Sarai/Sarah

Genesis 18:9-15 (New Living Translation)

9 “Where is Sarah, your wife?” the visitors asked.

“She’s inside the tent,” Abraham replied.

10 Then one of them said, “I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son!”

Sarah was listening to this conversation from the tent. 11 Abraham and Sarah were both very old by this time, and Sarah was long past the age of having children. 12 So she laughed silently to herself and said, “How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my master—my husband—is also so old?”

13 Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

15 Sarah was afraid, so she denied it, saying, “I didn’t laugh.”

But the Lord said, “No, you did laugh.”

Genesis 21:1-10 (New Living Translation)

21 The Lord kept his word and did for Sarah exactly what he had promised. 2 She became pregnant, and she gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age. This happened at just the time God had said it would. 3 And Abraham named their son Isaac. 4 Eight days after Isaac was born, Abraham circumcised him as God had commanded. 5 Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born.

6 And Sarah declared, “God has brought me laughter. All who hear about this will laugh with me. 7 Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse a baby? Yet I have given Abraham a son in his old age!”

8 When Isaac grew up and was about to be weaned, Abraham prepared a huge feast to celebrate the occasion. 9 But Sarah saw Ishmael—the son of Abraham and her Egyptian servant Hagar—making fun of her son, Isaac. 10 So she turned to Abraham and demanded, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son. He is not going to share the inheritance with my son, Isaac. I won’t have it!”

Genesis 23:1-6 (New Living Translation)

23 When Sarah was 127 years old, 2 she died at Kiriath-arba (now called Hebron) in the land of Canaan. There Abraham mourned and wept for her.

3 Then, leaving her body, he said to the Hittite elders, 4 “Here I am, a stranger and a foreigner among you. Please sell me a piece of land so I can give my wife a proper burial.”

5 The Hittites replied to Abraham, 6 “Listen, my lord, you are an honored prince among us. Choose the finest of our tombs and bury her there. No one here will refuse to help you in this way.”

Dear God,

I am obviously skipping two major aspects of Sarah’s story. The first is her suggestion to Abraham that he have a child with Hagar. The other is the fact that Abraham sacrificed her for his own safety at least twice (to Pharaoh and Abimelech). Both were terrible decisions on everyone’s part. But these things happened before she became a mother.

Today, I want to focus on her and Isaac. She became pregnant in an improbable way. I am sure she felt like you would never fulfill your promise to Abraham through her (see Hagar). Like she was useless, not part of the equation. Then when she hears the prophecy, she laughs. Of course she laughs again after Isaac is born. Isaac’s life and the basic fact he existed at all brought laughter to her.

It is a reminder to me that there are some things that money cannot buy, but this story is also a reminder to not try to be in such control of things. I do not know what the relationship between Ishmael and Isaac was like, but it seems that the older Ishmael taunting Isaac at the celebration for his weaning was too much for Sarah to bear. Any mother of two children will tell you that the older will often tease the younger. For Abraham, this was just his older son teasing his younger son. But for Sarah, it was completely different. It was the child of that woman teasing her precious child. This was her chance to get rid of them both, and Sarah took it. I wonder how this impacted Isaac in the moment and as he grew. Was he sad to lose his big brother? How would he have been different if Ishmael had been around while he grew up? We saw that they joined together to bury their father later, so they certainly at least knew of each other. It is a hard story.

Eventually, we get Sarah’s death and burial. I am sure her life did not go as planned. On the one hand, she was rich. She was given to not only Abraham in marriage, but she was beautiful enough to be given in marriage to Pharaoh and Abimelech too. I wonder if, to at least some extent, she felt like Abraham’s property. Just one more possession to serve him. Genesis does not tell us about her relationship with you. Did she worship you alongside Abraham? Did you find her special as well? She obviously hoped to be a mother but gave up on that dream. And then you brought her laughter. Perhaps she did not have much laughter before that.

Father, I am not sure what there is to learn from Sarah when it comes to motherhood, but this focus on her is a good opportunity to think more about who she was, what we know about what she did, and what Abraham and others did to her. For me, help me to let go of my expectations and my attempts to plan things. Help me to simply labor as unto you. Help me to serve you through my marriage, my parenting, and my work. Help me to bring a piece of you into the world.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen