Femme Friday- Sarah

 

Our heroine for this week is also from the book of Genesis. She figures prominently in the story of Hagar and Abraham. Today, we will learn from Sarai about delayed hopes, how frustration with God's timing can lead to rash decisions and how faithful God really can be. 

We meet Sara in the first half of Genesis. She is the wife of Abraham who received the original blessing from God that Abraham's off-spring would become a mighty and numerous nation. There was just one slight hiccup in this promise. At least to Sarah and Abraham. They were childless. They remained childless until Sarah was ninety years old. From the time Abraham and Sarah found out they were to have a child to the time of Isaac's birth was twenty-five years. Can you imagine? Hearing that you were to be the mother and father of a great nation, and then seeing that promise be put on hold for over two decades? Is it any wonder that Sarah took matters into her own hands? Giving, or even thrusting, Hagar onto Abraham? It was a pretty typical custom. And I am sure in human minds it made a lot of sense. Slaves and servants were considered part of the family. Surrogates to be used for their owners purposes. While it's abhorrent and mind-boggling to us, it was very common practice back in biblical times. 

Twenty-five years. Twenty-five years when Sarah saw the other women in their community having babies. Twenty-five years for the enemy to burrow in and out of Sarah's mind convincing her she was the laughing stock of the watering hole. That God had misled her. That Abraham hadn't heard correctly. Why not take matters in to her own hands? It happened all the time. Sarah and Abraham needed as many heirs as possible if they were going to see this promise of a great nation rise up from their family. 

We do the exact same thing. We hustle and hurry when we get a notion from the Lord. When there's a ministry we are drawn to, or a season we are looking forward to. It is not human nature to wait patiently in the Lord. It might be what we are told to do, but it's not a natural state for humanity. We look for whatever the easiest path is between where we are and what we want. Convinced that our human
concept of time is the same as God's. 

It's not. Our timing is not the same as God's. It is in that waiting we learn to be patient. We see the fruit from the seeds planted when the promise was given. Yes, twenty-five years is a long time. I can hear and see the frustration Sarah experienced. Because I too have had seasons of waiting. And have only seen the blessing after the promise has been fulfilled. 

Dear one, your tree will blossom. Keep tending it. Keep being faithful and obedient to the Lord. The fulfilled promise will come.