SARAH (princess): a woman of faith despite waiting. [11:11]. Sarah, the wife of Abraham [Gen.11:29-31], is necessarily tied to Abraham’s faith because through her, God's promise to Abraham would be fulfilled. Her father was Terah, and her half-brothers were Nahor and Haran. As his wife, she would be committed to the same actions as her husband. They apparently had a good relationship. We never read a word of complaint, even though she was Abraham’s half-sister [Gen.20:12], and he represented her before the king of Egypt as his sister [Gen.12:10-20] because they had the same father. True, she was barren [Gen.11:30], and she knew from the beginning of the promise that she would need God to work the miracle of life for her to have a son. When everything is against us, we find a time when we can trust God without any competition. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Jer.32:17,27; Zech.8; Lu.1; Mat.3:9; 19:26.
Although it was her suggestion to Abraham that he have a child through her servant, and it was Sarah who gave Hagar, her maid, to Abraham [Gen.16:1-3], and she had a bad attitude toward Hagar and Ishmael, this is not charged against her in Hebrews 11. When she was promised a child [Gen.17:15-21; Rom. 6:6], both Abraham and Sarah laughed in doubt. When the promise was fulfilled, and she gave birth in old age to Isaac [Gen.21:1-8], she laughed with joy.
The positive side of the faith of Abraham and Sarah is the message about them in Hebrews 11. As a woman of faith [Rom. 4:19; Heb. 11:11], she showed submission to God and to her husband, an act of faith. She is referred to as a type of the new covenant [Gal. 4:21-31]. The promise of being the mother of the promised son did not specifically name her as the mother, so she turned to another alternative. OLD STANDARDS: Apparently, God took into account the ancient standard of children born to a concubine. He knows our fallen nature. SOCIAL REFORM: Changes don’t happen overnight. Revivals may happen quickly. However, lasting improvements in the ethical and social structures of a nation usually happen gradually.
There is nothing harder than waiting for a promise to be fulfilled. One way we cope with waiting is to begin helping God put His plan into action. Sarah was too old to bear a child, so she must have thought God had another plan in mind. Giving Abraham a son through another woman was not uncommon. The plan worked well, but the results were disastrous. Often, we feel our lives are on hold. We need to remember that this is part of God’s plan. Isaac was "born of God" to those two people who were beyond the normal time of childbearing because of Sarah's age. Isaac's birth was a miracle that still has an impact on the world today in the nation of Israel.
It is true that Sarah had trouble believing God's promises and tried to solve her problem without God. Then she tried to cover her faults by blaming others. This is not uncommon today. People seek to put the blame on their father because he didn't say, "I love you," enough, or because his expectations were too high for someone who isn't motivated to work hard. Weaknesses and mistakes are common to us all. How gracious it was of God to include Sarah in this hall of faith. She was very loyal to her son and, perhaps because of her age at his birth, didn't expect too much of him. But she became the mother of a nation, and through her son came our Lord Jesus Christ. That was her great accomplishment of faith; she had faith to conceive and deliver Isaac. God responds to faith even in the middle of our failures. He is not bound to doing things the way we expect. He can make things we have never heard of happen in very unusual and uncommon ways. God is a living God, not some ethereal idea, and He delights in giving life because He is the Source of life. He gives life out of death. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” In Christ, we are made alive forevermore. Isaac’s life was extraordinary and God-given in Old Testament times. In the New Testament, our Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated the life-giving authority of God when “a virgin conceived and bore a son,” Jesus! All new life comes from God. It is in His power to give life, for He holds the keys of life and death. No wonder we trust Him!
Having a son in old age is not normal; it calls for unnatural strength. By faith, Sarah delivered the son of promise, twenty-five years in the making. She believed God would do what He said and trusted Him for the strength to deliver. Through that son of promise born to her, spiritual blessings are passed on forever.
Sarah had waited many years for the son God had promised her. Her faith was surely tested, yet she waited until, in God’s due time, the Life-Giver did His work and gave her the strength to deliver the baby boy, Isaac. In that way, she became the mother of Isaac and ultimately of Jesus. “In Isaac shall thy seed be called.” We learn from Sarah to trust God because He is faithful; to be patient in waiting because our God is the living God, the Source of life, and He gives life from that which is dead.
By faith, we must yield ourselves to God’s will, trust Him with our whole heart, and rely on His promises to do what seems impossible to us. Then we receive the power to live by faith and be fruitful in the things that are eternal.
In these early examples of faith in God, we learn that life in Abel moved him to worship God. Awareness of the Lord’s coming moved Enoch to walk with God; warnings from God produced both a witness and work in Noah. By faith, Abraham lived as a pilgrim his whole life because he recognized the fundamental importance of living in view of the future. Sarah’s faith was in God to give her strength in her weakness so she could bless countless millions.
As a man of faith, he is an example to every Christian today. He is an example of faith in the New Testament, a faith that is full commitment to God, casting oneself upon God for life and death [Gal. 3 and 4]. He is an example of justification by faith [Rom. 4:3]. We learn from him the value of faith’s consistency and its compensation [v. 13-16]. His behavior was consistent with his testimony as a stranger and a pilgrim. Abraham uttered no prophecy like Isaiah, wrote no book like Solomon, sang no song like David, gave no laws like Moses – but he is the only one called “the father of the faithful” and “the friend of God.” The Lord Jesus used Abraham as an example to illustrate His teaching on the deity of Christ [Jn. 8]. Like Abraham, there are times when we must hold on to the promises of God and trust entirely in Him, believing He has called us for a purpose.