Scripture says:
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
It is comforting to read that the Lord considers them faithful servants and to know that they are in heaven with Him simply because God is merciful to those He has chosen. That's a promise that we can cling to and trust as well and one that gives us peace in all circumstances.
NEXT WEEK: Rahab--A Horrible Life Redeemed
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