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We read in Be’Resheit 17:5-6 that Sara became the “Mother of nations” and

“Kings of peoples will come from her”. Holding such a distinguished role, still so

much is not said of Sarah and yet the title of this parsha is “The Life of Sarah”. I

believe it a great loss to us that we were never afforded the opportunity to witness

more of her daily living. In fact, between the book of Be’Resheit and the book of

Yasher we learn within the span of this parsha that Sarah was only one of a total of

six people who died. Within a four year period though we see shortly after the

passing on of Sarah, so did the following:

King Abimelech, king of the Philistines, who actually in those days was

considered a good king and was in covenant with Abraham;

also we see Abraham’s last remaining brother Nahor pass.

Lot, Abraham’s nephew passes on. And much later

Abraham himself passes on.

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And to wind out the parsha we see the record of the passing of Isaac’s half-

brother Ishmael.

Out of all of these people—people who have had much more information

written about their lives, their legacy and illustrative exploits—Sarah remains the

Title for the beginning of this parsha. That strikes me sorely significant, especially

as we witness Abraham, The very Father of our faith quietly passing at a ripe old

age of 175 and being buried next to his bride Sarah, still receives only so much as

a passing glance as do the others. This observation was so intriguing I felt

compelled to invest enough time worthy to acquire a more intimate portrait of The

Queen, The Matriarch of our faith—Sarah, and to try to highlight her life because

it is not a mistake or incidental that this particular portion is called “The Life of

Sarah”. And as the remainder of this study will bear out, much about understanding

covenant, family, and God’s miracles and plan are wrapped up in The Life of

Sarah.

What is in a wife? Rather, what is in the name of the word “WIFE”? If we

examine the Hebrew, it comes from Strongs# H802 and cross-referenced with the

Ancient Hebrew Lexicon it’s root word is Eh-Nowsh-ah or Alef-Nun-Yod-Shin-

Heh.

אנישהIt means Woman, or wife, and is found grammatically in the root word for man

which is comprised of an Alef-Nun-Shin

The Rabbis argue, “man must seek after woman, and not a woman after a man;

Man, they say, was formed from the ground—woman from man’s rib; hence, in

trying to find a wife man only looks after what he had lost!” (Sketched of Jewish

Social Life, A. Edersheim, p.135) So we see in Scripture Abram finding his

missing rib in the daughter of Haran, Sarai.

But if we pictographically examine the meaning of the word for wife, or “Eh-

now-shah” we see a story being told.

Alef = Father

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Nun = Life, or seed

Yod = a hand, which represents the words to work, make or throw

Shin = Again, or another

Heh = Behold, reveal, man

When strung together pictographically we see the following,

“Behold, it is through the wife that the father’s life is made into

another man”.

It is definitely by far one of YHWH’s most incredible miracles of procreation and

fulfillment of one of His most primary commands, “Be fruitful and multiply”—

and yet we read back in Be’Resheit chapter 11, verses 29-30 that

“Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram's wife was

Sarai; and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father

of Milcah and Iscah. 30

And Sarai was barren; she had no child”.

But didn’t we just read in Genesis 17, verses 15 and 16 that she would become the

“Mother of nations and that kings of peoples would come from her”? Perhaps there

is a well-purposed irony in this parsha’s title after all?

Psalm 127:3 says “Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from

him.” In his book “Sketches of Jewish Social Life”, Edersheim observes that “it

was said that he who had no child was like one dead” (Ederseim, p.95)

A word about “Barrenness”; In Holman’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary we

read that Barrenness is a “term used to describe a woman who is unable to give

birth to children: Sarai (Gen. 11:30), Rebekah (Gen. 25:21), Rachel (Gen. 29:31),

Hannah (1 Sam. 1:5), and Elizabeth (Luke 1:7, 36).

Barrenness was considered a curse from God

(Gen. 16:2; 20:18; 1 Sam. 1:5) which explains Elizabeth’s statement that

God had taken away her “disgrace among the people”—that she was a sinner and

cursed by God as evidenced by her barrenness (Luke 1:25).” (Holman’s, p.173) I

want to point out that “considered” does not mean that it is!!! We move on.

