A MESSAGE FOR SARAH
Introduction
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| Image from Web |
To
be sure, all Christians are broken before the Lord. To be a Christian is to
have a humble and contrite, i.e., broken heart before the LORD. In other words,
the LORD humbles you before He exalts you to salvation status. As the LORD
Himself says, “As many as I love, I
rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent” (Rev. 3:19; cf. Heb. 12:3-17).
As
we look at our passage of Scripture, we’ll begin to see something of the
general principle just mentioned taking place. The LORD is about to use Abraham
and Sarah mightily. Up till now the LORD has been dealing with almost
exclusively with Abraham. But, as we’ll see, Sarah was to be honoured as being
the mother of the child promised by God. Therefore if Sarah was to be raised to
this exalted position among women, then she would need to have the prerequisite
humble and contrite heart.
The general gist of the following is: Don’t be discouraged when rebuked, because whom the Lord loves He chastens.
The
Men
I’d like us to begin by trying to answer the
question: Who are these men? Abraham is having an encounter with three
men. There he was, sitting in the doorway of his
tent in the heat of the day. Perhaps
Abraham was trying to keep cool. Perhaps
he was sitting thinking. Perhaps
he was expecting visitors, we’re not told exactly. But it was most probably siesta time.
Anyway, we are told in Genesis 18:1 that the LORD
“appeared” to him, i.e., He literally “came” to him by the terebinth trees of
Mamre.
Mamre is in Hebron which is west of the
Dead Sea, and way south of what was to become Jerusalem. The terebinth trees are apparently some kind
of oak trees. So, the LORD,
i.e., Jehovah (or Yahweh, as some prefer to spell it) has
come to Abraham when Abraham was dwelling by the terebinth or oak trees of
Mamre.
As he sat in the doorway of his tent he raised his
gaze and looked.
What did he see when he looked? He saw
three men standing by. So, what
did this ninety-nine-year-old man do? He ran from his tent door to meet them.
Then he prostrated himself on the
ground before them.Image from Web
Now, we have to wonder if this act of prostration
was a typical ancient greeting given to every stranger who passed you way. “Oh, there’s a stranger, I must run up to
them and bow myself on the ground before him!” Is that how things worked at the time of Abraham? Maybe. But we are told here that the LORD
appeared to Abraham. And if we
keep that in mind we will begin to make sense of this passage.
So, if the LORD appeared before you or me we would,
like Abraham, fall on our face. Abraham in verse
3 said, “My Lord, if I have found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your
servant.” Again, is this just some typical greeting for passing strangers, as
was the custom in Abraham’s day?
When Lot, up ahead, met two of these men he bowed
himself with his face toward the ground. He
referred to the two men as “my Lords.” At that point they were strangers to Lot. He didn’t know who they were. So,
it looks like this is the customary greeting of respect. And we should note that the word “Lord” used
by Abraham is different from the word LORD in the first verse. The word LORD in the first verse means
Jehovah. The word used by
Abraham means “Master.” It is “Adonai.” So Abraham may simply be using a term
of respect. “Sir, if I have
found favour in your sight please stay.”
So, the question is this: Does Abraham at this point
in time know that one of these three men is an incarnation of God? Well, why is Abraham addressing only one of
the men when there are three? “My Lord, if I have found favor in Your
sight, do not pass by Your servant.” Is it perhaps because only one of the men is the LORD and the others are not? It’s very difficult to know for sure. Perhaps one of the three looked like the
master and the other two his servants? We don’t know! But we do know that Abraham was treating these
three men as if they were mere men.
Abraham can see that these they are going somewhere. We know, because we can read ahead, that they
are on their way to Sodom. We
know that at least two of these men are angels because we’re told these things.
Genesis 19:1 says, “Now the two
angels came to Sodom I the evening…” So, that’s where these men, well at least
two of them, we travelling on their way to.
But
clearly Abraham is treating them as mere men. How so? Because he wants them to
wash their feet, rest, and have lunch first. So, yes, the LORD has appeared to
Abraham. But does Abraham know that this is the LORD and two of His angels? No,
I don’t think so, at least at this point. However, having said that, Abraham
seems to have think that there is something very special about these
three men. He’s a ninety-nine-year-old man and he is running after these men
like a bellhop in a five-star hotel! It’s as if he’s never had guests before. He’s
got his wife Sarah baking them bread. He runs and gets a tender calf and has
some young chef prepare it.
