Sarah: Our Matriarch of FaithSample

Living in Faith

Of all the challenges of faith that Sarah encountered in her life—from following God to an unknown land, to being kidnapped not once, but twice by foreign kings because of her great beauty—the most challenging was being childless.

In a world in which childbearing was a badge of honor and barrenness a sign of divine disfavor, Sarah was a failure. She carried the additional burden of knowing that God had promised her and Abraham that together they would create a great nation through their offspring. But as the years went on, it seemed impossible that God’s promise would be fulfilled.

In fact, one of the first things we learn about Sarah is her inability to have children. In many translations, we read, “Now Sarai was barren; she had no child” (ESV). Why is this fact repeated? The Jewish sages teach that Sarah not only was beyond childbearing age (Genesis 18:11), she had no womb. It was physically impossible for Sarah to have a child.

And yet, God had promised. So Sarah believed Him.

How did Sarah manage all those painful, difficult years? We find the answer in the Book of Habakkuk: “but the righteous person will live by his faithfulness” (2:4). It was Sarah’s deep and unshakable faith that kept her hopeful all those years. Sarah lived her faith daily, and her faith breathed life into her.

On the basis of her faith, Sarah was included in the Christian Bible’s great roll call of heroes of faith in the book of Hebrews: “And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise” (Hebrews 11:11).

But Sarah’s faith journey was not without its detours. About 50 years into marriage, still childless, Sarah had an idea. Perhaps God intended for her to be the spiritual mother of the nation, not the biological mother. So, she offered her handmaid, Hagar, to become a second wife to Abraham. It couldn’t have been an easy decision. But trusting this was God’s plan for Abraham to father a great nation, Sarah took this painful, fateful step.

Of course, Sarah’s plan was a disaster. It was clear that she would not be able to raise Hagar’s son Ishmael to be the heir to Abraham and her legacy. She knew immediately that she had made a mistake after Hagar had become pregnant and began insulting Sarah (Genesis 16:4-5). Sarah’s plot may have been unsuccessful, but her faith stood strong.

When Sarah was 89, God changed her name—and her life. “God also said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her’”(Genesis 17:15-16).

In changing her name from Sarai, meaning “my princess,” to Sarah, which means “the princess of all (nations),” God reaffirmed His promise to Sarah, and the miraculous happened.

At the ages of 100 and 90, Abraham and Sarah, at long last, had a son named Isaac, meaning “laughter” or “joy.” Sarah’s faith gave way to Sarah’s joy. But even as the promise of a child came to pass, the faith that Sarah developed through the decades remained—as a lasting resource for her and as a legacy for all her descendants.