Jump to content
JesusWalk Bible Study Forum

Q1. Sarah's Legacy


Recommended Posts

Sarah was a woman who was a product of her time. It seems that she was obedient to her husband while suffering great humiliation for being barren. I see that as normal, given the importance of having an heir. After Hagar bare Ishmael Sarah displays jealousy and anger, which too would seem normal under the circumstances even though she is fickle in having offered Hagar to Abraham in the first place.

Sarah's faith in God is lacking but, it is the faith of her husband which has been written about. Sarah's place in history is as a faithful wife.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...
  • Replies 50
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Take some time to review Sarah's life and legacy. What were her strengths? Her weaknesses? Where did she show faith? Where did she lack faith?

One of her strengths was in her submission for the most part to her husband, even her faith in God appeared to be more due to her husbands faith than one of personal experience. Her love and devotion to Abrahams in wanting to give him a child and to have one herself led to error but it was a strength that her desire to carry on her husbands legacy.

She was weak in faith and doubted God when he promised a child, she sometimes took things in her own hand instead of waiting on God like with her maid Hagar.

God's power and blessing was with Sarah and Abraham despite their situation and apparent lack of trust in Him.

Abraham, the man who had no children, prayed for others and they had children (Genesis 20). Can you imagine what Abraham and Sarah must have been going through. Seeing others receiving the blessings they themselves longed for.

Yet they faithfully kept serving God. This is what faith is. They believed that God was a rewarder of those that diligently served Him.

Sarah eventually gave birth to Isaac.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Sarah shows strength in the support of her husband and her need to please him with a child. She is weak in her belief of God's promise and in her support of Hagar and her son. She showed faith as she followed Abraham in his quest to follow God but shows a lack of faith in some of the choices she made.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Q1. Take some time to review Sarah's life and legacy. What were her strengths? Her weaknesses? Where did she show faith? Where did she lack faith?

Sarah's strengths:

She was strong enough to migrate to Canaan with her husband and in-laws.

She marries half-brother Abraham

Is Abducted by Pharaoh and lived through the ordeal.

Has her name changed from Sarai to Sarah, promised to be mother of nations.

She stood up to Hagar when the abuses came.

Sara herself received strength to conceive seed.

Delivered of a child when she was past age.

Gives birth to Isaac.

Drives away Hagar and Ishmael.

Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord.

Sarah's weaknesses:

She was barren.

Sarah showed faith:

She judged him faithful who had promised the birth of her son.

Sarah lacked faith in:

When she agreed with Abraham to deceive the Pharoah and Abimelech about her relationship to Abraham.

Laughs at promise of conceiving.

She lacked faith that God nwould protect her son and his inheritance.

Not believing that she would bear a son, she gives Hagar to Abraham

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Strength

Submissive wife to portray herself as a sister instead of wife.

Good character for God to make her the mother of nations.

Protective mother to her son.

Weakness

Doesn't wait on God.

Let her emotions take over.

Showed faith

Leaving her homeland to follow Abraham.

When she was abducted.

Sarah came to believe God's promise of a son, though at first she laughed.

Lacked faith

When she didn't believe God when first told she would have a son.

When she took it upon herself to give Hagar to Abraham.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...
Q1. Take some time to review Sarah's life and legacy. What were her strengths? Her weaknesses? Where did she show faith? Where did she lack faith?

Sarah's life is no worse than ours !! It is easy to be judegmental on others than ourselves . It ws natural for her to be jealous , and over pushy ahead of Gods time . She also faced the difficult test of trusting God for a child at 90 years of age . It is true she laughed - so did Abraham . We would not have been better off either , if faced with a similar situation like Sarah and Abraham

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

Q1. Take some time to review Sarah's life and legacy. What were her strengths? Her weaknesses? Where did she show faith? Where did she lack faith?

In my opinion Sarah's only real positive major strength was her submissive to Abraham. She was a strong and willful woman,

by worldly standards, but she was cruel. Abraham walked with God and Sarah followed Abraham, to her credit, but I do not believe she had the faith of Abraham.

