Virtually any woman forced to share her husband with a concubine would respond to a situation like this exactly as Sarah did.
I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:2–3 NKJV). (In later generations, the city of Jerusalem surrounded the area known as Moriah, and Mount Moriah, at the heart of the city, was the precise spot where the Temple was situated, according to 2 Chronicles 3:1). From the fall of Adam and Eve, to the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ, and to the end of time, God is working out His mighty purpose in the lives of His children. Sarah thus took it upon herself to try to engineer a fulfillment of the divine promise to Abraham. Frankly, some of the tensions we see in the Middle East today are rooted in Sarah’s foolhardy ploy to try to concoct a manmade solution to her dilemma. The promised blessing even had eternal implications. Send a prayer request now, or call 1‑800‑700‑7000. Sarah's hometown is unknown. Sarah was half-sister to her husband, Abraham. "... so also Christ died once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. – Hebrews 11:11 (Message).
TD Jakes - FINDING OPPORTUNITY IN CHAOS (November-12-2020), GOD SAYS: ALLOW ME TO PROVE THEM WRONG; JUST TRUST ME - TD JAKES MOTIVATION, Accountability - Bishop T.D. Therefore, I will devote several devotions to this Bible couple, the first of which appears on this page. Can you imagine how hard would that be? By the way, the biblical account of Sarah’s life doesn’t really even begin until she was already sixty-five years old. He understood that. No good has ever come from any violation of the “one-flesh” principle of monogamy. Sarah waited 90 years to have a baby. Arise each morning to words that will refresh your soul as you see God reveal pictures of His love for you. Notice that the biblical account of Abraham’s life likewise doesn’t really begin until he was seventy-five. 28 And Haran died before his father Terah in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans. For example, judging from details given in the book of Job, including the length of Job’s lifespan, Job was probably a close contemporary of Abraham’s. She, in return, acknowledged Him by a unique name: “El-Roi,” or “the God who sees,” a reference to the omniscient eye that followed her and sought her out even when she tried to hide (16:13 NKJV). Sarah's laughter is cynical, unbelieving. Each course is set up as daily emails, packed with bonuses. The truth, however, is that every party in this whole affair was guilty, and all of them ended up reaping bitter fruit from what they had sown. Knowing that God wanted to make him the father of a great nation, she earnestly longed to give birth to the child who would set that whole process in motion. We know without question, from a New Testament perspective, that God’s covenant with Abraham was an affirmation of the very same messianic promise God had already made to Eve in the garden when He declared that her seed would crush the head of the serpent. Thomas Dexter "T. D." Jakes, Sr. (born June 9, 1957) is the Apostle/Bishop of The Potter's House, a non-denominational American megachurch, with 30,000 members. Sarah of the BibleDevotions for Women Daily Bible Devotions Home, linda@devotional-reflections-from-the-Bible.com. Ur was the heart of a sophisticated pagan culture. Search . Yes, as the spiritual head of the household, Abraham should have rejected Sarah’s plan out of hand—but it’s still not quite fair to pin all the guilt on him. As soon as Hagar conceived, Sarah knew it was a grave mistake. 19:4–5 NKJV, emphasis added). Scripture doesn’t say why Ishmael was mocking. Sarah of the BibleGodâs Promise to Abraham and Sarah God appeared to Abraham again when he was ninety-nine years old and Sarah was ninety years old telling him that Sarah would indeed give birth to a son who would be the heir of Godâs promise. Following God isn’t always easy, but its always worth it. Sarah of the Bible Devotions for women continues with the study of Sarah of the Bible who was a woman of great faith. We don’t know how long Abraham and Sarah remained in Haran. The Lord had one thing left to say: “And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. For example, sometimes when God leads us or directs us, we can have a moment where we doubt what God says. In fact, while Sarah is always portrayed as submissive to Abraham, Genesis 18:12 is the only place in the Old Testament record where she referred to him as “my lord” (NKJV). These are just four things that can be learned from the life of Sarah. She immediately said, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac” (v. 10 NKJV). 4. She wasn’t always the kind of person who naturally evokes our sympathy and understanding. So badly did she want her husband to have an heir that she concocted a scheme that was immoral, unrighteous, and utterly foolish. They were not, as is commonly supposed, lifetime nomads or Bedouins who simply wandered all their lives because that is all they knew. Isaac would father Esau and Jacob. And in Him, all the nations of the world would be blessed (Gen. 18:18). Devotions for women continues with the study of Sarah of the Bible who was a woman of great faith. And there Abram called on the name of the LORD” (13:4 NKJV). The Bible says Sarah was exceedingly beautiful in appearance (Genesis 12:11, 14). Hagar suddenly became haughty and contentious toward Sarah: “When she [Hagar] saw that she had conceived, her mistress [Sarah] became despised in her eyes” (Gen. 16:4 NKJV). But God’s design for marriage was monogamy from the beginning. The great thing is that Sarah did it. 3:8, 16–17). Although Abraham and Sarah remained nomads and vagabonds for the remainder of their days, this place and its altar remained their anchor. When she heard this, she laughed. Serita Jakes (October-25-2020) Watch Sermon: When Women Pray Devotional, Chapter 3: Sarah. Love. She became the mother of the nation of Israel. Genesis 21:1Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised.
