by kind permission of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
By faith Sarah…
Our devotionals have been focussed on Abraham, but perhaps just for a moment, we can consider Sarah. Abraham is waiting on his guests and, as he waits, the confirmation comes. I say confirmation rather than revelation, because only details of this word are new to Abraham; in particular, the timing of events.
The timing is critical
The timing is critical in God’s works and ways. The early career of Moses is a pointer to this truth. In his address to the leaders of his nation Stephen refers to Moses and his expectations:
And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian. For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand. (Acts 7:24–25 NKJV)
This is a fascinating verse which indicates that Moses already had some idea of his future role, but Moses is ahead of God’s schedule and, perhaps as a consequence, the exodus takes place 40 years later.
Sarah’s ‘ahead of schedule’ impatience had brought in Ishmael and now 14 years later she overhears the conversation between Abraham and his guests, and she is incredulous.
Now Abraham and Sarah were old, and well stricken in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. And Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also? (Gen 18:11–12 ASV)
This is a telling warning that God knows the secrets of our hearts. Sarah’s laugh is ‘inward’, but God registers it all the same.
Looking in the wrong direction
Very often there is a telling pattern in unbelief — namely that Sarah is looking in the wrong direction. Her response to God’s word is an immediate reflection on her own state and is captured in the phrase, ‘shall I’. God’s promise is often in the face of our self-knowledge. Sarah is old and she knows it. Abraham is also old, and she knows that too.
And Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also? (Gen 18:11–12 ASV)
Her own past experience and that of all her race is against such a possibility. It is this horizontal look that cripples expectation, and God’s first work is often to get us to look up.
God replies to Sarah’s unspoken protest:
Is anything too hard for Jehovah? At the set time I will return unto thee, when the season cometh round, and Sarah shall have a son. (Gen 18:14 ASV)
Sarah has succumbed to the all-too-human dimension; ‘this is impossible to me, just look at me and just look at Abraham.’ She laughs, the whole concept is a bad joke. God’s answer is to say, ‘You’re looking in the wrong direction.’ The question is not, ‘Can I?’ but ‘Can God?’ The question is not, ‘Is this too hard for Sarah and Abraham?’, but, ‘Is this too hard for God?’
The word from God
The word ‘hard’ can be translated ‘wonderful’ — is anything too wonderful for Jehovah? The Greek Translation of the Old Testament (LXX) has the sentence which literally reads, ‘not without-power is a word from God.’ It is the phrase quoted almost ‘word perfect’ by the angel to Mary at her annunciation. ‘…no word from God shall be void of power’ (Luk 1:37 ASV).
Gabriel was not just reassuring Mary, he was reminding her. In Greek-speaking Galilee Mary would have known these words and they would have linked her immediately to the account of Sarah’s miracle baby. The words provide a wonderful insight into the way in which God works His works.
Perhaps if we examine Mary’s question and her ultimate response we shall see more clearly. Mary’s question was:
Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” (Luke 1:34 NKJV)
Her case is different from Sarah’s but there are similarities too; both are biological impossibilities. Sarah’s biological clock has wound down and so has Abraham’s. A baby from this union is quite impossible and Sarah’s question is based on this biological impossibility. Mary’s question is also based on biological impossibility; there is no biological father! Their reactions are similar. Sarah asks, ‘After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?’ Her instinct is to discount the possibility. Mary asks, ‘How can this be, since I do not know a man?’ (Luk 1:34 NKJV). However, there is something in the tone of the questions that separates them. Sarah is querulous while Mary is stunned. But in each case, the explanation is the same.
‘No word from God is without-power’. I have never been able to understand why so many translations of Luke take the same route, ‘with God nothing is impossible.’ The Greek word is rhEma; it means an utterance or saying. If we convert the negative expression into a positive one it will make my point easier to appreciate. ‘Every utterance from God is empowered’. The ‘word from God’ has life within it. Every word that proceeds from God’s mouth has, within that very word, the power to enact what God has said. It is good seed perfectly able to reproduce exactly what it says on the packet… if the instructions are followed precisely. Every seed is a carrier of life; it only requires the right conditions for germination. Every word from God is the same.
Different reactions to the word from God
Their initial reactions are different too. Sarah is afraid and denies her incredulous laugh, whereas Mary instantly submits to the power of the word that has been spoken to her. If the verses from Luke are translated literally Mary’s response makes much more sense:
“How can this be, since I do not know a man?” (Luke 1:34 NKJV)
For no word (rhEma) from God shall be void of power. (Luk 1:37 ASV)
Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word (rhEma).” And the angel departed from her. (Luke 1:38 NKJV)
Mary has fixed her attention upon the ‘word from God’ not upon the biological impossibility. She has not only heard the ‘word’, she has received it. Sarah struggles with a lifetime’s disappointment, and even when her unbelief is exposed she denies. However, this is not the end of Sarah’s story as Hebrews tells us:
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. (Heb 11:11 NKJV)
At some point in our story, Sarah believed. This should be an encouragement to us all. She did not rise to faith in the first instance, but subsequently, she believed. Perhaps this is all the more wonderful, as she would have had to acknowledge her previous unbelief. Hebrews now reveals details which are absent from Genesis; Sarah believed, and ‘received strength’ or ‘power’. This is a reworking of the angel’s truth. Sarah received power. No word from God is without power and Sarah received power. The same root words are used; Sarah can only have received ‘power’ by receiving the utterance of God. The Bible is utterly consistent in its explanation of this process:
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Rom 10:17 NKJV)
The word for ‘power’ is dunamis — enabling which comes from inherent power. Let’s remind ourselves that Sarah had no inherent ‘strength/power’ to conceive. The account has been at pains to make this absolutely clear; there is no inherent power of conception in Sarah. Those days were long gone. And yet she conceives because she ‘received strength/power’. Where did she receive the ‘power’ from; it was in the utterance of God to her. She received His word with its inherent strength/power.
Beware imitations
Word of Faith practitioners have developed this into a methodology, but their hijacking of truth does not mean that everyone else should abandon it. To Sarah and Mary the ‘utterance of God’ came unsought. God broke into the ordinary pattern of their lives with a revelation and they ‘believed God’. The seed of the word found good and honest ground and the ground ‘swallowed’ up the word. There is a tiny but thrilling human link here. The farmer ploughs his land and sows his seed; the earth receives the seed and from then on the wonderful process of germination and growth takes place. The life is all in the word/seed but the word needs the earth to provide the conditions in which it can flourish. The seed cannot flourish without the earth, even though the earth is lifeless. The earth has nothing to bring forth unless it is sown.
Synergy
The miracle is told in a single phrase:
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. (1 Cor 3:6–9 NKJV)
For those who have ‘laboured’ in the world of projects the word ‘fellow-workers’ is synergos, co-workers, whose cooperation produces ‘synergy’. It is a humbling and thrilling fact that without Him we can do nothing. It is a stirring and awesome fact that without us there are things that He cannot do, either.
As a result of the received ‘word’ dead things in Sarah revived, strengthless things were re-equipped to function as God had intended. Hopelessness was transformed into expectation and failure into fulfilment. There is one more truth we must observe before we leave the Hebrews portrait of Sarah; all this was accomplished
…because she judged Him faithful who had promised. (Heb 11:11 NKJV)
Faith in God’s character
Sarah’s faith was dependent upon her appreciation of God’s character. It was not His power that brought her to the rest of faith but His faithfulness. The ancient world was full of ‘gods’ with frightening powers and the most frightening thing of all was their capriciousness; you never knew when you could trust these idols. Jehovah is immutable:
For I, Jehovah, change not; therefore ye, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. (Mal 3:6 ASV)
The book of Malachi has some wonderful summaries of Israel’s history; it begins with the statement ‘I have loved you, saith Jehovah… (Mal 1:2a ASV). Israel’s survival had been the consequence not of their own stability, but of God’s.
In the midst of her distress and fear Sarah came to a place of confidence in who God is. As far as I am aware this is the only reference to Sarah’s personal relationship with God in the Scripture; ‘she judged Him faithful who had promised.’ She ‘judged Him’. The different versions are not quite sure what to do with the word that the King James Version translates as ‘judged’; the New American Standard Bible has ‘considered’, the American Standard Version has ‘counted’, the International Standard Version has ‘convinced’. It is a word which signifies ‘leading’ or ‘directing’.
There is a process of the mind at work here. Sarah sets her thoughts in the direction of the Faithful One who had promised. It appears that when God utters, we have judgements to make. We can set our sights on our own condition and the sure result will be barrenness and death, failure and continuing frustration… or we can set our sights upon the Faithful One who has promised and the sure result will be fruitfulness and life, achievement and fulfilment.
And so the redemptive purpose of God in history moved on another step because…
By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. (Heb 11:11 NASB)
Every word God speaks is instinct with life and power… and awaits our response.
