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Reasons to Go On, Part 2: Sarah

by | Oct 18, 2014 | Promises, Reasons to go on (A Mini-Series)

Last Thursday, we looked at the life of Naomi, and we learned that God will make something beautiful out of our circumstances, if we put our trust in Him, and this is a reason to go on! Today we will look at another famous woman from the Bible, another who had no reason to get up in the morning:

Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

Why didn’t Sarah have a reason to go on?

There could have been many reasons. The Bible records that on two different occasions Abraham lied about her being his wife to save his own skin! Abraham was afraid that because of Sarah’s great beauty, the kings of Egypt (See Genesis 12) and Gerar (See Genesis 20) respectively, would kill him, so to save his own life, he gave away his wife to be the wife of another. And not just once, but twice!

That would be enough to make me not have reason to get up in the morning! Reducing someone to a tool for saving one’s own skin puts that person on the same level an animal or worse!

But it does get worse. You see, Sarah was childless.

It may be difficult for us to understand in our day and age, but to be barren in Sarah’s time was a real problem. In Bible times, the chief value of a woman was first her chastity, and after marriage, her ability to produce children. As a matter of fact, it was considered a reproach to not be able to bear a child (“And she conceived and bore a son, and said, ‘God has taken away my reproach.'” Gen 30:23 NKJV). But to make matters worse for Sarah, God had promised that her very own husband, Abraham, would produce father an entire nation. In her mind, she was standing in the way of God’s promise!

Talking about not having any reason to go on!

Sarah was so upset by this that she actually gave her handmaiden, Hagar, to her husband (See Genesis 16). But even this didn’t give her reason to go on because once Ishmael was born, Sarah had a constant visual reminder that the reason she and Abraham were childless was HER fault!

But God had given Abraham a promise, not once, and not twice but three times, and the second and third times, God actually mentioned Sarah’s name: “Then God said: ‘No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.'” (Gen 17:19 NKJV); and later: “And He said, ‘I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.’ (Gen 18:10 NKJV)

Did Sarah believe the promise?

You can hardly fault her if she didn’t. Twenty-seven years had gone by since God gave the initial promise to Abraham. Sarah was already an old woman when God gave the promise, and now, 27 years later, I think that you and I would be tempted to think, “Abraham must have heard wrong!” Or “that couldn’t have been a vision of God that Abraham had!”

So Sarah’s response to this third giving of the same prophecy isn’t surprising: “Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, ‘After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?'” (Gen 18:12 NKJV).

The Bible records that Sarah was 90 years old at the time. That means she had lived with 90 years of disgrace, 90 years of reproach. And over those 90 years she had simply lost all hope that one day things would be better. For Sarah, there was no reason to get up in the morning.

But then one day Sarah gave birth to Isaac, the promised son. God had fulfilled His promise. God turned those 90 years of reproof and shame into something beautiful: A tiny baby, a promised child!

What can we learn from this?

We can learn the two important Truths that Sarah forgot:

1. We need to hang on to hope, no matter what the circumstance! Are we not told to rejoice in our hope of the glory of God? “and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” (Rom 5:2). Interestingly, the very next verse talks about glorying in our tribulation, because this is how hope is cultivated! “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Rom 5:2-5 NKJV); and

2. God keeps His promises! All of them! There has not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised through His servant Moses.” (1 Kings 8:56 NKJV).

So what can we do when there is simply no reason to go on?

We can do what Sarah forgot to do: We can rise up rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. We may not yet have the fulfillment of the promise, but we can rejoice because God keeps ALL His promises!

So instead of getting up in the morning wondering what new calamity will come our way, let’s rejoice in anticipation of what God will do for us and through us each day!

Please join us next week for REASONS TO GO ON, Part 3: Elijah the Tishbite

In His love,

Lyn

Lyn Chaffart, Speech-Language Pathologist, mother of two teens, Author and Moderator for The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, and Scriptural Nuggets, a website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems, www.scripturalnuggets.org, with Answers2Prayer Ministries, www.Answers2Prayer.org.

(To access the entire “Reasons to go On” mini-series, please click here.)

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