Grace For Your Day February 13

In his book, Twelve Extraordinary Women, John MacArthur says:

Let’s be honest: there are times in the biblical account when Sarah comes off as a bit of a shrew. She was the wife of the great patriarch Abraham, so we tend to think of her with a degree of dignity and honor. But reading the biblical account of her life, it is impossible not to notice that she sometimes behaved badly.

She could throw fits and tantrums. She knew how to be manipulative. And she was even known to get mean. At one time or another, she exemplified almost every trait associated with the typical caricature of a churlish woman. She could be impatient, temperamental, conniving, cantankerous, cruel, flighty, pouty, jealous, erratic, unreasonable, a whiner, a complainer, or a nag. By no means was she always the perfect model of godly grace and meekness …
 
Fortunately, there was much more to Sarah than that. She had important strengths as well as weaknesses. Scripture actually commends her for her faith and steadfastness. The Apostle Peter pointed to her as the very model of how every wife should submit to her husband’s headship. Although there were terrible flashes of petulance and even cruelty (reminders that Sarah was an embattled, fleshly creature like us), Sarah’s life on the whole is actually characterized by humility, meekness, hospitality, faithfulness, deep affection for her husband, sincere love toward God, and hope that never died.

A study in contrasts and contradictions, Sarah was indeed one extraordinary woman. Although she gave birth to only one son and didn’t become a mother at all until she was well past the normal age of fertility, she is the principal matriarch in Hebrew history … and the steadfastness of her faith became the central feature of her legacy.
 
John MacArthur is correct because Sarah was truly a woman of faith. Her life reminds us that no one is perfect. We all can struggle with sin and doubt at times but a believer always comes back to their trust in God. In fact, this is why Sarah is mentioned next in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11. As the Book of Hebrews is going through a list of various key figures from the Old Testament, it tells us about Abel (verse 4), Enoch (verse 5), Noah (verse 7), and Abraham (verse 8). However, now it comes to the first woman in the list when it says:

By faith even Sarah herself received the ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised (verse 11).
 
The author reminds us that Sarah could not conceive a child because she was well beyond her child-bearing years. It was done through faith because she trusted God to do a miracle. Even though she had her moments of doubt, Sarah did not give into them but overcame them by believing in the One who is worthy of our trust. She is a good example of how God always keeps His promises so we should not give up hope whenever they are not fulfilled right away. We need to be patient which is what we are going to talk about this week at Grace Fellowship Church.

This week, we are going to look at Sarah, the principal matriarch in Hebrew history. In fact, she is one of only two women listed in this chapter, along with Rahab (verse 31) and the two of them could not have been more different because Sarah was a housewife while Rahab was a harlot. Sarah was the mother of the Jews while Rahab was a Gentile. Sarah needed God’s help to have a child while Rahab needed His help to save her family from Israel’s upcoming conquest of Jericho.
However, the principle in both of these women is the same and that is that they were saved by their faith. They trusted in God to do the unthinkable and that is what we need to do today through whatever trials we are facing. Please join us as we talk about that together on Sunday. Our service begins at 9:30.

– Jeremy Cagle