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To explore a deeper understanding of blessings and curses so that we can

gain proper perspective on how it relates to childbirth we read,

"If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to My

name," says the LORD of hosts, "then I will send the curse upon you, and

I will curse your blessings; and indeed, I have cursed them already,

because you are not taking it to heart. (Mal 2:2 NAS)

For the wages of sin (disobedience, rebellion, rejecting God’s path) is death,

but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 6:23 NAS)

From these verses and many others like them we can derive that blessings

are a result of obedience, and thus the curse comes by way of disobedience, which

hearkens us back to the fall of Adam and Eve in garden who rebelled against God’s

word and followed after another.

“Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your

wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You

shall not eat from it'; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you shall eat of

it All the days of your life. (Gen 3:17 NAS)

And specifically concerning the womb which is where a child is conceived,

develops, grows, receiving the precious blessing of life nourishment directly from

the mother we read of the account when Sarai was taken into Abimelech’s custody,

and upon Abimelech’s returning her, Abraham prayed to God and

“God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maids, so that they bore

children. 18

For the LORD had closed fast all the wombs of the household of

Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife”. (Gen 20:17-18)

So we have this picture backed by Scripture that solidifies the belief that to

bear children is a gift, or blessing of God. What happens next is man’s best attempt

at making sense of the flip side of this equation, which is to not be able to bear

children must be a curse from God. This is excellent logic, suited for a Roman-

Greco mind, but the problem with this is it fails to take into account FAITH!! The

question we should be asking is,

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“Why would God have allowed Abraham to choose Sarah to be

his wife, who was barren, and then after the fact approach Abraham

and promise that he would become a Great Nation?”

This has the appearance of a God who has miscalculated, which gives the air

of a ‘Less-than-All-powerful’ Creator. Listen, our God is not a God of confusion,

nor does He orchestrate things randomly. Everything He does fulfills the special

purpose to create life and to reveal Himself in it. That said, the only logical reason

for ‘why?’ is so that Abraham and Sarah and everyone of their household, the

world at large and that generations to come would recognize that it was

ONLY by FAITH in YHWH’s promise that Isaac was able to be born!

Remember what we read in Edersheim’s commentary on “Sketches of

Jewish Social Life”? It said that “he who had no child was like one dead”

(Ederseim, p.95) And to confirm it scripturally we read in Romans

“And without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now

as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old,

and the deadness of Sarah's womb; 20

yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew

strong in faith, giving glory to God,”

(Rom 4:19-20 NAS)

God oftentimes reveals Himself using Signs.

And what we discover in returning to the conclusion of the commentary in

Holman’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary only confirms what God reveals to those

who seek Him; that “The barrenness of Sarai, Rebekah, and Rachel (the mothers of

the Israelite nation) is significant in that their ability finally to bear children

is a sign of the grace and favor of God toward His elect people.”

What we as critical observers and children of our Father YHWH need to

learn from this is that even though what we can see around us may appear to be

death, by using the eyes of faith our Creator has promised us a good future. Do you

walk by faith? Or sight?

Truth be told Abraham and Sarah, bequeathed with the royal titles of

Patriarch and Matriarch, both were not without their share of stumbles. But to their

credit, they did obey the call of The Father, and so we have their account laid out

before us to teach us how great their faith truly was despite the rare times they

failed to keep looking up.

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Hagar was one. Strongs numbers does not offer a definitive definition of

her name. Matthew Henry’s commentary reveals her name to mean “flight”, but

Holman’s Bible Dictionary defines her name as “Stranger”, which is closer

grammatically speaking to the paleo Hebrew. We know that she was given by

Pharoah to Sarah and Abraham after Pharoah returned Sarah to Abraham’s care.

Hagar is spelled in Torah as

הגר

If you have any understanding of Hebrew you may notice a two-letter root in

the last two letters of Hagar’s name. The Gimel and the Resh, or “Ger” mean

“Stranger”, taken together with the Heh we have

“Behold the Stranger”

If we consult the Torah, we do not see a lot offered in the way of historical

context or character. The book of Yasher provides some. What we can assess just

on times and ages is that it says Abraham took Sarai to wife at the same time

period he was delivered from the furnace of Nimrod. It tells us that at the

“expiration of two years from Abram’s going out of the fire, that is the in the 52nd

year of his life, behold king Nimrod sat in Babel upon the throne”. So Abram took

Sarai as a wife when he was 50 years old. Then later on we learn in the book of

Yasher chapter 16, verse 27 that it was in the 85th year of Abram’s life that Sarah

gave HaWe read in We remember Hagar, and everyone holds what happened with

Hagar against Sarah and Abraham. What we fail to recognize is that by the time

Sarah was willing to offer Hagar to Abraham as a second wife, so many trials had

been coming against Sarah for decades. So for 35 years Sarai and Abraham had

been trying to conceive….consider that fact….35 YEARS. I would have to say that

is very faithful.

But what I saw in Hagar’s name also suggested a point of interest as to why

this giving of Hagar to Abraham occurred.

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הג

The first two letters of Hagar’s name are the Heh and the Gimel, and if we

look up this two-letter root word it means “To Ponder: A murmering or soft speech

while in a continual contemplation over something. And the Resh means man, or

head. So taken together we can read Hagar’s name to mean

“The ponderings of man, or The ponderings of the head”

Whose to say that after decades of failed attempts at trying to conceive that

it was the ponderings in Sarah’s and Abram’s minds that eventually lead them to

entertain the thought that God must have brought Hagar into their lives so that

Abraham’s seed would continue?

Matthew Henry tends to agree on this point stating “Abram's compliance

with Sarai's proposal, we have reason to think, was from an earnest desire of the

promised seed, on whom the covenant should be entailed. God had told him that

his heir should be a son of his body, but had not yet told him that it should be a son

by Sarai; therefore he thought, "Why not by Hagar, since Sarai herself proposed

it?'' What we learn by trying to “help” God as Henry says is “It is for want of a

firm dependence upon God's promise, and a patient waiting for God's time, that we

go out of the way of our duty to catch at expected mercy. He that believes does not

make haste.” In other words, The Father will bring His plan to pass in His time,

and He will make it clear.

But to their credit let’s put a few historical facts together. From the book of

Yasher we discover that both Abraham and Sarai were born in South Babylon, Ur

of the Chaldeans, under the dictatorship of Nimrod. Abram had a bounty on his

head from birth, but because his father, Terah, had tender feelings toward the

newborn Abram he concocted a scheme to save him and instead brought one of his

handmaid’s infants to the king and identified the child falsely as his own. So

Abram escaped to a distant cave with his mother and nurse and lived there until

Abram was ten years old, which at the same time is when Haran, then 42, the

eldest of Abram’s brothers begat his daughter Sarai. At that time Abram went to

live in the tents of Noah and Shem for 40 years to learn of them The Torah. Sarai

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however we are not told much except that her father was Haran, older brother of

Abram. We are provided no information at all about Sarai’s mother, which does us

no good as to determining her home-life, but suffice it to say, if her dad didn’t

walk in Torah, then her mother was more than likely not walking in Torah either.

After Abram destroyed Terah’s idols and confronted him, it was Terah who

went before the king in a rage to advise him that Abram, his prophetically named

son was alive and well. And it was at the pressuring of King Nimrod that Terah

implicated his eldest son Haran as the one responsible for making Terah do what

he did all those years ago. We read in the 12th

chapter of Yasher starting in verse

15, “And the king said ‘Who advised thee to this? Tell me, do not hide aught from

me, and then thou shalt not die.’ 16 And Terah was greatly terrified in the king’s

presence, and he said to the king, ‘It was Haran my eldest son who advised me to

this’; and Haran was in those days that Abram was born, two and thirty years old.

17 But Haran did not advise his father to anything, for Terah said this to the king in

order to deliver his soul from the king, for he feared greatly; and the king said to

Terah, ‘Haran thy son who advised thee to this shall die through fire with Abram;

for the sentence of death is upon him for having rebelled against the king’s desire

in doing this thing. 18 And Haran at that time felt inclined to follow the ways of

Abram, but he kept it within himself. 19 And Haran said in his heart, Behold now

the king has seized Abram on account of these things which Abram did, and it

shall come to pass, that if Abram prevail over the king I will follow him, but if the

king prevail I will go after the king.”

As tragic a story as this is, we learn a little from her father Haran, and the

home that Sarai grew up in. We can glean from Scripture in Genesis 11:27 that

Haran became the father of Lot, and we see what kind of person Lot turned out to

be. We also see in verse 28 of the same chapter that Haran died in the presence of

his father Terah, which does not give any explanation as to the cause in Torah, but

Yasher does as it chronicles the seizing and throwing of Abram and Haran into a

blazing fire.

It gives the account in the 12th chapter starting in verse 21, “And they

brought them both, Abram and Haran his brother, to cast them into the fire; and all

the inhabitants of the land and the king’s servants and princes and all the women

and little ones were there, standing that day over them.” So Terah did witness with

his own eyes the death of his son Haran, who was innocent. The side lesson to this

is Haran had a prompting to walk in the Way of Torah like his young brother

Abram, but rather than step out with the eyes faith, he chose to wait and see what

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Abram’s outcome would be. Little did he know that the king’s men were coming

for him too. How ironic it must have been when he received the knock on his door.

I’ve spent a lot of time giving background on those who had a presence or

influence on Sarai because I felt it was important to show what she came out of,

what she overcame, and perhaps what she was still struggling with even long after

coming out of Babylon.

A Few Questions for Your Consideration:

Do you think if Sarai was there at the execution of her father and the

attempted execution of her soon to be husband, that the images of her father

in the fire would have been easy to erase from her memory?

Would it alter your perception of God if you knew that your Grandfather lied

to the government in order to protect his own life, and instead had your

father arrested, drawn out in front of the entire city, falsely identified as a

heinous criminal pinned with a charge he was completely innocent of, and

then dropped into a fiery furnace bound and burned alive for the entire city

to see?

Would you struggle with mixed emotions learning after the fact that your

disloyal self-serving grandfather, who made a life as a corrupted politician

serving a pagan, tyrannical king that murdered your father is coming with

you and your husband because again he’s afraid for his own life?

Do you think Sarai may have ever struggled with forgiveness, or even

bringing justice into her own hands toward her grandfather Terah as he

initially followed them out of Babylon, in essence bringing some of Babylon

with them?

Many of us although now walking on The Way of Truth and Righteousness,

are still haunted and plagued by the pain of judgmental eyes, false accusations,

crippling stigmas and deeply entrenched resentments. Any number of these

painful spiritual and emotional scars can affect a person’s faith.

These painful touchstones are designed to pull us closer to our Creator, but

often times without proper understanding, left to the ponderings of man, we can

find ourselves dying to God’s present possibilities, because we’re too busy

living in the past. Could any of us relate to Sarah?

What we see in Sarah however is a woman who in the midst of suffering,

and face to face with any number of insecurities was lifted by YHWH to

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Matriarchal status, and she conducted herself according to the pattern outlined

in 1 Peter 3, we read

“but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a

gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. 5 For in this way in

former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves,

being submissive to their own husbands. 6 Thus Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling

him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being

frightened by any fear.” (1Pe 3:4-6 NAS)

Sarah showed great courage, trusting in her husband even when he himself

was uncertain of where he was going. Sarah also demonstrated great faith! We

read in Hebrews 11:11

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 NAS)

And so here we see The Father lifted Sarah up to a place of prominence for

her faith in leading her and her husband Abraham to the land of promise and for

trusting that He would eventually bring it to pass.