Sarah showed faith in following her husband's lead, but lacked a high level of faith in God.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...
Q1. Take some time to review Sarah's life and legacy. What were her strengths? Her weaknesses? Where did she show faith? Where did she lack faith?

I think Sarah's strenght was her faith, her courage, and believing Abraham as she submitted herself to him. Her weaknesses was fear, jealousy, doubt. She really showed her faith when she conceived her son, she knew then that God was true to His word. She lacked faith by not trusting God at the beginning when He told her she would have a son, she took things into her own hands and gave Abraham to her maid.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Q1. Take some time to review Sarah's life and legacy. What were her strengths? Her weaknesses? Where did she show faith? Where did she lack faith?

Sarah is remembered in the Bible as a woman of faith.

Her strength is of waiting upon the Lord patiently even thou she was passed age of giving birth.

Her weakness like most of us is not believing that God can do what He as promised, no matter how long it will take, by helping God to fulfill the promise when she took her servant maid to her husband.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Take some time to review Sarah's life and legacy. What were her strengths? Sarah's most obvious strength is her devotion and obedience to Abraham. It would be nice to be able to say that that devotion and obedience was a result of their shared faith. There is nothing in the story to suggest that Sarah shared Abraham's faith, although you would think that after 90 years of being together, they would have had to have had some element of a shared faith in God.

Her weaknesses? She was impatient and/ or lacked faith in Gods promise to provide a son to Abraham and when in her impatience she takes matters into her own hands by arranging for a son to be born to Hagar, she becomes jealous, ultimately leading to her forcing Hagar to leave, even after God has fulfilled His promise to Abraham and Sarah in the birth of Isaac.

Where did she show faith? I don't really see much evidence of faith in Sarah. She is faithful and obedient to Abraham for sure, but if by faith we mean faith in God, I just don't see much. Clearly she does not have faith that God will deliver on His promise to provide them with an heir (and to be fair, I can understand why she was doubtful of that) However, even after God has delivered on His promise, she still has to intervene and send Hagar and Ishmael away unable to believe that God will deliver on the whole of His promise which is to make Isaac Abraham's heir and to create a great nation out of Isaac.

Where did she lack faith? In God's ability to give her and Abraham a son to be an heir.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Q1. Take some time to review Sarah's life and legacy. What were her strengths? Her weaknesses? Where did she show faith? Where did she lack faith?

Her strengths were her faith,obedience and devotion to Abraham. Her weaknese was doubt, jealousy and fear. She doubted that God was going to fulfill his promise after so many years. After so many years of waiting for an heir in her old age she conceived and had Isaac her strong faith returned, knowing that God was faithful in His promises. I think she lacked faith when there was unbelief that she would be able to conceive and have a child. After all she was an old women way beyond any child bearing age.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Q1. Take some time to review Sarah's life and legacy. What were her strengths? Her weaknesses? Where did she show faith? Where did she lack faith?

Sarah's strengths are devotion to Abraham always on his side, she shows strength of person and ideas.

She doubted and questioned God, she displayed a certain lack of faith, she engineered circumstances where by Abraham committed adultry, she was very jealous.

But with all this said about the lady she had strength when it was required, she trusted God for many things and display faith in God in various ways. She had a big problem waiting on God.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Q1. Take some time to review Sarah's life and legacy. What were her strengths? Her weaknesses? Where did she show faith? Where did she lack faith?

She was submissive to her husband, trusted God. She showed strength when she was taken by Pharaoh and Abimelech. Her weakness was her being barren, it led her to wrong actions with Hagar and Ishmael

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Q1.

Take some time to review Sarah's life and legacy.

What were her strengths?

Her weaknesses?

Where did she show faith?

Where did she lack faith?

Besides a momentary lapse of faith, she was basically a woman of faith. She and Abraham both were shown to be very hospitable. She also showed strength of character in taking control of her household by having Hagar and Ishmael sent away. As far as her weaknesses are concerned; she with Abraham, deceived both Pharaoh and Abimelech with their lies about their marriage. She became impatient, instead of waiting on God to provide a son, she persuaded Abraham to have a child by her maid, Hagar. She also was jealous of her maid. She showed lack of faith when she laughed when told by the Lord she would have a son.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Take some time to review Sarah's life and legacy. What were her strengths? Her weaknesses? Where did she show faith? Where did she lack faith?

I think that Sarah was strong,in that she married her half brother, followed him where he took her and did as he asked her ( even at the timeshe may have felt it was foolish). She was weak in that she took life into her own devices and gave her handmaiden to her husband to sleep with....producing an heir....but ALAS, not what she had hoped for. She showed faith by staying near Abraham, bearing him a son in her old age when this sounded like a joke. It is this same thing that she lacked faith too....just like us. We are a ball of contradictions.....faith one moment ; doubt the next, then God must sort it all out for us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Q1. Take some time to review Sarah's life and legacy. What were her strengths? Her weaknesses? Where did she show faith? Where did she lack faith?

Sarah's strength was in being submissive to her husband. She was obedient in that she protected him in obeying him in saying that she was his sister in order to protect him.

She lacked faith in that she was impatient and instead on waiting on God to fufill His promise she orchestrated her own blessing which turned out to be a problem.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

Q1. Take some time to review Sarah's life and legacy. What were her strengths? Her weaknesses? Where did she show faith? Where did she lack faith?

Several strengths we see in her life. She first of all did not question Abraham (or at least it doesn't say she did) when God told him to leave his kindred and go to a land where I will show you. It does not appear she put up a fuss. She just obeyed. When Abraham asked Sarah to lie for him to the Pharaohs (both times) she submitted to Abraham's wishes.

Obviously she seemed to be a good mother for when Ishmael was bullying Isaac, in order to protect her son she wanted Hagar and the boy removed.

But Sarah lacked faith in believing God for Isaac. Of course it is hard to believe for a son when you are 90 years old. The biggest thing about Sarah and her lack of faith was that she could not wait for God to do what He said He would do. She had to try to make it happen. That should be a listen to all of us. When we break the door down to try to make something happen, we really don't know what is on the other side of the door. We live with the consequences today and they are staggering!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Q1. Take some time to review Sarah's life and legacy. What were her strengths? Her weaknesses? Where did she show faith? Where did she lack faith?

Her strengths were unswerving loyalty and trust in her husband's decision. That same trust was a weakness when she failed to see through the deviousness of Abrams schemes and help him choose alternate ways of coping.

After a humorous reply to God's promise of a child she intended to believe God's promise about a child but at the time she thought a human responce was expected and that's another instance where her faith faltered. In another instance after her child was born she acted with selfishness and

insisted on her privelidged position with Hagar, instead of trusting God. ... Finally faith came through for Sarah when her mocking laughter was changed to joyous praise for God's blessing her.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 months later...

1a)Her strengths good mother, submission &obedience to husband, courage in facing emigration to new land,being abducted by Pharoah and Abimelech and being barren for many year.

B)Her weaknesses temptation to jealousy and impatience, sendingHagar &Ishmael away,blamed others for her own misdeeds

.c)She showed faith in going to Canaan,and when facing difficult trials when abducted.

D)She didn’t show faith when told she would bear a son,laughed & showed lack of trust seeking son by her own plans via Hagar.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...
  • 8 months later...

Sarah's major strength was that she followed and obeyed Abraham.  She supported and encouraged him.  She was faithful to him. Abraham was called by God to carry out a mission that would impact humanity for the ages.  At times she was skeptical and even laughed at God, but she reminded faithful to the overall calling of the couple to carry out God's plan for the Jewish people and all of humanity. 

 

Sarah reflects all of us.  Sometimes we are skeptical and selfishness submitting to our lower, basic human nature and not trusting in God. However and most importantly, at other times permitting the Holy Spirit to lead her being the higher Godly person God intends us to be.

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

Q1. Take some time to review Sarah's life and legacy. What were her strengths? Her weaknesses? Where did she show faith? Where did she lack faith?

Sarah's life and legacy has many aspects for her strengths she knows she will be taken by pharaoh as a wife , knowing that by doing so she is saving the life of her husband. In her her weakness she gives her slave servant to Abraham to have a son for her. She has not listened to or have confidence in the prophecy God gave to Abraham that she would bear a child. She shows faith by telling Abraham to send Hagar and her son away. She knows her child Isaac will be a blessing to the nations which God has promised. She lacks faith by not waiting for the Lord's word to come true for a child to be born by her, not another.     

