We are first introduced to Sarai when we meet one of the “big boy” characters of the bible – Abram. No small talk to spare however, as the very first thing apart from the fact that she is married to Abram, is the fact that she can’t have children!
Can you imagine if this is how the introductions at a dinner party or at church went! Welcome, to Mr and Mrs Clark……oh by the way, if you are wondering why they don’t have any kids with them, its because Mrs Clark can’t have any! Let’s get that out of the way. Save you asking awkward questions later and embarrassing YOURSELF!!!!!!
I wonder if Sarai ever felt like wearing the shirt wherever she went!!! It’s a bit like when a girl is single……
Haven’t you met a fella yet?
Meets a man….
Hasn’t he asked you to marry him yet?
Engagement
Have you set a date yet?
Wedding
When are you having children?
First child
How long do you think it will be before you will go again?
2nd child
3rd child
4th……..hold on……!!!!???
Hahaha!
Or perhaps worse still….
Married
Life moves on
No kids
Presumptions made!!!!!
This information about Sarai might seem a little confrontational and perhaps sexist to some – we aren’t privy to Abrams physical defaults – but it is significant to her story and it is the beginning of a long and winding road (both literally and emotionally) that we will see Sarai embark on.
Abram starts this relationship with the Lord, who we know is the Lord because we are gifted with the biblical text. Abram had lived in Ur (Babylonia) and Haran and perhaps had little knowledge of the God that would become His God and the God of the nation being built out of the descendants of this man and woman who such a scarce knowledge of what their future was to hold.
Now, I don’t doubt that if God decides to step into the life of a man and speak to him directly, well that person is going to listen up and pay very close attention. God was greater than anything Abram had previously understood and he was prepared to obey.
However, Abram and Sarai obviously had built a life in Haran, they had servants and stock, all would be making this trip.
This was not a straight forward book a removalist and head to the next town scenario. No, this would have been quite the exercise. Sarai as the ‘woman of the house’ would have been deeply involved, I am sure in the organisation of all of this.
What a woman. The bible tells us that Abram was 75 years old….so Sarai was getting up there (at least in the way we now look at age!) God of course sees things very differently.
We read that this little (or not so little) band of wanderers headed out to Canaan. The bible isn’t clear on how long this took, so I did a little Google search! The distance between Haran and Canaan in a straight line is, 12,180km! My bible version says ‘in time’ they arrived there! Yeh – in time!!!
We read nothing specific about Sarai in this section, so we have to speculate and imagine. This is what I realistically think may have been going on for Sarai….remembering that she is a very human, very normal woman….
· Tiredness
· Endurance
· Never wanting to help pack up a tent again
· Some hope perhaps
· Wonder at the future
· Faith – but in what? Was she fully trusting this God that had directed her husband yet?
Sarai did witness her man build alters along the way. She saw where Abram truly believed the honour and glory belonged. Girls – align yourself with a man who worships and honours God, even in the tough stuff.
In Genesis chapter 12, we see Abram, even though he is this new faithful man, seemingly filled with obedience, choose to seek out options for his travelling tribe. Why? Well, seems like there was a drought on! I can definitely relate to this. The bible text says that ‘there was not much food in the land’.
All mums and wives and carers can attest that this would be a major issue! The struggle to feed your family when food and finance are scarce, is sometimes so mentally draining, we find it difficult to shake and I know at times, I have felt the burden of not being successful in my role as a ‘homemaker’. Every meal in this house is carefully planned, portioned and paid for. When there is little to go around, my creativity comes out. Options are sourced and I have been known to physically carry a calculator to the supermarket! We did not plan to move out west to a larger farm just for me to go to work full time. However the droughts and tough times meant a decision had to be made and I was glad to do it. At times, we have questioned this for sure. If we had made the decision for me to be a full time stay at home mum, what would God have seen me do instead? Did we miss out on His plan by making our own plan?
I can’t go back on my decision. What I do know is, God has shown me how capable I am in the role I do, and the finance has meant a lot of pressure has been taken off my man in some pretty difficult circumstances. I love my work/life balance and am slowing shifting into a different gear. God has introduced me to some amazing people and opportunities along the way and I know that I hope that I am in Gods will for my life every day! I am sure Mr and Mrs Abram had their battles with the plan as well. I mean, when God shares a plan for your life, our expectation is often that itd gonna be a pretty sweet ride!
In this culture however, the burden would have been Abram’s as head of the family, but I am sure Sarai was right along for this tough ride.
Well this ride was about to land them smack bang in the middle of the powerhouse of Egypt.
It is about now we get another little snippet of Sarai. Chapter 14 of Genesis, in verse 14 we read ‘Sarai was very beautiful’. Wow! These little details are not put there for us to glance over. Sarai was beautiful!
Abram must have been one proud hubby!
…….!
“She is my sister…….!’
Abram – what the heck!!!!!!
