Hebrews Chapter Eleven, Sarah

 

Hebrews 11:11 By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.

 

Sarah, formerly named Sarai (lit. princess), was Abraham’s wife and ten years his junior. Genesis 17:17 confirms that, prior to Isaac’s birth Abraham was nearly 100, while Sarah was about 90. We are told of Sarah that she received strength from God to bear a child, the child of promise that God had told Abraham of 25 years prior when He brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees.

When God confirmed to Abraham that he would beget a son, Abraham pled that Ishmael, begotten by Hagar his maidservant, might be the heir. But God would not relent, and told Abraham in no uncertain terms that from Sarah would come the true heir, from which Israel would spring, and eventually Messiah would come, Genesis 17:18, 19.

 

Paul expounds on this moment in time, focusing on Abraham and Sarah and their plight in Romans chapter 4. The apostle relates to us that Sarah’s womb was dead, or barren; she was incapable of bearing children, Romans 4:19. Sarah laughed when God confirmed to Abraham that within a year she would bear him a son, Genesis 18:12. It was difficult for her to conceive that God would do this thing for them. Perhaps not difficult to conceive that God could do it, but that He would deign to do this for them. Later, when she gave birth she named her son Isaac, which means laughter. Though at first she laughed out of disbelief, God turned it to laughter of joy, which Sarah was confident that others would share when they witnessed what the Lord had done for them, Genesis 21:6. Isaac’s birth was evidence of God’s fidelity in keeping His promises, as Paul explained in Romans 9:9.  Abraham saw the inception, and he and Sarah could rest in the knowledge that the work God began, He would surely finish, though they would die before seeing the fulfillment. They had tried in the flesh to fulfill God’s word with Hagar and Ishmael, resulting in rejection and failure. Now, as the writer of Hebrews commended, they ceased from their works and entered into God’s rest, trusting Him to do what only our sovereign God can, Hebrews 4:10.

 

Once in Romans we are told that Sarah’s womb was dead. Genesis 11:30 likewise confirms this. Twice we are informed that she was, “past the age,” see Genesis 18:11 as well. Her pregnancy and Isaac’s birth were attributed to miraculous interposition on God’s part. The verse reads, “she bore a child because she judged Him faithful who had promised,” if you omit the mention of her being past the age of conception. Sarah’s faith was exemplary despite her foibles. Peter writes of Sarah, that she was amongst a company of the holy women of old whose trust in God was a visible adornment by their submission to the authority of their husbands, 1 Peter 3:5. Going one step further, Peter wrote that Sarah obeyed Abraham, and referred to him as lord, verse 6. Such conduct, Peter attests, is an outward revelation of saving faith, through which God might bring an unbelieving husband to salvation, 1 Peter 3:1.

 

But in the case of Abraham and Sarah both possessing saving faith, they proved to be a powerful witness for the God of all creation amidst a culture that had since rejected God and supplanted Him with idolatry and philosophy. It could be assumed that those who laughed with Sarah over the fortunes of bearing a son might have marveled at her age and circumstance. Marveling, they may have felt the draw of God’s Holy Spirit to bring them to faith in the God capable of the miraculous. A life submitted to God, especially in the context of fellow believers who are like-minded, is a powerful witness to the world that the order and boundaries God hedges His saints in provides not restriction, but safety and a genuine freedom to experience all that is good from God without sin, shame, and regret.