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 years later...

Q1. Take some time to review Sarah's life and legacy. What were her strengths? Her weaknesses? Where did she show faith? Where did she lack faith?

Peter, in 1 Peter 3:6, singles out Sarah as the model of a submitted woman. Peter is saying that she called Abraham “lord” even though she was having a hard time believing his vision. She had heard the call of Abraham to leave the luxurious lifestyle of Ur and go to an unknown place. Sarah followed Abraham in spite of everything within her being contrary to what Abraham wanted. His vision may not have made sense to her, nevertheless, she chose to honor him.  

There were times in Abraham’s life when he walked contrary to the will of God. God did not want him to go to Egypt during famine, but he went. He lied that Sarah was his sister, which is recorded twice in the scriptures. But God protected Sarah and enriched the family as a result of her obedience. A key component to Abraham’s greatness was having Sarah as his wife – one who traveled with him, who trusted in God, and who called him lord. She would have been a good mother to Isaac, her miracle child. For we read that when Sarah died Isaac was in great distress and was comforted only when Rebekah came into his life which was about three years after his mother’s passing away.

Her earlier name was Sarai which means contentious. Probably that was her character in the earlier years of her life. It was Sarah who suggested to Abraham to take Hagar as his wife. She should have exhibited patience and seen the will of God manifest in their lives in due time. When she conceived and made Sarah feel despised, Sarah couldn’t take it and was harsh with Hagar. She didn’t give thought to the fact that she was pregnant with her husband’s child. When she had her own son, she didn’t want anyone to share in the inheritance of her son and demanded Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away.

She exhibited faith in following Abraham to the unknown and trusting God to protect her while in Egypt and in Abimelech’s palace.

When the Lord told that she would conceive within a year she didn’t believe Him as she was already passed child bearing years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Q1. Take some time to review Sarah's life and legacy. What were her strengths? Her weaknesses? Where did she show faith? Where did she lack faith?

Her strengths were the fact she trusted God when it came to leaving a country she had been in most of her life for one she did not know. Her weaknesses was taking charge and choosing to go ahead of God and push Hagar at Abraham and have her birth Ishmael. Her choosing to laugh at the promise of conception when the angel was serious. She had a lot of jealousy when it came to Hagar and her son as well. She showed faith at her son's birth and didn't show it when it came to believing the promise as I said.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

I too feel at times i have to be careful not to be judgemental. She is a woman with a 'colorful' character. 

To have followed Abram into the great unknown after an apparent life of ease (with one sore point, being barren) took great faith. She did not have a 'small' household to run or only a few people to care for (easy to think, it was not her duty, but I am sure she heard many of their woes and plights and had to deal with them in some way) . Just think of the able-bodied men Abram could gather together, to follow him in getting his nephew, Lot, out of trouble. I am sure Sarah needed to be strong for those that stayed behind. 

Her big sore was that she could not produce an heir for Abram. 

She basically followed his decision blindly when the thought came up that he could be in danger because of her. She kept up the stance that he was her half-brother without including the truth or the fact that he was also her husband. She trusted Abraham that that was the right thing to do. 

Then humanly speaking the big impatience reared its ugly head and she suggested that Hagar bear a child in her stead. This of coarse back-fired as Hagar was a much stronger personality than given credit for at first. This showed lack of faith in God and taking things into her own hands. She did not show faith in God's timing, to bear the promised son. Then she was not truthful when confronted about her laughing at the thought of bearing a child at 90.

She proved to be caring and protective over Isaac, God's promise. 

I do feel in some way she was impatient and then did not think straight. I am sure she too loved Ishmael, but was overcome with fear and jealously as what he and his mother could do to Isaac. Then blinded by that she had one thing in mind  and that was to get rid of them both as quickly as possible. 

Possibly strong-willed to a certain extent. 

Certainly in many ways a woman to look up to. 

(What would i have done, standing in her shoes. Having a man like Abraham, as my husband. WOW) 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...

×
×
  • Create New...