This week’s study begins a series of reflections on some of the women mentioned in the Old Testament. What gifts did they bring? How were they treated? What can we learn from them? The first study is focused on Sarah, particularly the story in Genesis 18:1-15.
The name “Sarah” in Hebrew is a feminine form of the word for prince or chief. Some have called her the matriarch of the Jewish heritage. The issue in this week’s focal text is the meaning of her laugh when he heard that she and Abraham were going to have a son (Genesis 18:10). She even denied laughing (v. 15), so she must have thought that laughing would have been significant.
The most commonly used Hebrew word for “laugh” is tsa’chaq. (There is another word—la’ag—that means laughing when making fun of someone.) tsa’chaq can mean simply having fun, or it can mean amusement, or it can mean shock and surprise, or it can mean being playful, or it can mean to mock someone. No wonder we get confused about what Sarah was doing when she laughed. What did her laughing mean?
I wonder if the writer of Hebrews was thinking of this situation in Genesis when this verse appears in Hebrews 13:2: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” Did Sarah know the significance of this surprising message about having a son?
It’s not hard to understand Sarah’s laughter. (“Can this prediction of my having a baby possibly be true?”) When was a time when you found it difficult to accept a promise of God? When was a time you were not sure that God’s promise of forgiveness could be trusted? When was a time that you wondered if God really would give you a new beginning? When was a time when the Good News seemed too good to be true?
After the child is born—they named him Isaac—Sarah recognizes that those around her laugh in amazement (Genesis 21:5-7). This is the laughter of joy.
Sarah models for us a readiness to live out God’s purposes, and God’s purposes are full of surprises!
