The Daughters of Sarah

Daughters of Sarah

Genesis 16:1-2

1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”


Sarah, even after seeing all God had done in their lives, including rescuing her from the King of Egypt when Abram gave her away, took her eyes off God and started feeling insecure about herself. The woman Peter used as an example in 1 Peter 3 had a horrible flaw?  Yes, the same one that we all have as women-the Tendency to play God.

Sarah had seen better than anyone Abrams strengths and weaknesses, and through it all she respected him.*  But, she began to believe that she wasn’t enough for him.  VS 2“The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave.”  She saw that humanly speaking she could not give Abram what he needed and decided since she wasn’t enough, he needed someone else. 

The covenant between God and Abram was no secret to Sarah.  She had, no doubt been waiting all those years for the fulfillment of a child.  She believed it would happen until it became clear that humanly speaking, it was impossible. (That is why she laughed in chapter 18)  It was like “Ok God,, I know you said I would have a baby, but see, I am past the age of childbirth and it is out of your hands now”

How often do we do that?  We believe God only when it is easy or seems possible, but stop believing when it looks like it is impossible.  We start seeing God as being only within human limits. We put him in a box restricting his power to only what is humanly possible.  This always leads to our playing God.  If God is only as powerful as a human, and we aren’t getting the results we think we should be getting from him, we then take over.

Funny the difference between Humility and Pride.  Humility says “God, when I look at myself I see that I can’t do what you are asking me to do, but I am here, I know you can do what you want through me, so take me as I am”

 Pride says “Ok God, I heard what you said, but I gotta tell you, I know me better than you do and I can’t do what you want me to do, but don’t worry God, I can fix this.” Then we proceed to take over God’s job.

Sarah blamed God for what she saw as failure in her life.  What arrogance! “The LORD has kept me from having children. She justified her sin by saying God wasn’t doing his job. So, she took over God’s job. In saying “Ok Abram, I can’t give you what you need so here is another woman”  she was actually saying “The promise God made to you isn’t going to happen now, but I know how to fix it, sleep with Hagar and we can share her baby. See? I can give you what God can’t!”  Vs 2 perhaps I can build a family through her.”

Sarah felt insecure about who she was and what she could be to Abram when she took her eyes off God.  That insecurity led her to take control of her house and lead her husband to sin. When we stop believing God and trusting him, the only recourse is to trust in our own abilities and in doing so we must let go of all that is true and do the opposite of what God wants.  When Sarah did this, the relationship she had with abram and the dynamic of their home was perverted.  She became the leader. Vs 2b Abram agreed to what Sarai said.   I find it interesting that she thought she could fulfill God’s promise to Abram.  She thought she could, through doing something that was wrong (and encouraging Abram to sin) she could be a successful wife.  She could then attain the security she lost apart from God, who through her unbelief she had, in her mind, rendered powerless.

What is sad is that her assumption was correct. She couldn’t be all that Abram needed. He did need some one else. He needed God.  In reality, God had already given Abram and Sarah everything they needed in each other, but only through him. 

Vs 2b Abram agreed to what Sarai said.   Lets not forget that Abram agreen to this little plan.  Even the Father of Nations was only human after all.  Don’t underestimate the influence we have in our husbands lives.  It is a great responsibility.  One of the most helpful things we can do for our husbands is to realize we are and never will be enough for them--apart from Christ.  Knowing this we must cling to the Lord and allow him to work through us to plug us into our husband’s lives.  So that we can be everything they need in a wife.  We can’t be God for them, We can’t be the only thing that prevents them from weakness, But God can and he is capable of using us in their lives!  In fact he designed it to be that way! He designed us for them! Our purpose in life is to bring glory to God, being what God wants us to be for our husbands is an expression of worship to our God!

Why did God make a covenant with Abram and Sarai? Why did he honor that covenant even though both of them were far from perfect?  Because it wasn’t about who they were, it was and is about who God is.

* It is interesting to me that it isn’t our husbands’ lack of weakness that leads us to respect them, it is their response to those weaknesses.