Abraham and Sarah

Genesis 17:3-6

"3 Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: 4 “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you."

In chapter 12 of Genesis, God called Abram to leave Ur of the Chaldees.  He was 75 years old.  He promised him that He would make of him "a great nation.  But Sarai, his wife, was barren and, 11 years later, still no child; no heir.  So at his wife decided to take matters into her own hands.  At her insistence, he fathered a son named "Ishamael" by her Egyptian maid, Hagar.  Let's follow the story:

Genesis 16:1-5 

“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. 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. 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. So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. 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.””

(Sarai gives Hagar to Abram.)

Wait, what?!  Hold on a minute.  Wasn't it Sarai's idea for her husband to have children by her maid who, by the way, he legally married?  Yes it was.  Then, after conceiving, Hagar despises Sarai.  She then turned around and pointed the finger of blame at Abram for doing what she told him to.  Whoa!  This is better than any soap opera Hollywood could write!  Talk about drama!

From that time until he was 99 years old, a period of 13 years, there was nothing but silence from God.  There is no indication of any communication of any kind to Abram.13 in Bible numerics is the number of rebellion.  For more on that topic, follow this link:  http://emmausrevelations.blogspot.com/2015/11/bible-numerics.html

Then at the ripe old age of 99, God came to Abram and reminded him of the covenant He made with him some 24 years prior.  It was at this time, when he was old and no longer able to father children, that God did something both amazing and puzzling:  He changed his and Sarai's names.  
Abram (אברם) became Abraham (אברהם ); 
Sarai (שרי) became Sarah (שרה).  

Why did God need to change their names?  Was there something wrong with them? No, not exactly. More like something "missing."  The answer can found in the Hebrew spelling of their names.  They also reveal some wonderful things about our AWESOME GOD! 

We first need to look at God's name, "Yahweh."  
It spelled like this in Hebrew:  

[יהוה].
There are two of the letter "[ה] hei," in His Name.  Hebrew reads from right to left and is a form of picture writing like Chinese.  Each letter is a picture of something.  These pictures are very consistent. "Hei" is a picture of an open window, which brings to mind the verse in Malachi where God says He will open the "windows of heaven" and pour out blessings on His people.  The greatest blessing of all is GRACE and Grace is a person:  JESUS!

God, in effect, poured out a double portion of His blessing on Abram and Sarai.  This is a picture of the first-born blessing.  (For more on this topic, follow this link:  http://emmausrevelations.blogspot.com/2016/04/ephraim-and-house-of-judah-part-2-of-9.html).  He gave one of His ״[ה]״ to Abram and one to Sarai, changing their names to "Abra-h-am and Sara-h."  Now, let's look at how this name change transformed their entire lives.

Sarai in Hebrew, is spelled "shin-resh-yod," and looks like this:
[שרי]

 [ש] Shin looks kinda like a slanted "W".  It means "Shaddai: Almighty" when it stands alone.

 [ר] resh means "head, think, meditate."  [שר]  These letters "shin & resh" together spell the word "sar" which means "captain, prince or lord."  "Sar Shalom," for instance, means "Prince of Peace.  That's Jesus!  The Russian word for "czar" is derived from this Hebrew word.

 [י]  Yod is this tiny little line found at the far left end.  It may be little but it sure means a whole lot.  It is a picture of an open hand and means "power."
Hebrew, unlike Western languages, does not have numbers like we do.  They use letters.  "Yod" is the number "10."  It can also refer to the Ten Commandments as well as the tithe.

"Sarai" literally means "my lord."  Can you imagine Abram going around calling his wife "my lord, my lord?"  She is the one who told him to go into her maid, Hagar and have a son by her.  Remember what his response was to her?  "He answered her nothing!"  You know what we call men like Abram today? Hen-pecked.   
   

Sarai was a heavy-handed lady who was used to getting her own way.  But she relied on her own efforts to get it.  Her focus was on HERSELF, not on God.  Well, doing things her way didn't turn out very well. She became so jealous of her maid that she turned her out and sent her away to die in the desert.

