Sarah

People100Sarah was the wife and half-sister of Abraham, the patriarch of the Hebrew nation. At this time during antiquity, marriages between those who were half brother and half sister were not extremely unusual. In Genesis 12:10-20; 20:1-18, we read of two instances in which Abraham and Sarah resided temporarily in Egypt and Gerar, respectively. In each situation Abraham feared that the people in the land would kill him and take Sarah, his wife—so he hid the fact that he was married to her and said she was his sister. God protected Abraham and Sarah in both instances, despite the fact that Abraham had not been fully truthful about his relationship with his wife.

In Genesis 11:27-32 we are given “background” information on Abraham and Sarah. At the time, Abraham and Sarah were called Abram and Sarai. Sarah moved with her husband and other members of the family from Ur of the Chaldeans to a place called Haran (not to be confused with Haran, Abraham’s brother, who had died in Ur). We are told early on that Sarah “was unable to conceive; she did not have a child” (v. 30). Yet, importantly, it was through Abraham and his wife Sarah that God purposed to bless the entire world (see 12:3). This blessing necessarily would involve descendants, and more immediately, a descendant—a son born to the elderly couple. Genesis 21:2 records the birth of that son, whom Abraham named Isaac (v. 3).

Even though Sarah and her conception of Isaac are rightly mentioned in Hebrews 11:11-12 as examples of faith; Sarah, before she conceived Isaac, demonstrated a lack of faith in her recommendation to Abraham that he father a child through her mistress, Hagar. That incident and the mostly bitter details surrounding it are recorded in Genesis 16.

Other New Testament passages that refer to Sarah and/or her giving birth to Isaac (though not always by mentioning her name) include Romans 4:19; 9:9; Galatians 4:21-31; 1 Peter 3:6.

Sarah was 127 years old when she died. She died in Hebron and was buried in a cave of Machpelah near Mamre, a cave Abraham purchased from Ephron, the son of Zohar, for 400 shekels of silver (see Gen. 23). The name Sarai means “princess,” the name Sarah, “queen.”

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