Ladies of the Bible Week 1 Day 5 - Sarah
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Week 1 Day 5
Sarah
Scriptures:
“Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. And I will bless her and also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her.” Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child? ” And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!” Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.” Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham. So Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very same day, as God had said to him. Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. That very same day Abraham was circumcised, and his son Ishmael; and all the men of his house, born in the house or bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.”
Genesis 17:15-27 NKJV
“Then the LORD appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, and said, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant. Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, inasmuch as you have come to your servant.” They said, “Do as you have said.” So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes.” And Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man, and he hastened to prepare it. So he took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree as they ate. Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” So he said, “Here, in the tent.” And He said, “I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.” (Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him.) Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” And the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. And He said, “No, but you did laugh!””
Genesis 18:1-15 NKJV
“And the LORD visited Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him—whom Sarah bore to him— Isaac. Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Now Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me.” She also said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.” So the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was weaned. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, scoffing. Therefore she said to Abraham, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac.” And the matter was very displeasing in Abraham’s sight because of his son. But God said to Abraham, “Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice; for in Isaac your seed shall be called. Yet I will also make a nation of the son of the bondwoman, because he is your seed.””
Genesis 21:1-13 NKJV
“Sarah lived one hundred and twenty-seven years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. So Sarah died in Kirjath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.”
Genesis 23:1-2 NKJV
“By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.”
Hebrews 11:11 NKJV
“if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”
Ephesians 4:21-24 NKJV
“For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
Galatians 3:26-29 NKJV
A new name… A new identity.
Sarai found herself uprooted from her homeland, from everything she knew. Sarai had doubts that God could complete His promise within her body. She loved God, but did He really love her? She even tried to step into His place and complete the promise that He had given. So God went a step further, He gave her a new identity.
I love the foreshadowing that God creates in her story. Her story is a beautiful example of God’s redeeming grace. The “old man” Sarai and the “new man” Sarah.
What would Sarah tell us?
I think Sarah would tell us of God’s faithfulness. She’d ask us what promises God had given to us, and then she’d tell us to joyfully trust that He will fulfill them in HIS timing, in HIS way.
Sarah would ask us what things we are holding onto from the “old man”; what are the things that are still in our house that remind us of our sin? What things are being kept as memorials of our life before God? As we told her of those things, I think she’d put her hand on ours, and tell us to throw them out.
We often look at Sarah having Abraham throw Hagar out as such a harsh response to a situation SHE CAUSED! But this story is there to be an example to us. This is how God wants us to react to the things that remind us of our sin, the things that may cause us to trip up again. - I will insert a disclaimer here: if you bore a child out of sin, or have a spouse that lived with you during your sinful past, I am not saying to throw them out. - What I am speaking of here are things that are weighing us down, things that bring up shame and guilt of the past. If you struggled with certain types of pictures online, you should have something on your computer, probably set up by somebody else that you trust, to protect you and your computer from those sites. If you struggled with reliance on credit cards and debt, you probably should cut the credit cards up. If you struggled with drugs and alcohol addiction, then you want to throw out the paraphernalia that goes along with that lifestyle. If you struggle with gossip and it’s worse when you are on the phone with Karen (sorry Karen, your name always gets used), then maybe you should stop talking on the phone with Karen. Whatever the weights are, throw them out. This is such an important thing to God, that He says in scripture: “if your eye offends you to PLUCK IT OUT!” He said it would be better to enter eternal life with one eye than to burn for eternity with both eyes. We have become so lackadaisical towards sin, guilt, and shame that we allow them to rule our lives. You don’t need reminders of your old life, your testimony is your reminder: a reminder that won’t tear you down or cause you to stumble but a reminder that will build up your faith! Sarah knew the better way. Sarah knew that in order for her to fully claim her new identity and God’s promise, she had to rid her household of anything holding her back.
What thing in your house is holding you back?
What are the reminders of your old life that still trip you up?