Sarah #29

Sarah, first called Sarai, is the wife of Abraham and the mother of Isaac. Her story runs through Genesis 11 to 23, and she is the one woman in the Old Testament whose age at death is stated. She is remembered as the mother of the promised son and, by extension, of Israel.

Biblical Significance

Genesis introduces her with a brief and sorrowful note: “Sarai was barren; she had no child” (Genesis 11:29-30). Yet God’s promise to Abraham of a great nation depended on descendants, and for many years the promise seemed to be going unfulfilled. Sarah is taken into Pharaoh’s household in Egypt after Abraham says she is his sister (Genesis 12:10-20). Later, growing impatient, she gives her Egyptian servant Hagar to Abraham so that a child might be born through her, and when Hagar conceives, tension between the two women leads Sarah to treat her harshly (Genesis 16:1-6).

God then renames Sarai “Sarah,” which means “princess,” and promises that she will bear a son, adding that she will be “a mother of nations” (Genesis 17:15-19). When the visitors at the oak of Mamre repeat the promise, Sarah, listening at the tent door, laughs to herself at the thought of bearing a child when she was old, and is gently questioned: “Is any thing too hard for the LORD?” (Genesis 18:9-15). A year later she bears Isaac, whose name recalls laughter, and says, “God hath made me to laugh” (Genesis 21:1-7). She later insists that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away, a decision that distressed Abraham until God told him to listen to her (Genesis 21:8-13).

Legacy

Sarah dies at 127 in Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron, and Abraham buys the cave of Machpelah as her burial place, the first piece of the promised land that he owns (Genesis 23:1-20). Isaiah calls Israel to “look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you” (Isaiah 51:1-2). The New Testament commends her faith, saying she “judged him faithful who had promised” (Hebrews 11:11), and Peter holds her up as a model of respectful conduct, in a passage that Christians read in a variety of ways (1 Peter 3:5-6).

Paul uses Sarah and Hagar as an allegory for two covenants, with Sarah representing the free woman and the Jerusalem above (Galatians 4:22-31). Her story continues to be read as a witness to God’s faithfulness across long delay, and to the very human mix of trust and doubt in the people he calls.