Scripture says “the oracles of God” were committed to them (Rom. He succumbed to the fear of men. Meet Sarah in the Bible. A famous Moslem tradition teaches that Sarah resembled Eve. There was probably as much relief and gladness in the laughter as there was incredulity. By their lineage a Deliverer, the Messiah, would arise. So what may appear at first glance to be an extreme overreaction was actually another proof of Sarah’s great faith in God’s promise. 25:20)—yet not in the vicinity of Ur of the Chaldeans, where Abraham’s family lived. At that time, the Lord also appeared to Abraham. To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver; behold, it is your vindication before all who are with you, and before all men you are cleared” (20:16 NASB). The passage is long, and there’s not enough space here to cover it in detail, but the Lord once again reiterated and expanded the vital promises he had made to Abraham. Job and his friends (lousy counselors though they were) had a thorough familiarity with the God of their ancestors. That was the year God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 18:16–19:29). Despite her occasional bursts of temper and struggles with discouragement, Sarah remained an essentially good-humored woman. Daily devotionals, journals, gift editions, & study materials for readers of all ages. Sarah (originally named Sarai) was one of several women in the Bible who were unable to have children. We are told that she was the wife of Abraham and also his half-sister. Abraham recognized the legitimacy of Sarah’s complaint. Three heavenly beings, disguised as travelers, appeared to Abraham. But Scripture says that before they even entered Egypt, Abraham discussed with Sarah the dangers this place posed for a man with a beautiful wife. Sarah realizes that God does communicate to his children through His word but was looking for MORE in wondering if she could receive personal messages from God personally on any given day. Haran begot Lot. We are told, in verse 29 shown above, that Abram and his brother, Nahor, took wives. She remained barren. For the first time on record, He specifically brought Sarah by name into the covenant promises: “Then God said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai [“my princess”], but Sarah [“Princess”] shall be her name. YHWH subsequently appeared to Ishmael and Hagar in their extremity and promised to meet all their needs (vv. Haran begot Lot. Apparently, while Abraham was still a young man living in Ur, the Lord spoke to him, saying, “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you” (Gen. 12:1 NKJV).
But despite her faith, she knew from a human perspective that her long years of childlessness already loomed large as a threat to the fulfillment of God’s pledge. In Genesis 15:7–21, YHWH restated and expanded His promise to Abraham, then formally ratified the covenant. If God’s promise to Abraham were ever going to be fulfilled, Abraham had to father children by some means. Can God change your life? It was some 350 miles on foot (making the total journey from Ur more than a thousand miles). Rather than taking matters into our own hands, we can let Sarah's story remind us that a time of waiting may be God's precise plan for us. Sarah plays a major role in only one more episode recounted by Scripture. Through them the Scriptures would be given to the world. Then, to make this explicit, when Hagar answered truthfully, the Angel said, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand” (Gen. 16:9 NKJV). Abraham was the human channel through which the world would see the outpouring of God’s redemptive plan. The year that followed was a difficult and busy year for Abraham and Sarah.
Scripture describes the details of the conversation that followed: 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. Most women would have given up long before this. Sarah went to far as laughing out loud when she heard the news that she would have a baby. She could have avoided living in tents for lots of years. Remember Abraham’s earlier plea to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!” (Gen. 17:18 NKJV).
But we are reminded again that Sarah “judged Him faithful who had promised” (Heb.
By faith, barren Sarah was able to become pregnant, old woman as she was at the time, because she believed the One who made a promise would do what he said. Significantly, at the beginning of the chapter, YHWH revealed Himself to Abraham with a new name: “Almighty God,” El Shaddai in Hebrew (17:1 NKJV).
27 This is the genealogy of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran.