The Promise Series
Who is Sarah? Sarah is someone who is Faithful until the end...
...Someone who makes you to be Faithful, to go until the end with. Sarah is Faithfulness. Someone who you would give up all your idols just to be with that person. Because you understand that you don’t need any other gods, like you don't need any other woman in this world, if you have already found the one, if you have already found Sarah. This one and only person worth living for. Worth giving up an inheritance and a duty to continue the genealogy of your forefathers, just for her.
Sarah is someone who makes you finally understand that there is only one God. That you do not need more than one god or idols. Because you found that Sarah. She is everything and you would not exchange her for anything or anyone, she is enough. You could find another one, there are always plenty of fishes in the sea but no, she is enough. She may even be barren. She may even not be able to offer what the other women can give you so easily, and so much more. But she is all that you want and you would not exchange her for the world.
So God sees and so God calls Abraham. This Faithful man. This man who found out what is love. Who found his Sarah.
And what is it to be this Sarah, this person whom cannot be exchanged for anything. This person that makes you realise that you don't need all those idols. The person that makes you stand out to the God of the whole universe so that He calls you to be His inheritance, the genealogy of the Promised Son, the Promised Seed (1), from whom would come forth. From a Faithful man. From a man who knows love. The father of many nations while he was not yet. The God who sees in him somebody who finally understands what it is to be Faithful. What it is to love. What it is to be satisfied and content. What it is to love and be loved. As He loves us. As He is Faithful.
He found him in a desert land… he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. (2)
(This refers to Jacob, Abrahams grandson but shares the same characteristic of God towards Abraham and us today.)
Well to discover the anatomy of what it is to be this Sarah we must look to none other than the Virtuous woman, the Proverbs 31 woman. It is striking that before the writer, who was King Lemuel's mother, started to talk about the virtuous woman, she first stated what happens when a man does not find one. She describes the state of a man when he has not found his Sarah. A man that has not found that which is more precious than rubies. A man that has not yet found what is most rare to find in this world... A Sarah. A Sarah worth leaving all the idols behind for.
“What, my son? And what, son of my womb? And what, son of my vows? Do not give your strength to women, Nor your ways to that which destroys kings.”(3)
This is the state of a man who has not found his Sarah, who has not found his rubies more precious and rare and without the sound advice and discipline like the mother of King Lemuel bestowed upon him. He gives his strength to all the women he can find. He is not satisfied. Open your mouth for the speechless, In the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously, And plead the cause of the poor and needy. (4). Well King Lemuel's mother gave him a good talk in what he rather ought to be doing and right at the precipice of her warning her son of the trivialities of a man when he has not found HIS Sarah yet... she becomes inspired and starts her epiphany of the solution to every lost and wondering guy in the world. The Proverbs 31 woman. The V woman. V for virtuous. More precious than rubies and rare to find.
Would you believe that this virtuous woman is none other than your modern day woman with the added flair of knowing and having within her the God of the Bible. She is like the merchant ships, She brings her food from afar. She also rises while it is yet night, And provides food for her household, And a portion for her maidservants. She considers a field and buys it; From her profits she plants a vineyard (5). Yes she knows that she is not just any woman. She knows how to take care of herself because she knows that she is not just the daughter of a man she is the daughter of a king and the King of Kings for that matter.
Even though knowing that, she doesn’t just pursue and conquer the world, she takes care of her house. She takes care of her husband and her children. She provides. Who needs a woman movement for equality when you have the Proverbs 31 woman. She didn’t need to be an activist to know her worth she already found her worth in the God who sees her (6). Quoted from another woman called Hagar, who had to survive life’s tough realities as a newly becoming single mother but with a trust and faith in the God who saw her. She went on to become the single mother of a son whose descendants have withstood the test of time because of a Faithful Promise from a God who fulfils and keeps His Word in the life of those who knows Him and calls upon Him.
“Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, “I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.” Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, “Have I also here seen Him who sees me?” (6)
Hagar was cast out but the secret to her legacy and that of her son and her descendants was from a Faithful Promise and covenant that God made with Abraham. And God heard the voice of the lad. Then the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said to her, “What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation.”(7) Yes this is indeed the secret to these women, faithfulness and not just any faithfulness but the faithfulness that we can find in God.
The virtuous woman found it (8). Hagar found it. Sarah knew it first by the faithful companion and love that she found in Abraham so that she had faith and trust to leave all her idols from the land of Uz, her fathers house and all her inheritance to follow the call of this Faithful God who made a Promise to Abraham to do for them what no other idols could do. But so that the nations may know that there is only one God, He called them and chose them, the barren woman without a child and the father of Faith.
The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you. (9)
Although we cannot give all the credit to Sarah as this virtuous woman who was able to make Abraham realise what it is to be faithful because of the love he had for her. I think we have to put Abraham in the spotlight too and who he was that really completes this love story. As we look more into the flaws and imperfections of Sarah it allows us to delve into the type of man that Abraham was although he found his Sarah, his faithful and only companion. After all it was him whom God called and not Sarah (10). Sarah was the demonstration through Abraham of a faithful love, of faithfulness. It is truly the character of Abraham that stands out more than the nature of Sarah, the character of this faithful man.
Sarah we know did not believe fully. She laughed when the angel determined the fulfilment of the Promise after many years (11). She was the reason and provocation why Abraham agreed to be with Hagar her maid servant when she no longer believed that God would provide, that God would fulfil His promise in her giving birth to a son though being barren, though being old. So as much as Sarah was someone worth fighting for. I think we can conclude that the character of Abraham is what really made the difference. Though she was barren, he loved her. Though she made mistakes that marks us until today... he still loved her and only her until death did them apart. A character that really resonates with the character of the Lord Jesus who also fought and fights for those who are imperfect, those who do not deserve, those who do not even believe, those who are sinners and full of mistakes. Yes He Himself is our Abraham. And those who are faithful to Him like Sarah, will also know what it is to be loved by Him as Abraham loved Sarah. Someone full of mistakes errors, even at times unbelieving yet He loves us and gave His life for us so that whoever believes in Him will be saved and will also see the fulfilment of His Promises just as Sarah did even in her old age... barren and losing hope.
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