Sarah and Abraham

Genesis 16, 17, 18

     Sarai was Abram's wife. She went with him from their home in Ur to Haran. Later she went many more miles with Abram. They went together to Canaan, where God told them to go.

     Sarai and Abram went to a valley in Egypt for a time, because they needed better pastures fro their animals. When they cam back, they pitched their tents in the shade of the sacred trees of Mamre at Hebron. By then she was getting older. All this time Sarai had wanted children, but none had come.

     In those days a man could have more than one wife, but Abram had married only Sarai. One day she told Abram, "We have no children. You may also marry my maid, Hagar. Maybe she can have a son for us."

     Abram did what Sarai said, and soon Hagar was expecting a baby. Hagar began to treat Sarai rudely, because Hagar was going to have a child and Sarai had none. So Sarai became angry and Hagar ran away.

     Hagar nearly died of thirst in the desert. God came to her and told her to return to Sarai. God showed Hagar a well of water so that she would not die. Hagar went back home and had a son named Ishmael.

     When Abram was an old man, God came to him and said, "I am God Almighty. We will make a covenant. You and your children's children will have this land forever." Then God changed Abram's name to Abraham and Sarai's name to Sarah. Then God said, "Sarah will have a son." "Sarah is ninety years old," said Abraham. "Can't my son Ishmael be the one to have your blessings?"

     "Ishmael will be the father of twelve princes, but Sarah's son will be the one to carry on our covenant."

     One day several years later, Abraham was sitting by the trees outside his tent. Three men or angels came to him and asked for food. Abraham told Sarah, "Quick! Get your best flour and make some bread." Then he had the servants fix some meat. He got some cheese and milk. He put all these things out so the visitors could eat.

     One of them said, "Where is Sarah?" "She is in her tent," Abraham said.

     "I will return in the springtime," said the visitor. "After the, Sarah will have a son." Sarah was in her tent. She heard what the visitor said and started to laugh, because she was more than ninety years old. She knew she was too old to have a baby.

     "Who ever heard of a woman as old as I am having a baby?" she said. God spoke to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh?" God asked. "I didn't laugh," said Sarah, because she knew she should not laugh at God.

     Yes, you did," God said.

     The next spring Sarah had the baby God promised to her and to Abraham, even though they were old. The baby was named Isaac, which means "laughing."

     "God has given me a reason to laugh," she said. "Everyone who hears of an old woman like me having a baby will laugh. Who would have believed this?

     Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old.