What many of us forget about her Sarah needs to be remembered. And that

is that although she lived a life in gentleness and kindness and obedience,

demonstrating great faith, she was also a mouthpiece for The Father to speak

directly to her husband Abraham. As my friend Angus Wootten pointed out by

making the crucial distinction that, “If it had been up to Abraham his heir would

have been Ishmael!”

We read in Be’Resheit “But God said to Abraham, "Do not be distressed

because of the lad and your maid;

whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for through Isaac your descendants shall be named”.

(Gen 21:12 NAS)

In chapter 23 we have the burial of Sarah. The focus of this chapter is 4-

pronged, in that the first is Abraham mourned over Sarah. Sarah the love of his

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life has passed and Abraham has lost that part of him that made him whole.

There is a deep loss felt here on the part of Abraham and he mourns over her

passing as does her son Isaac. We read in Yasher chapter 23 verse 89 “And

Abraham and Isaac went to her to Hebron, and when they found that she was

dead they lifted up their voices and wept bitterly over her; and Isaac fell upon

his mother’s face and wept over her, and he said ‘O my mother, my mother,

how hast thou left me, and where hast thou gone? O how, how hast thou left

me! And Abraham and Isaac wept greatly and all their servants wept with them

on account of Sarah, and they mourned over her a great and heavy mourning.

What we find when Abraham rises from Sarah is he approaches the people

who are still occupying the territory of Hebron, a pagan nation known as the

sons of Heth, who The Father has sworn Abraham’s descendants shall possess,

but nonetheless he approaches them as a stranger, with humility. And it’s here

in the cities gates that he requests a place to bury Sarah and speaks to one of the

high ranked people there. The area Abraham has chosen is a cave called

Machpelah in a field there in Canaan, facing Mamre.

The initial dialogue appears very respectful, Abraham is even called a Lord,

in the Tikkun he’s regarded as a “prince of Elohim”. Ephron the Hittite is

exchanging back and forth with Abraham and making lavish verbal overtures,

“No my Lord, hear me, I give you the field and I give you the cave that is in it”.

But Abraham wants to own it outright so that it will forever belong to his seed

and so he presses to purchase. As the sages point out in the Tanach, and the

verses reveal, “Ephron’s public generosity is a sham. Not only had he no

intention of making a gift, he hypocritically implied to Abraham that he

expected an outrageously high price. As the Sages put it, the righteous say little

but do much, but the wicked promise much and perform not even a little. They

would offer to anoint with oil from an empty flask”.

And so Abraham pays the 400 shekels for the burial site. Notice. Half a

silver shekel in today’s monetary value is approximately $23. So 1 silver shekel

is approximately $50. 400 silver shekels is therefore worth about (50 x 400)=

$20,000! This was an inflated, exorbitant price, but the point we are to learn

here is that although this land had already been promised to Abraham’s

descendants, he remained humble and gracious and paid the price because his

beloved was far more worthy than any price he could ever pay.

Chapter 24:

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In this chapter we see Abraham is much much older now. Rabbinical

commentary states that “Abraham’s own productive life was coming to an end.

Isaac was 37 years old when Sarah died and Abraham was troubled by the thought

that had Isaac been slaughtered at the Akeidah, he would have left no worthy

successor. Therefore, Abraham undertook to provide for the future by finding a

wife for Isaac. But she had to be the next Sarah of the Jewish people, a woman

who would be not only a wife and mother, but a Matriarch.”

If we go back and look at what was happening over the course of time

during this parsha within Abraham’s life, he saw his wife pass, his nephew Lot

passed, his brother Nahor passed, and his friend king Abimelech passed and his 12

year old son benmelech took the throne in his father’s stead.

So he’s seeing the times change, his family dynamic had completely

changed, he lost his last brother and Yasher says he grieved for many days when

his brother passed. And in my honest opinion I think Abraham was concerned for

his son Isaac and the fact that he had not yet found a wife, and so Abraham calls

forth his faithful servant Eliezer. Torah does not specifically name him but is

inferred because Eliezer is Abraham’s most trusted servant.

What we see in Abraham’s request is in my honest opinion a combination of

reasons. One being that Abraham does not want a woman taken from the pagan

Canaanites who are in process of being removed for their rebellion, and after

having assumed Hagar was The Father’s orchestration and assuming incorrectly,

he knew that when The Father said the promise would be through his seed, that

YHWH meant through the genealogical line of Abraham, as Sarah was half-sister

to Abraham. So he left nothing to chance, made Eliezer vow to him to follow

through and sent him on his way.

Eliezer means “God is Help”. Interestingly, the root word for Eliezer is

‘AhZR’ and it means Strong help.

עזר

Ayin-Zayin actually means ‘to know a weapon’ and Resh means Chief. The

Theological Wordbook reveals that it is a word often associated with military help,

but it speaks to both the physical and the divine. Lazarus’ name is the same as

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Eliezer and means the same thing, but of critical significance is the fact that

Yeshua said The Father would send a……. helper!

"And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be

with you forever; 17

that is the Spirit of truth,” (Joh 14:16-17 NAS)

The connection is that Eliezer is a type and shadow of The Holy Spirit that

The Father sends out into the world to gather the bride, removing her from out of

idolatry and bringing her to her bridegroom the son!

Just a thought for consideration, did The Father not do something similar

with Israel, when He sent His angel (messenger) through Egypt (a land overrun

with pagan tradition and idolatry)? And then when they left did they not leave with

all manner of spoil with gold and silver and jewels? Again this may be another

prophetic picture of what happens to our patriarchs will happen to us.

Eliezer sets out with ten camels and his men to Nahor, Abraham’s country

and stops at the well at the city at the time when the women came to draw water.

Wells are pictures of Spirit, and Eliezer, a type and shadow of the Holy Spirit,

wanted to see what spirit the woman of choosing would be. Sage commentary

states Eliezer chose this location because it would provide an honest look at the

character of the woman, as opposed to witnessing one’s character in the home

where their behavior would more than likely prove honorable due to the parents

there in the home. But here, at the well, Eliezer knew this would be a good test.

And so he prays a very specific prayer….. should this not teach us as well that

when we pray let us pray specific prayers so that we will be looking for specific

answers?

Out of all the women he asked, Rebekah was the one that answered the call

perfectly! She not only gave Eliezer a drink, but willingly quenched the thirst of all

ten of Eliezer’s camels. A thirsty camel can drink up to 25 gallons in 10 minutes. If

10 camels each drink 25 gallons of water, that’s 250 gallons! That is devotion and

commitment.

Convinced this may very well be the one for Isaac Eliezer confirms it when

she reveals that she is of the house of Bethuel, son of Milcah, wife of Abraham’s

brother Nahor. Eliezer bequeaths her a golden nose ring, two golden bracelets.

As they approach their home Laban, Rebekah’s brother comes out to greet

but we learn that it is not on account of his excitement to be a gracious host, rather

it was more out of greed, which proved to be a defining trait exhibited especially

when Jacob worked under him to win Rachel for his wife.

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Eliezer retells the story to Rebekah’s family and the following morning they

attempt to persuade Eliezer to allow Rebekah to wait a year before coming with

him, but he insists she must go now. The question is asked Rebekah, “will you go

with this man”? To which she simply replies, “I will go”. Here we see the faith, the

honor and the courage to step out in the power of the Holy Spirit and go in His care

and leading, to be united with her bridegroom.

We find Isaac in the field ‘meditating’, rabbinic commentary suggests this

was Minchah, or Afternoon prayers. Rebekah veils herself as they approach, she

lights off her horse and meets Isaac there and Torah says Isaac brought her into the

tent of Sarah his mother; he married Rebekah, she became his wife, and he loved

her; and thus was Isaac consoled after his mother.

Abraham remarries Keturah, which the sages say was actually Hagar under a

different name. They give birth to several children. Curiously we also read of

Abraham’s passing as well, despite the fact that he actually lived for the first 15

years of Jacob and Esau’s life. We read that both Isaac and Ishmael bury Abraham

in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, facing Mamre.

We read of Ishmael’s passing and his offspring and that he lived to be 137

years old.