Sarah, the Wife

These days women seem to be given a choice: sublimate their personalities in their husbands' or go all femi-nazi and tell their husbands, "I don't care what you want -- this is what I'm doing." You'll find people who teach both attitudes out of the Bible. But, the Bible is more creative than that. Women are given tremendous responsibility within the scope of their relationships with their husbands.

Let's take Sarah. Her husband was given a tremendous vision for his future and was told by God in three different revelations that he would be the father of many nations. But, he got older and older and not one child. He began to question how God would make that happen.

Before we go any farther along that line, how many children did Abraham actually have? Most moderately educated Christians will say, "Two." But, he actually had eight! There was Ishmael, born to hagar, isaac been to Sarah and after Sarah died Abraham took another wife named Keturah and had six more sons! But Sarah was the important one. The Bible says that Abraham "gave gifts to the sons of his concubines" and sent them east, away from Isaac, who got Abraham's entire inheritance. Sarah was the wife, Hagar and keturah were concubines. Remember that.

When Abraham was up on Mt. Moriah holding the knife to sacrifice Isaac, God said to him, "Because you have not withheld your only son from me." His only son. Ishmael, at least, was already born, yet Isaac was Abraham's only son in God's sight.

When God changed Abram's name to Abraham, he also changed Sarai's name to Sarah.

When the angel of the Lord was entertained by Abraham before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham was told that, when He returned in a year, Sarah would have a child. She received the promises just as much as Abraham did. She laughed at it, but it was given to her.

Back to the concubine thing. If God's promise to Abraham was just that he would be the father of many nations, that was completely fulfilled by Hagar and Keturah. But, God also promised to give Abraham's descendants the land of Canaan, specifically to grow a people who would be connected to the site of the temple where he would be worshiped, the very same place that Abraham planned to sacrifice Isaac! Ishmael was told that he would be a wanderer and the only one of Keturah's sons we've ever heard of again is Midian. But the nation of Israel would survive as a people in a specific locale so that the Messiah's coming would be revealed in Christ clear as crystal because of the dozens of secific prophecies concerning Him. And only Sarah, the wife, could make that happen.

Her personality was not sublimated in her husband's; God told Abraham to listen to his wife. On the other hand, when she said, "I'm going to make God's plan happen," and gave Hagar to Abraham, we have the father of the Arabs being born and all the jealousies and conflicts that have come with it through the millenia. Her role was central and she affected the outcome but it was all because of her vital role as the wife.

What kind of wife are you? Are you the over-submissive wife, who doesn't contribute appreciably to her husband's workd in life because she never has an opinion? Or are you the managing wife who is organizing her husband's life to fulfill her dream? Or are you the selfish wife who says, "Your deal is not my deal?"

Or are you the supportive wife who says, "We're in this together."