Sarah – topsy turvy faith

God was calling forth a people to Worship the Living God, be Holy, to be separate, to be Christ like and to wait for the Messianic hope. That finally the Son of God would come and dwell upon the earth and he would be the Lamb of God and sin-offering for all humanity. These are the underlying deliverables that God expected from Abraham or anyone that made a Covenant with him. There is no Covenant without Christ and the Messianic hope in the Bible. Christ is the Cornerstone and the Foundation of all belief and salvation and righteousness.

So God appears to Abraham when he was 85 years old and makes a Covenant with him that his own son would be his heir and perpetrate the faith. Mind you God is not interested in population increase, it’s the continuation of a believing people on the earth that is the idea behind the children promised to Abraham. (And finally don’t forget that the Messiah was supposed to come in that line). So Sarah takes things into her own hands, and tries to accomplish things. She clearly didn’t have the relationship with God that Abraham had. And she in her fleshly thoughts gave Hagar to Abraham for wife and the rest is a very messy history. For 13 years after the birth of Ishmael there is no record of God meeting Abraham or any such profound event. Such is the tragedy of one wrong step. Sarah messes it up big time. Moral of the story - don’t listen to your wife at times. She may not have the relationship with God that you have, and so she may be thinking in the flesh and you may be thinking in the spirit. (It holds true vice-versa also). Abraham learns his lesson, and years later when God asks Abraham to take Isaac and sacrifice him, he does not consult his wife.

Anyway after 14 years, when Sarah is 89 and Abraham is 99 years old, three heavenly visitors come to Abraham’s home. It was Lord Jesus and two angels. Wherever in scripture you find a human being called JEHOVAH, it is JESUS in his pre-incarnate form. Read Genesis 18 and 19 to understand the full story. Abraham and Sarah make a good lunch for the visitors, they cook a good lamb curry and chapathis/tandoori rotis. And Jesus eats the hot meal and then Blesses the couple. He tells them that they will have children. Sarah first laughs behind the curtain and the Lord admonishes her for her unbelief. The visitors depart and then the import of the event strikes the old couple. God Almighty came down to the earth out of time, and met this family to bring solace, healing and Blessing. It was a small revival meeting with re-dedication, healing, and blessing and friendship. What a visitation from Jesus. That’s why when the Pharisees argue with Jesus, he tells them, See I met Abraham and then they ridicule him and say, you are not yet 50 years old and you met Abraham? (John 8:56-59).

Even after this visit from Christ, Abraham and Sarah mess up again. Abraham tells white lies and calls Sarah, his sister and so Sarah is taken into Abimelech’s household, but God protects her. God plagues Abimelech’s household with diseases and also warns him in a dream and so she is released (Gen 20). They repent, God visits the couple and they bear a child, Isaac exactly as promised (Gen 21).