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Women in the Bible
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Lesson Thirty-four: by turtle30c
Looking back to about lesson 27 i realized I mentioned some other special births and I only find
it fitting to talk about each of these woman and their role in their child’s life. All these woman
wanted to have babies. Elizabeth, Sarah, Hannah and Manoah’s wife and Mary all had
visitation of some kind from an angel of the Lord. Sarah though she did not actually speak to
an angel or to the Lord concerning a child, other then prayer, Abraham her husband did speak
to God when He visited him. Not only did he speak to God but to angels as well. Sarah who is
also called Sarai in the Bible would over hear the conversation and her reaction was to laugh at
the impossibility of what was told to her. Yet before we get to that part of the story we must
look back at where this couple journey to having a child.
Watching the news we see another family increase by number of babies at one time. All I can
think is wow that mother is going to have her hands full, but so will dad. Seven at one time is a
lot of babies. Abraham and Sarah would be happy just to have one child. Only choice for a
male heir would be either to adopt one that was like family, or to have one through a
concubine. The odds of Abraham and Sarai at old age to have children were odd. No doubt
Abraham and Sarai was both frustrated. Up in years and passed child bearing God promises
Abraham a child. Now to believe for a child after child bearing years are over would take faith.
Of course Abraham could still Father children though Sarai was unable to bear children. Did
Abraham go running his mouth about God’s promise to him to Sarai? Scripture really does not
say. Yet lets begin where God promises Abraham offspring.
Genesis 12:1-4 KJV
(1) Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred,
and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
(2) And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and
thou shalt be a blessing:
(3) And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all
families of the earth be blessed.
(4) So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and
Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
God promised Abraham that he would make him a great nation. No doubt the children of Israel
is probably one the longest lasting groups of people in the history of the world to date. Though
many tribes and people can trace their roots, no other group of people weather hardship,
famine, exile, death, and unity in such away as the family of Israel. A people so spread out that
even a state could not contain them. If that one fact alone does not convince you that God of
Abraham is real, nothing ever really will. No one but God could know how numerous Abraham
people would be.
Let’s move on to the second time God speaks to Abraham about having child.
Genesis 15:1-5 KJV
(1) After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not,
Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
(2) And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward
of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?
(3) And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is
mine heir.
(4) And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but
he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.
(5) And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if
thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
Abraham suggest to God about maybe his servant inheriting the promise. God tells Abraham he
will have a male heir from thy own bowel. Now if you do not know about conception please go
immediately and talk to your folks if you underage reading, if you are older go to clinic. I am
not going to sit and explain it to you today. Fact is Abraham would father a child this is what
God is saying to Abraham.
Genesis 15:6-8 KJV
(6) And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
(7) And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give
thee this land to inherit it.
(8) And he said, Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?
Abraham believed God and God counted it as righteousness. Belief in God is a whole other
sermon and so I am not going into that discussion except to say Abraham was a man of faith,
but even as a man of faith Abraham ask how he should know. It the kind of attitude we take
with God when He speaks to our hearts about something. And we believe God can do it, but we
want to know for a fact He will do it. Abraham asking for a sign of the fact that God will do it.
He did believe God could. He need assurance.
Genesis 15:9-21 KJV
(9) And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years
old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.
(10) And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one
against another: but the birds divided he not.
(11) And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.
(12) And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of
great darkness fell upon him.
(13) And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that
is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
(14) And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come
out with great substance.
(15) And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
(16) But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites
is not yet full.
(17) And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking
furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.
(18) In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I
given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
(19) The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,
(20) And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,
(21) And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
Now laying out this meat and walking between it and then a flame walking between it sounds
ridiculous to us. It makes no sense unless you understand that this was a standard way of men
making agreements or oaths with each other. When God speaks to us, He is going to speak and
demonstrate to us in a way we understand. God does exactly this for Abraham. Then He cause
Abraham to fall into a deep sleep and speaks to him about generations to come. Not only does
God give information and a covenant to Abraham but God also gives it to the children that
would come later. The prophecy of the four hundred years would come to pass with Jacob’s
offspring who were stuck in Egypt.
Did Abraham struggle, no doubt he did, but God’s reassurance would carry him over several
years even to the point of making a mistake of going ahead of the Lord to have a child with
Sarai maid Hagar. Next week we will discuss Hagar and Sarai.
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