The Matriarchs Part 1
By Lonnie C. Crowe
Woman complements man.
Therefore, man must complement woman.
If it is not good for man to be alone, it is not good for woman to be
alone. Together, we manifest the image of God.
Sarah, wife of
Abraham
All the women we will study in the coming weeks are tied to
Sarah either by birth or by marriage.
All their children are descendants of Sarah.
Sarah’s story begins in Genesis 11:
27. This is the genealogy of Terah: Terah begot
Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot.
28. And Haran died before his father Terah in his
native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
29.
Then Abram and Nahor took wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and
the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah
and the father of Iscah.
30. But
Sarai was barren; she had no child.
31. And
Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his
daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram's wife, and they went out with them from
Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and
dwelt there.
32. So the days of Terah were two hundred and
five years, and Terah died in Haran.
The story of Sarah begins in Genesis 12:
1. Now
the Lord had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, from your family and
from your father's house, to a land that I will show you.
2. I
will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and
you shall be a blessing.
3. I
will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you
all the families of the earth shall be blessed.‘’
4. So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to
him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he
departed from Haran.
5. Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his
brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people
whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan.
So they came to the land of Canaan.
As a young woman, Sarai traveled with Abram from Ur to
Haran. She was sixty-five years old when she and Abram entered
the land that God had promised.
Genesis 12:10-15: Now
there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there,
for the famine was severe in the land. And it came to pass, when he was close
to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, "Indeed I know that you
are a woman of beautiful countenance. Therefore it will happen, when the
Egyptians see you, that they will say, `This is his wife'; and they will kill
me, but they will let you live.
"Please say you are my sister, that it
may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live because of you.''
So it was, when Abram came into Egypt, that
the Egyptians saw the woman, that she was very beautiful.
The princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended
her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh's house.
Beautiful is not necessarily pretty. Beautiful means full of goodness.
Genesis 12:17-19 But the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house
with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. And Pharaoh called Abram and
said, "What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she
was your wife? "Why did you say, `She is my sister'? I might have taken
her as my wife. Now therefore, here is your wife; take her and go your way.'
God protected Sarah when Abram did not.
Genesis 16: 1-4: Now
Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian
maidservant whose name was Hagar.
2. So
Sarai said to Abram, "See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing
children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.''
And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai.
3. Then
Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her
husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of
Canaan.
4. So
he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had
conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes.
Genesis 16:5-10: Then Sarai said to Abram, "My wrong be
upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had
conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord judge between you and me.''
So Abram said to Sarai, "Indeed your maid
is in your hand; do to her as you please.'' And when Sarai dealt harshly with
her, she fled from her presence.
Now the Angel of the Lord found her by a
spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. And He said, "Hagar, Sarai's maid, where
have you come from, and where are you going?'' And she said, "I am fleeing
from the presence of my mistress Sarai.'' So the Angel of the Lord said to her,
"Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand.''
Then the Angel of the Lord said to her,
"I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be
counted for multitude.''
God protected Hagar as well.
When Sarai was ninety and Abram was one hundred years old,
God changed their names to Sarah and Abraham and renewed His promise to
them. In their advanced years, God’s promise was fulfilled in the
birth of their son Isaac. Isaac means laughter
When men and women work together and complement each
other, Isaac (laughter) can be the result. Hmm, a merry heart doeth good like a
medicine.
We cannot forget Hagar.
Yes, Sarah gave Hagar to Abram, but Abraham was willing. The result was Ishmael, the father of most of
the Arab nations.
The root of the turmoil in the Middle East is the struggle
of Ishmael seeking the inheritance of Isaac.
Neither God nor Abraham forgot about Ishmael.
Genesis 17:17. Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed,
and said in his heart, "Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred
years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?''
18. And
Abraham said to God, "Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!''
19.
Then God said: "No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you
shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an
everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.
20.
"And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him,
and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget
twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.
21.
"But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear
to you at this set time next year.''
When men and women work together against the will of God,
they don’t complement each other. Generations of chaos can be the
result.
What about
Rebekah, Isaac’s wife?
Rebekah’s story begins in Genesis 24. After the death of
his wife Sarah, Abraham sent his servant to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor,
Abraham’s brother. The purpose of the journey was to acquire a bride
for Abraham’s son Isaac.
The servant asked God for a specific sign to insure he
chose the right bride:
“Then he said, "O LORD God of my master Abraham, please
give me success this day, and show kindness to my master
Abraham. Behold, here I stand by the well of water, and
the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. Now let it
be that the young woman to whom I say, 'Please let down your pitcher that I may
drink,' and she says, 'Drink, and I will also give your camels a
drink'--let her be the one You have appointed for Your servant
Isaac. And by this I will know that You have shown kindness to my
master." (Genesis 24:12-14 NKJV)
Before the servant
had finished praying, Rebekah, the daughter of Nabor came to the
well. When the servant asked her for water, she fulfilled the
request by offering to water the camels as well. “Now the young woman was very
beautiful to behold, a virgin; no man had known her. And she went down to the
well, filled her pitcher, and came up.” (Genesis 24:16 NKJV)
►Rebekah is beautiful.
Pretty is superficial. Beauty emanates from within.
► She is pure.
► She is hospitable.
► In her hospitality, she
is willing to serve those in need.
Though Isaac and
Rebekah were childless for many years, God intervened, and they became the
parents of twins.
God revealed to
Rebekah that the second born, Jacob, would be greater than his brother Esau.
Rebekah favored
Jacob, but Isaac preferred the first born, Esau.
Their unity was
severed.
Esau sold his
birthright to Jacob for a pot of lentil soup.
Jacob wanted his father’s blessing as well. He, with Rebekah’s help, masqueraded as Esau
to trick his father into giving him Esau’s blessing.
Jacob and Rebekah
used trickery and deceit to get what the Lord had already promised.
Thinking Jacob was
Esau, Isaac passed on the blessing of Abraham:
Genesis 27:28. Therefore may God give you of the dew of
heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine.
29. Let
peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren,
and let your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you,
and blessed be those who bless you!''
Esau was not
forgotten.
Genesis 27:37. Then Isaac answered and said to Esau,
"Indeed I have made him your master, and all his brethren I have given to
him as servants; with grain and wine I have sustained him. What shall I do now
for you, my son?''
38. And
Esau said to his father, "Have you only one blessing, my father? Bless me,
even me also, O my father!'' And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.
39.
Then Isaac his father answered and said to him: "Behold, your
dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from
above.
40. By
your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; and it shall come
to pass, when you become restless, that you shall break his yoke from your
neck.''
Esau had four wives,
2 Canaanites, 1 Hivite and a granddaughter of Ishmael.
All were enemies of
the Israelites.
Rebekah sought to
fulfill the promises of God in her own time and brought strife and dissension
into her family.
It happened to Eve
when she ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil.
It happened to Sarah
when she offered Hagar to Abraham as a wife.
It happened, not
only because of the poor judgement of the women, but also because their
husbands were complicit in the strife.
The result of Isaac
and Rebekah’s failure to complement one another is competition between their
sons. That competition is a continuation
of the conflict between Isaac and Ishmael.
If we do not
complete, we will compete. The purpose
of competition is to assert superiority. There are times and places for
competition. Life is not a football
game. We are more likely to accomplish
the tasks set before us when we complement one another.
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