Yeah but before you feel too bad about Hagar and Ishmael there's something you may not realize.  When you compare the passage in the New Testament with the Genesis account, it becomes very clear that Ishmael's "ridiculing" of Isaac was envy with a murderous intent.  He was lawfully guilty of the death penalty.

(Abraham casts out the bondwoman, Hagar.)

Even though what Ishmael did was evil, God heard his mother's cry of distress, intervened and turned Hagar's situation around.  He told her to go back and to "submit to her mistress."  Ishmael literally means, "God has heard."

According to 1 Corinthians 10, the Holy Spirit is painting pictures for us again.  Hagar is a typology of the law as Sarah depicts grace. Hagar: Law, was told to submitting to Sarah: Grace.  It's a picture of the law being subservient to grace, the topic of Galatians 4. By that definition, going back to the law makes you a slave once again.  You are no longer free.  

In the fullness of time, God, true to His word, sent the child of promise:  Isaac, Abram and Sarai's "help" notwithstanding.  By replacing the "yod," i.e. removing the law, from her life. God gave her His "hei-grace!"  The result?  Whereas Sarai means "my Lord," Sarah means "Princess."  No longer is she the same strong-willed, heavy-handed, overbearing woman.  Now she is full of God's grace.  

That's how miracles happen: By GRACE, not law.  God's grace caused physical changes in her barren, post-menopausal body which made it possible for her to conceive Isaac.  At her advanced age, she was able to carry him to term, give birth and breast feed him.  Nine months after her name was changed the child of promise was born. 

It's abundantly clear that these changes were physical, not just spiritual, though that is also evident.  These changes were quite obvious to the heathen king, Abimelek, who wanted her for his harem.  She was in her 90's, folks!  He was not the kind of guy would notice or even care at all about "spiritual changes."  He would, however, notice a physically beautiful woman.  He went by his eyeballs.  He "saw" that she was very beautiful.  I mean, how many 90-year-old women get an offer like that?

What about Abram?  His name change in Hebrew is also very telling!  

Below are his given name and his new name.  The Hebrew letters reveal something so amazing that you'd never get from any translation or definition.
              Abram
                [אברם]
             Abraham
              [אברהם]

Notice the additional letter?  God gave Abram the letter "hei [ה]," too!  

Here comes the AMAZING part!  Abram from right to left is spelled:

                [אברם]
   "aleph-bet-resh-mem."

 [אב] "Aleph & Bet" spell "abba," which means "Father."  [בר]. The two middle letters, "bet" and "resh", spell "bar" or "son.;" Jesus THE Son.  The last letter, "Mem [ם], is a picture of water flowing, which is a picture of the Holy Spirit!  Ah!  You see it, don't you?  THE TRIUNE GOD IS SPELLED,OUT IN HIS NAME!!!  Isn't God cool?!

Now let's see what happened when the extra letter was added.  The name "Abraham" has the additional letter "hei" [ה] added.  Hei is the 5th letter of the aleph-bet which, as you read earlier, means "grace."  That's why we say "Five is the number of grace."

You see, while Abraham was still "Abram," he remained God's friend and all but what he needed was a bonafide miracle to have a son.  Having a son come from his own loins was the only way he could come into to the fullness of all God's blessings.  But he was old, Sarai was barren and WAY past her "expiration" date.  Talk about a double whammie!  

Well you know our God LOVES  so-called "impossible" situations, doesn't He, Church?!   The more "impossible" the better!  How did God perform Abram's miracle?  BY GRACE!!!  He literally took one of His "héi," and inserted it into his name, changing it to Abra"h"am. Again, nine months later, Isaac was born.  

Grace, quite literally, regenerated them both....PHYSICALLY.

The letter pictures also tell us even of the Divine order of things:

  "The Father (אב) sent the Son; (בר) grace (ה) came by Jesus Who gave us the Holy Spirit (ם)

That's our God!  He is full of grace.  But He doesn't want to keep it to Himself.  He gives us a double portion:  The first-born blessing.  That's the beautiful picture He painted when he changed the names of Abraham and Sarah!  

Follow this link to proceed to part 2:  http://emmausrevelations.blogspot.com/2015/03/isaac-and-rebecca-patriarch-series-part.html