Sarah, Our First Matriarch

There are many women in the Hebrew Scriptures who inspire us with their faith. Eve, for example, was more than just Adam’s wife: she was a good mother who taught her children to call upon the name of God and to offer sacrifices to Him.

Another good example is found in Sarah. As the wife of Abraham, the first Patriarch, she is the first Matriarch. At the end of Genesis Chapter 11, we learn that Abram and Sarai, the original names of this famous couple, are unable to have children.

In the next chapter, the Lord tells Abram to leave his homeland and go to a land that God would show him. Imagine that conversation between husband and wife! While it may have been easy for Abram to trust in God because he had actually heard the Lord, Sarai was in the position of having to trust her husband – which she apparently does, since they travel to Canaan.

Sarah's life continued to be one of obedience and sacrifice, filled with ongoing trials. As she proved herself to be faithful and obedient, the result was blessings from God.

Arriving in the land of Canaan during a time of famine, Abram and Sarai must travel to Egypt, where she catches the eye of Pharaoh. Abram asks his beautiful wife to pretend to be his “sister” to save him from death. Being blessed for her obedience, Sarai, with her virtue intact and her husband alive, leaves Egypt with riches received from Pharaoh himself.

At the age of seventy-five, knowing that her childbearing years had passed, Sarai put her heart on the altar and offered her handmaid Hagar to Abraham, to fulfill God’s promise of an heir. After the birth of Ishmael, God establishes a covenant with Abram, and because of her willingness to cooperate with the Lord, Sarah is given a new name and is blessed with the miracle birth of Isaac.

We are assured of her motherly skills as we come to know Isaac more fully through the experience he has with his father. Abraham is asked to offer Isaac as a sacrifice to the Lord. Isaac’s submission to the will of both his earthly father and his Heavenly Father confirms that Sarah had taught him the ways of the Lord, and the importance of sacrifice, of which she had given great example.

There is a saying that “Behind every good man is a good woman.” Sarah’s devotion to Abraham and to God entitles her to be called a Matriarch, one of our mothers in faith.