As
the three men ate the meal he stands by under a tree like a maître d.’ Abraham
is acting as if he is an innkeeper, and not the master of a household of
hundreds of men and women. What humility we’re seeing in this man Abraham! He’s
returning to these three men what Melchizedek did for him. Melchizedek brought
bread and wine to Abraham after he had rescued Lot. Abraham had heard about
Lot’s capture when he was in this very place. So here he is, entertaining three
strangers as if they were royalty – just like Melchizedek did for him. But this
time it is the three men, well at least two of the men, and not Abraham, who
are heading off to rescue Abraham’s nephew Lot. Of course, Abraham doesn’t know
this – yet!Image from Web
So,
what at this point does Abraham know? He knows that these three men are
travelling somewhere. He knows that travellers need refreshing for the journey
ahead. Therefore, Abraham is treating the three men as such, travelling
strangers. We believe that the writer
to the Hebrews has Abraham at this point and others in mind where he says, “Do
not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly
entertained angels” (Heb 13:2).
We
should, of course, be careful. We teach our children not to talk to strangers
for good reason. “Stranger-Danger!” But all of that understood, it’s
always a good thing to be hospitable. As Jesus says in the Parable of the
Talents, “Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed
of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me
drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in’” (Matt. 25:34-35).
Abraham
gave these three men a slap-up meal, didn’t he? He gave them bread and butter,
milk, and a tender calf. Yet, in verse 5 he calls it, “a morsel of bread that you may refresh your hearts.” It certainly would refresh your heart to be
treated like this.
So, having considered somewhat the three men, and we’ll find out more about them as we go, but let’s now consider:
The
Message
“Then they said to him, ‘Where is Sarah your wife?’”
(Gen. 18:9). How did the three men know that Abraham had a wife? And how did
they know that her name was Sarah? It’s not, “Old man, are you married?” No,
it’s, “We know you have a wife called Sarah, where is she?” “So he said, ‘Here
in the tent.” Literally it’s “See, in the tent.” So, this is no idle chit-chat, “Are
you married? How many children?” No,
these men have a message for Sarah,
“Where
is Sarah your wife? Where is she, we have a message for her.” But doesn’t Sarah already know the
content of this message? Hasn’t she listened to her husband Abraham? Hasn’t
Abraham told Sarah that she is going to have a son? Well, from what we can see she either hasn’t heard or she hasn’t
believed.
The
LORD told Abraham back in chapter 17 that He was going to give him a son by his
wife Sarah. The son was to be
called Isaac which means, “He laughs.” Abraham, you’ll remember, laughed at the good news. But surely Abraham has told his wife
the news. I mean they were in
the same tent together. He was
in the doorway. Sarah was inside. No,
we get the distinct impression as we look at this passage that Sarah hasn’t
really believed the good news in her heart. What’s it going to take to make her believe that she is going to
have a son to Abraham?
So,
here we have the Messenger of the Covenant Himself bringing the good
news Message of the Covenant to Sarah. What
is the message of the covenant? “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). “The time of life” just means the time appointed for Sarah to
conceive and bear a son whose name they shall call Isaac. Now, this reminds us
of Isaiah’s prophesy, doesn’t it? “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a
son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14). To be sure Sarah is not a
virgin, having been married to Abraham for decades. However, Sarah was unable
to conceive even as a young woman, never mind as ninety-year-old! But here she
is being told directly by the LORD Himself that she will bear a son to Abraham.
We’re told, in verse 10 that Sarah was listening to
all this in the tent door behind Abraham. So, we imagine the doorway is open and
Sarah can be seen. We don’t imagine she is hiding herself so as not to be seen.
In other words, we don’t picture her here as being some kind of an eavesdropper.
Image from Web
We’re reminded in verse 11 that Abraham and Sarah
were well advanced in age. Which is to say that Sarah was well past the age of
childbearing. So, it would be a miracle for Sarah to conceive, she has never
done either. So, what would you conclude if you were Sarah and someone told you
that you were going to conceive, and that by Abraham and then give birth to a
son? Would you believe it? Or would you just laugh? Sarah laughed. But we’re
told that she laughed into herself. And this is the point at which she begins
to realize Who she’s dealing with here. The three men are messengers –
messengers of the LORD. In other words, these three men are angels.
Angels are messengers. However, one of the angels is
no ordinary angel. He is the Angel or Messenger of the Covenant. Malachi
in chapter 3:1 makes mention of the Messenger of the Covenant. “And the Lord,
whom you seek, will suddenly come to His Temple, even the Messenger of the
Covenant, in whom you delight…” He is THE Angel of the LORD and not AN
angel. He is the uncreated eternal Son of God.
