January 23 - Sarah

January 23 - Sarah

As Christians, we don’t think as much about Sarah as Jews and Muslims do, but she is the mother of our faith.  As Abraham’s companion and wife, she travels with him when God calls him out of Ur.  When they arrive in Canaan, the land that God promised to Abraham, a famine threatens them and they move on to Egypt.  Abram tells the Pharaoh that this beautiful woman is not his wife, thinking that will keep them alive.   God is not pleased and the Pharaoh soon sends them on their way with additional riches, back to Canaan.

Her name, when we first meet her, is Sarai (Genesis 11:29).  Her name was changed to Sarah (which means princess) when she was promised that she would have a son and would become the mother of nations and kings (Genesis 17:15-16).

How could Abraham’s covenant with God be fulfilled without a son?  Because Sarah wanted to honor that covenant, she allowed Abraham to have our maidservant – Hagar.  A child was born and named Ishmael.  God promised that Ishmael would be the father of a nation, but not the child of the promise.

Then, by only the hand of God at work in their lives, at the age of 90 she bears a son and names him, by God’s order, Isaac.  This occurred 25 years after the original promise was made to Abraham.

This is actually the last we see of Sarah.  We don’t see her around when Abraham takes Isaac to offer him as a sacrifice to God.  She died at the age of 127 and was buried in a cave which Abraham purchased from a Hittite. (Genesis 23)

Sarah followed her husband and obeyed her Lord.  She was startled by the announcement that at the age of 90 she would give birth to a child and laughed when she thought no one was listening.  But, God is always listening.  God can do amazing things in our lives.  He did so in her life and she became the mother of an incredible nation and her ancestors, both by blood and by faith, continue to fill the earth.