10.29.26 – Sarah, Part 8

Over the past seven studies, we have examined the emotional mindset of Sarah. Now, on the eighth day of this study, we come to her death. Ironically, she is the only woman in Scripture whose age is mentioned at her death: one hundred years and twenty years and seven years (Gen. 23:1).

Fortunately, for our sake, Sarah's death is not the end. Twice in the Apostolic Writings (the New Testament), she is referenced as being obedient, holy, and trusting of God (1 Pet. 3:5–6; Heb. 11:11).

We can certainly find the first of these attributes in her relationship with Abraham. She follows him obediently into the desert to a land God will show them. She obeys Abraham even when it requires her to submit her body to another man (twice). Personally, I cannot imagine that level of obedience.

In Peter's description of holy (hagios) women, Sarah is the standard (1 Pet. 3:5): a woman of obedience and hope. Obedience and hope. Peter is arguing that a wife with a disobedient husband must take a new approach to help him on his lekh lekha journey to find himself. In this way, the witness of her character will bring the truth of God's redemption to bear on her needy husband (Gen. 2:18), which Sarah modeled beautifully—even during times of Abraham's indiscretion with Pharaoh and Abimelech. On both occasions when Abraham told her to offer a sexual relationship with a potential threat, she did so. The results were disastrous, but that does not discredit the obedience. In fact, the only way that Pharaoh knew his action was displeasing to God must have come from the mouth of Sarah. She did not trust her husband's protection, but she did not stop trusting God's. In the midst of a very difficult situation, she still proclaimed the authority of Yahweh (even over Pharaoh).

Finally, Hebrews tells us that Sarah demonstrated "faith" since she considered God faithful to the promise. Given our story about her laughter, this may seem hard to reconcile. The Greek word "faith" in this verse is pistei, a derivative of pistis. It means "a firm conviction or belief in the truth." In order to understand the example of Sarah, we must see that faith is firm hope in the reality of things not present in observable evidence (Heb. 11:1).

Sarah exemplified hope in unseen reality. She put trust in God in that she regarded God's promise as truth even when the observable evidence seemed contrary. How do we know? She became pregnant! She must have committed herself to the actions required to achieve pregnancy even though she formerly said that she was worn out and that her husband was too old (Gen. 18:12). She obeyed the implications of her commitment to hope in God's promise. What a woman!

Sarah was a woman of trials. She lived with a man who disappointed her trust in serious breaches of fidelity. She learned to adapt, but that adaptation conformed her to the pattern of abuse rather than release. Her bitterness brought revenge rather than repentance. Sarah's life displayed the results of discontentment. Even her victorious moment gave her pause for humiliation. Among many things, Sarah's life shows us how destructive the disobedience of one spouse can be to the other. Ouch!

As mentioned earlier in the week, the story of Sarah is not really about Sarah at all. It is about God. Sarah is the instrument of God. She is the vehicle through whom God fulfills His covenant plans. If we did not see that in Genesis, the author of Hebrews helps us see: "By faith even Sarah herself received the ability to conceive" (Heb. 11:11). A physical impossibility made possible. It is God's work through her. In fact, God deliberately waits so that there is no human claim possible. Sarah's discontent is directly connected to God's deliberate intention—a truth Sarah clearly sees... with hindsight.

Sarah is vindicated. But not in the way she hoped. Her life has shaped her into a woman who cannot see the impossible glory of God's unexpected surprises. The story of Sarah is the story of God working in spite of our emotional roller coasters. In the end, Sarah can only acknowledge the truth sarcastically: "God has made a joke of me" (Gen. 21:6). God's joke (tzakhak) is the triumph of His faithfulness regardless of human complaint. God's joke is the announcement, "Is anything too difficult for me?" (Gen. 18:14). God's joke is the verdict that God's wisdom seems foolish to us (1 Cor. 1:18–25).

It is Sarah's life that shows God's triumph, not Abraham's. Abraham is a man on the journey to obedience, a man who must eventually sacrifice his own hopes and dreams for those of His Lord, a man who realizes that there is only one life-giver. Abraham is the recipient of life's object lessons, played out in vivid detail in the lives of his wives and his son. Abraham is the beneficiary of Sarah's sacrifice, for it is Sarah who throws her life up against the wages of discontent and despair in order that God may show Abraham that life comes from what cannot be done.

In the end, perhaps it is Sarah who truly fulfills the meaning of "wife" from the Hebrew ezer kenegdo (Gen. 2:18, 20)—a title used by God Himself for His people (Deut. 33:26, 29; Ps. 33:20; 70:5; 115:9, 11; Hos. 13:9; etc.). This is who Sarah was! Her obedience, even in infidelity, is a saving sacrifice for Abraham, and her acceptance of God's empowered fertility is a deliverance from the death of Abraham's line. Sarah may have been unaware that her life of discontent became the very ground God used to plant a tree of deliverance, and she is the reason why the nations have been blessed and grafted in (Gen. 12:3; 18:18; 28:14).

The end of Sarah's life is almost unnoticed in the text: "Abraham went in to mourn (misped) for Sarah and to weep (bakah) for her." In Scripture, this type of weeping expresses everything from joy to regret and repentance. I wonder which bakah it was for Abraham?

Be encouraged!

Shalom!
Alan

www.lightintorah.org