We’ve
already met with the Angel of the LORD where He looked after the pregnant Hagar
in the wilderness in Genesis 18. It says, e.g., in Genesis 18:10, “Then
the Angel of the LORD said to her, ‘I will multiply your descendants
exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.” And then in verse
13 it says, “Then she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, ‘You-are-the-God-who-sees’…”
So,
the Angel of the Covenant is the Angel of the LORD who is the LORD Himself! And
here He is manifesting Himself in the temporary form of a man with two of His
angels. He and the two angels were able to eat solid food. Therefore, they were
not some kind of apparitions. They were not some kind of Star-Warsian
holographs! So, Sarah’s in for a shock when she realizes who it is who’s
talking to her. She’s just laughed into herself at the mere thought of her and
Abraham attempting to conceive a child! “After I have grown old, shall I have
pleasure, my lord being old also?” Sarah is calling her husband “my lord”,
i.e., “my master.” As Paul says to the Ephesians, “Wives, submit to your own
husbands, as to the Lord. For the
husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the Church…” (Eph.
5:22-23).
So,
here’s the Head of the Church Himself, even the pre-incarnate Christ speaking
to Sarah. And unbeknown to Sarah, Sarah is speaking to the LORD in her heart! O
we need to take every thought captive, don’t we? We need to be “bringing every
thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 5).
So,
the LORD asks Abraham, “’Why did Sara laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a
child, since I am old?’” The LORD knew exactly what was going on in Sarah’s
heart, didn’t He? Sarah laughed at the message. She didn’t believe the LORD’s
message. So, Sarah’s sin here is two-fold: a) She laughed at the message. b)
Then she denied that she laughed at the message.
Notice
that the first half of her sin was internal. It was a sin bubbling in the pot,
so to speak. And notice that the second half of her sin was external. The pot
lid was lifted. There was death in the pot – and you and I know that the wages
of sin is death. So, do you see that it was the LORD Himself who lifted Sarah’s
pot-lid? And, as happened to the Woman at the Well, He showed her what was in
her heart.Image from Web
Sarah
had lied right to the LORD’s face. But isn’t our LORD most gracious? He didn’t
strike Sarah down dead on the spot. But He rebuked her, for He said to her
face, “No, but you did laugh!” This is the same Angel of the LORD who stood
before Joshua with a drawn sword in His hand (Josh. 5:13). This is the Angel of
the LORD who stood before Balaam and his donkey with a drawn sword in His hand
(Num. 22:31). This is the One who has the sharp two-edged sword (Rev. 2:12). This
is the One out of whose mouth went a sharp two-edged sword (Rev. 1:16). This is
the One whose Word “is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and
is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no
creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes
of Him to whom we must give account” (Heb. 4:12-13). This is the One who has a
message for Sarah.
When
Sarah heard the message from the LORD, she laughed in her heart. But notice
that when the LORD laid open her heart “she was afraid” (Gen. 18:15). We all
know that “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 9:10a). But
do we all know that “He who heeds rebuke gets understanding”? (Prov. 15:32b).
The
Lord’s angel, Gabriel, told Zacharias that he and his wife Elizabeth were going
to have a son, John the Baptizer, in their old age. “And Zacharias said to the
angel, ‘How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well
advanced in years’” (Luke 1:18). The LORD struck Zacharias dumb for nine months
for his unbelief! Gabriel said to him, “But behold, you will be mute and not
able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not
believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time” (Luke 1:20).
So,
the LORD is letting Sarah off very lightly for her unbelief. The LORD simply
rebuked her. “He who disdains instruction despises his own soul, but he who
heeds rebuke gets understanding. The fear of the LORD is the instruction of
wisdom, and before honor is humility” (Prov. 15:32-33).
Sarah,
of course, heeded the LORD’s rebuke. The LORD was about to honour her with a
son of the covenant. Therefore, the LORD needed to humble Sarah before she
could receive this high honour.
Conclusion
It
should be clear to us that, to begin with, Abraham and Sarah didn’t know who
these three men were. It was in the hearing of the message that it began to
dawn on them who they were talking to. The Angel of the Covenant revealed
Himself as such in verse 14. For right after He read Sarah’s mind, telling her
what she was thinking, He said, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” “See
how easy it was for Me to read your mind? Well, can you think of anything too
hard for Me to do? Therefore, believe the message of Glad Tidings I bring to
you!”
Have
you believed the LORD? Have you believed the message of Glad
Tidings He has brought to you? Let us repent of our sins and let us
believe in the Son God has given us, even Jesus Christ our Lord.
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