This little passage of scripture is one of those that you are just inclined to go……..what!!!!??? Why would he do this? How did she allow it? Was the plan made and she just complied? I know if my man said we were off to a dinner party and he was going to introduce me to everyone as his sister (ie. Open game) there would be a cold shoulder, cold car seat and even colder half the bed!
I have no idea why Abram felt he could say this and why it was to his advantage to do so? Perhaps it was a cultural thing, heading into a new land. Abram had a lot of people and stock with him already. Maybe he didn’t want to be seen as a threat?
What we do know is poor Sarai the beautiful one was quickly spotted and taken to meet the king, and he being, well the king, gets to do what he likes, including taking a new wife!
Well, this was the last straw for God who obviously saw it all unfolding. I do often wonder if the forehead gets smacked a bit as He watches us make life choices for ourselves. The people of Egypt are struck down with disease (including the king), Abram’s ruse is up and as quick as you can say ‘here take the stock, gold and food’, Abram and Sarai were on their way back to Canaan.
I wonder how long Abram got the silent treatment for!!!??
I am not sure if this experience, combined with other things make Sarai to be a little less than trusting in my opinion, but her actions in the next few verses and chapters of Genesis lead me to believe that perhaps she really was struggling a little bit.
Chapter 15 of Genesis tells us all about God’s covenant promise to Abram and his future generations. The Lord seals this promise with a sacrifice and very specific details of the land that will become the land of Abram’s descendants.
God was outlining the salvation story before anyone knew there was a salvation story!
I don’t for a minute believe that Abram kept this wondrous exchange from his wife. Especially the news we have all been waiting for….that Abram would in fact have a descendant. A child who would inherit the promise.
Sarai clearly didn’t get the memo that all this meant she could have 100% faith in the plan of God. Bless her. She starts to put the plan in motion! Now…before we get too judgy on poor Sarai, how many of us hear about a great plan and are happy to sit back and wait to watch it unfold with little to no assistance from us!?! I believe that Sarai perhaps didn’t see herself as worthy of being part of the promise. She was happy for the promise to be given to her husband. Thrilled even to see him succeed, thrive and have a future sorted out. It was ok for her to take a back seat.
In Chapter 16, we read that Sarai convinces old Abram to sleep with her servant girl Haggai. I wonder how many days she mulled this great plan over for? My gosh Sarai! This is intense. I can see no scenario where this was going to work out well.
Once old Abram says yes (and let’s ask that question…..how much convincing did this take?), how stressed would Sarai have been? Would she be super – aware of where Abram and Haggai were? Would she have herself convinced this was a great idea, only to actually deep down wonder why Abram didn’t reject the idea as ridiculous from the get-go? Maybe he did and Sarai pulled out the ‘remember what you did to me in Egypt’ card.
Sarai most likely was so desperate to see everything happen for her husband in the way he had communicated that God said it would happen, that she was prepared to do almost anything.
Both Abram and Sarai are the perfect examples to me of hearing Gods plan but perhaps just having the very human experience of a wavering of faith. I can relate to this so much.
The Lord had made it very clear that Abram would in fact have a descendent NOT from a servant. God was saying….’not like that….like this’, but the ‘this’ in the middle of the circumstance was hard to see.
Soon after the Haggai and Ishmael part of the story, we see yet another agreement between God and Abram. One that included a name change for the Abram family as well as some pretty intense home surgery for all the boys.
God was starting something new here. The new names would indicate to all Gods intentions. Abraham means ‘father of a multitude’ and Sarah, ‘mother of nations’. This was intentional, faithful and loving.
God is ensuring that this couple know that in time, a child WILL BE BORN! Even though Abraham loved Ishmael and asked if the promise could occur through him, God was not going to have His plan adjusted to suit the plans of man.
I don’t know about you, but if God Himself was prepared to come and sit in my presence and chat and lay out His plans for my future, I am sure I would be walking around with such a faithful assured countenance, never waivering, never doubting. I’d be so very strong – even if I had to wait and wait and wait.
…………!!!
Hahaha
Sure enough God is the God of promises and faithfulness and in chapter 21, we finally see the promise for Sarah and Abraham fulfilled with the birth of little Isaac.
Sarah, now wants the Haggai and Ishmael situation dealt with for good. Yet again Sarah just doesn’t need the distraction or let’s face it, the competition hanging around. What if God didn’t really mean the promise for one son only?
Sarah’s trust and faith issues are still a concern. How quickly does day to day living, the influence of others and the devil in your mindspace make is want to set those plans in motion to save our own skins.
Life for this now larger band of travellers moves on and we read about land division, water negotiations, and life among the Phillistines for a while.
Sarah was getting on in years, had been following her husband around for years and had recently seen first hand the outworking of God’s promise over her life.
