27. August 2011 by admin.

In Genesis 11:29-31 we are given a brief look at Sarai before Abram, her husband, is chosen by God for His special blessing.  The only things these verses reveal are that she and Abram are married, she is barren and they go with Terah, Abram’s father, out of Ur and intending to go to Canaan.  It is not said why they settle in Haran, before actually entering Canaan, but that is where they settled for a time.

After Terah dies, in Gen. 12:1-3 we have the first covenant promise God makes with Abram -
“Now the Lord said to Abram,Go forth from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you;
And I will make you a great nation,
And I will bless you,
And make your name great;
And so you shall be a blessing;
And I will bless those who bless you,
And the one who curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Abram obeyed God and took his wife, Sarai, and his nephew, Lot, and went to the land of Canaan.  The family lived a nomadic existence for  some time until a famine forced them to go to Egypt.  It is interesting that Egypt appears later in the life of the patriarchs as a haven from famine for Joseph’s brothers, and even as a haven for Joseph and Mary and their baby, Jesus.

To protect himself, Abram asks Sarai not to reveal that she is actually his wife, but rather his sister, in fact she was his half-sister.  In the commentary by Keil and Delitzsch we are told,  “But his (Abram’s) precaution did not spring from faith, He might possibly hope, that by means of the plan concerted, he should escape the danger of being put to death on account of his wife, if any one should wish to take her; but how he expected to save the honour and retain possession of his wife, we cannot understand, though we must assume, that he thought he should be able to protect and keep her as his sister more easily, than if he acknowledged her as his wife.” (p. 127)

It is this obedience to her husband I want to look at now.  Technically, he was not asking her to lie, just not tell the whole truth.  It was fear of the consequences that if a stronger man desired Sarai, who was still very beautiful even at 65 (ch 17:17 tells us she was 10 years younger than Abram and ch 12:4 tells us that Abram was 75 at the time they left Haran), all they had to do was kill Abram to have her.  Sarai does as he asks and the worse that Abram feared occurs, she is praised to Pharaoh and he takes her into his house.

Now put yourself in Sarai’s place, here she has basically been added to Pharaoh’s harem to be treated eventually as his bride it is assumed.  Abram even benefits from the transaction because the Pharaoh treats him well and gives him gifts.  But God was not pleased with the arrangement and sent a plague that led to the truth being told about Sarai’s relationship with Abram.  Pharaoh returns her and sends Abram and his people on their way back to Canaan.  Think of the trust Sarai had in her husband to willingly do what he asked.  We know that Abram has been promised by God that God would protect him and bless him, so it might be that Sarai was also trusting in Abram’s God to protect her as well?  It is not told, but the matter is clear, she obeyed her husband and did what he asked without question or fear.

Do we have that same faith to be obedient to our husbands? Or do we question their decisions and  argue our side of the matter to get our way?  Does this mean we never express our opinion, I don’t think so because as we see there are other occasions when Sarai does make her opinion known.  But as I Peter 3:6 points out “Thus Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by fear.(Emphasis mine)”  As wives our obedience to God includes our submission to our husband.  We need to strive to follow the example Sarah gave of trusting our husbands to make the correct decisions, even if it might appear to us to be a wrong one.  After all, if God was going to bless those who blessed Abram, and curse those who cursed him, would he not have protected him from Pharaoh?

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12. August 2011 by admin.

As I start looking at Sarah, I would like to preface this with a bit of back ground.  Sarah is one of the women that has a fairly prominent place in Scripture.  She is the mother of the promised seed of the covenant between God and Abraham, but she is also very much a woman as well.  She is used as an example of a submissive wife who obeys her husband, but she also has the same weaknesses many women have today.  As I think on her, I realize how strong she was, following her husband to an unknown land, obeying him even when it put her in danger, however she also in weakness tried to bring about God’s promise in her own strength.

As wives and mothers we can learn a lot from Sarah about what it means to submit to our husbands.  But more importantly as Christian women we can learn what it means to trust God to be faithful despite the circumstances.  Sarah had a promise that she would bear the covenant line through which the blessings of God would come to the entire world (Gen. 12:2, 3), she had been shown the might of God and His protection over her (Gen. 12:10-20) and yet despite these assurances, she looked at the circumstances and gave in to her “fear” and encouraged Abram to sleep with her maid in order to have a child through her (Gen. 16:2).  We will look at each of these in more depth, but I wanted to place them as an introduction and an encouragement to us all, when we know what God has promised, we need to trust Him to fill that promise in His own time.  This is a hard lesson to learn, and requires great patience and strength on our part that no matter what happens God does not fail.

I will end with this encouragement, pray daily that God will guide you in His Word and that His Spirit will give you the strength to be looking to Him and not to ourselves for answers.

The primary passages that deal with Sarah’s history are found in Genesis, beginning with 11:29 when we find her marrying Abram (she is called Sarai at this time) and continuing to Genesis 23:2 with her death and burial.  There are also New Testament references to her we will look at as well: Galatians 4:22-31 and I Peter 3:6.

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