No longer would she be introduced as Sarai the one who is beautiful but can’t have children. Now she was Sarah, Abraham’s beloved wife and mother to Isaac.
It wouldn’t be the word of God however, if we don’t see a little twist to the tale, to make us sit up and pay attention. Something to think about and ponder how we would react.
God is about to call on the greatest act of faith he would ever ask of Abraham, in turn of Sarah.
Sarah is not mentioned in the account of the Isaac sacrifice and as Abraham wasn’t aware of the full intention of God until they reached the peak of the hill, this day would have likely not held any weight to it at all…..until the statement from God came.
Lay your son on the alter Abraham. Yes. The your one and only son. The one I promised would be the inheritance. How much do you trust Me?
Even though David Pawson’s book ‘Unlocking the Bible’ puts Isaac at perhaps the age of 37 at the time, I don’t think for a minute that this was an easy thing to do. If Sarah had any inkling of what was going on on that hilltop, I am sure something would have been ‘started’!
Sometimes God asks us to put it all on the linbe for Him, in order to both perhaps demonstrate our faith (even if it is fragile) and show the wonderful faithfulness of Him.
The Lord kept promising Phil and I that there was a farm for us to work on full time. All we had to do was be patient in the waiting and he would reveal it to us in time.
Don’t think for a moment that the 5 years of praying and searching was easy. Sure, it started out fun and adventurous. But as property after property failed to fit the very specific list we believe we had been given, the fun lost a bit of it’s glimmer and the faith began to wane.
We could absolutely have made a number of the farms we inspected work for us. Made compromises to ‘fit’ and just get on with our lives. We even asked God to remove the desire from our hearts of we had clearly gotten His will wrong.
We decided in the end to stick to ‘the plan’ and we very boldly put a time limit on our searching. Just as a way to discern if we were right or wrong.
Of course, as it turned out, a month before our limit was up, God brought us to this place and we thought life was sweet. Done. Thanks Jesus!
However, a few years of drought and hardship set in and we almost lost the lot. The bank drew a big fat red line on their ledger and we fell underneath it. We found ourselves in the land of Farm Debt Mediation.
We couldn’t believe that the future God had said He had promised us, was being taken away. And quickly. It seemed like everything was out of our hands.
It wasn’t until we both fell to our knees after a couple of years of striving and doing things in our own strength, that we realised our actual weakness and handed everything we had over to God. Gave Him back control.
We, perhaps like Abraham and Sarah didn’t really like how things were looking but knew on our own, we just couldn’t do it anymore.
This is when we saw a shift in the atmosphere. Perhaps similar to hearing a rustle in the bushes after deciding to trust God with what He said He would do and raise a nation from this boy.
The moment we trusted God with what was really His anyway, was when we saw God really move.
He was always moving – we just saw Him go ‘ ok – time for the kids to sit down and let Dad show you what He can really do!!!’
Sarah was deeply loved by her husband. It is evident in Chapter 23 verse 2, after she dies, we read that Abraham ‘was very sad and he cried because of her’. Abrahams last gift to the woman that followed him, trusted him, obeyed him and much more, was to arrange a proper burial place for her. He did not use his obvious power and authority even in a foreign land. Abraham paid what was asked, thus showing real respect.
Sarah was far from perfect, even though over the years as a woman of the bible, she may have been held up as the mother of faith. Sarah followed, yes. But she clearly had her doubts and challenges. She got caught up laughing at the Lord, obviously a human reflection of how the waiting must have worn her down.
I can’t say that I would have been any better.
I cannot imagine the loneliness, the feeling of loss, the uncertainty of the future and just the plain jealousy at watching other families grow around you for close to 100 years, but for you – nothing.
My encouragement from Sarah looks like this…if God says He will do it, He will do it.
In His way and in His time.
Is this hard while you wait? You bet!
Especially when you believe you have patience to spare.
Ask the single woman in her mid twenties or thirties how long she has waited for a spouse to walk through the church doors.
Ask the woman who has prayed and believed for children to be part of the love story…and it isn’t happening.
Ask the pastors wife who struggles to make friends.
Ask the divorced woman who feels the stares instead of the encouragement and wonders what future awaits her as her dreams fade.
Ask the farmers wife who tries to encourage her man each time that storm slips past that God has heard his prayers, that he hasn’t forgotten him.
We all are in a waiting game. However, this is not a game. God is not using us as pawns in some elaborate chess move.
We are His children. We are the inheritance He spoke to Abraham about. The descendants Abraham whispered about in Sarah’s ear at night as they watched her pregnancy develop in wonder.
Here’s to waking up each morning with an air of anticipation over us. That God still moves, still promises, still loves and still wants to surprise.
Just like Sarah, you are a part of the plan. God’s promises don’t exclude you. As a child of the king, He has equally as great plans and purposes for you as much as the next person.
Claim that.
Abide peacefully in that.
Trust that.
xxx
Toni
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