God’s promise to Abraham is endangered over and again, and yet the promise stands. Ishmael is Abraham’s firstborn child, but Ishmael is not Sarah’s child, and it is Sarah who will bear Abraham’s heir. The question of when is answered in Genesis 18, one of the marvelous stories about Abraham and Sarah. The location is Mamre, near the hill city of Hebron, on the road to Beersheba. The time is early afternoon, when everything comes to a standstill in the Middle East. The emphasis falls on the three travelers, traveling when only those on the most urgent business would be on the road. Or could it be that these are angelic visitors? Abraham does not see them traveling; he only sees them suddenly standing nearby. He runs quickly to greet them and welcome them to his encampment. He and Sarah rush to prepare a massive meal for them, and Abraham stands ready to serve them while Sarah waits inside the tent, at its entrance, able to see but not be seen.

Then the messengers inquire, "Where is your wife, Sarah?" Abraham knows from this question that these are no ordinary visitors, for they know his wife’s name, and they speak of her with a familiarity that would be discourteous in ordinary society. And now one of the three visitors takes over the conversation: It is God present in human form! Abraham and Sarah hear the news they have been waiting for all these years: Sarah will have her child at the appropriate time next year!

But the news is too good to be true. Abraham and Sarah are too old to have children. Can Sarah and her husband share the joy of sex, and can she have the joy of bearing a child, even though she is ninety years of age? (See Genesis 17:17) So Sarah laughs to herself, there in the tent beside its entrance, looking out and listening. And God asks Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh? Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?"

Now Sarah joins in the conversation, saying, "I did not laugh." And God rebukes her gently, saying, "Oh yes, you did laugh." The story ends there, with no resolution, but with the future now charged with fresh meaning and possibility. Abraham and Sarah have only a year, or perhaps only nine months, to wait for a child. However, three other stories are related in the biblical text before Sarah actually becomes pregnant. The first involves the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham's nephew Lot and his family moved to that region when they separated from Abraham (Genesis 13). Abraham intercedes with the Lord on behalf of all righteous people there. Ultimately, only Lot and his daughters escape. The second tells of the trickery used by Lot's daughters to conceive by him. They give birth to Moab, the ancestor of the Moabites, and Ben-ammi, ancestor of the Ammonites (Genesis 19:3~38). The third is of Abimelech, king of Gerar, who takes Sarah into his tent after Abraham tells him that she is his sister, not his wife. God protects Sarah and she is returned to her husband.

Finally, we come to the birth of Isaac. Think of all that has happened to Abraham and Sarah since they left Mesopotamia with God's promise ringing in their ears! The promise of God has been delayed for many years, while Abraham and Sarah have grown older and older, and the human possibility of children and a great multitude of descendants has grown dimmer and dimmer. But, finally, a son is born. The name given to the son, Isaac, resembles the Hebrew word for laughter, and the two stories in chapters 18 and 21 both make use of this resemblance. In Genesis 18, the emphasis falls on Sarah's having laughed in disbelief that she could have a child at age ninety. In the later chapter, Sarah speaks of the laughter God has given to her, the joy she has that she can have a child, nurse him, and watch him grow. No longer is Sarah laughing in disbelief; she and Abraham have learned that nothing indeed is too hard or wonderful for the Lord.

There are many stories of couples unable to have children who pray to God for a child and finally have their prayers answered. After Abraham and Sarah, we see that Rebekah, Isaac's wife, and Rachel, one of the wives of Jacob, are also unable to have children until the Lord acts to make birth possible. The same is true of Hannah, who finally is able to have a child after years of praying to God. Samuel is born and is dedicated to God's service (1 Samuel 1). These stories and others that tell of the difficulties of having or rearing a child (see the story of Moses in Exodus 2), underscore the theme we have been mentioning: God's promise to make a great people of Abraham and his family, God's faithfulness to that promise, and the need for human beings to hold fast to God's promises even when they seem long delayed. The stories also make the point that, in the last analysis, God is the author and giver of all life. Human beings assist in the process, but God, who called the entire universe into being, continually acts to nurture existing life and to bring new life to birth. It is a wonderful partnership.

Sarah (a later form of Sarai, perhaps "princess"). (1) The wife and half-sister of Abraham. (Gen. 11:29, 20:12, 16:1). Sarah shared with her husband and his relatives the epochal journey from Ur of the Chaldees into Haran and ultimately to Canaan. (Gen. 11:31).

Abraham's twice palmed Sarah off as his sister. The first time was during the short descent into Egypt, when Sarah was taken into Pharaoh's house (Gen. 12:15). Abraham was well treated for her sake (v.16), but Pharaoh and his household were punished with "great plagues" (v.17). The second occurrence was when Abraham, on a later journey south to Gerar, deceived King Abimelech by representing Sarah as his sister, thus bringing down punishment upon the King's household. These two passages may be variants of the same incident.

Sarah's part in the patriarchal customs of hospitality is seen in her personal attention to the baking of fresh bread for guests, even though the household had servants (Gen. 18:6, 9). When God promised Abraham, after the circumcision covenant, that he should have a son named Isaac, who should be the heir of the covenant and the father of a great nation, Sarai's name was changed to Sarah (Gen. 17:15). Sarah, already "old" (Gen. 18:13), laughed to scorn the announcement that she would become a mother -- and then, in fear, denied that she had derided the Lord's announcement (vv. 12,15). She bore Isaac (Gen. 21:2 f.; cf. 24:38; Isa. 51:2; Rom. 4:19,9:9) and became the first of the four Hebrew matriarchs. Sarah cruelly sent her Egyptian handmaid, Hagar, and her young son, Ishmael, into the desert when irked by Hagar's mockery during Isaac's weaning feast. Sarah had given Hagar to Abraham as secondary wife (Gen. 16), an act allowable by the custom of the day.

During Sarah's lifetime, as Gen.25:1 suggests, she was the principal wife of the Patriarch, who after her death married Keturah. She alone is mentioned as resting beside the Patriarch in the Machpelah tomb (Gen. 49:31).

Sarah, after sharing her husband's life near Beer-sheba, died at a ripe old age ("an hundred and seven and twenty years") at Hebron and was mourned by Abraham. He bought for her burial place the Cave of Machpelah, from Ephron the Hittite, in a field near Mamre (Gen. 23). Isaac's devotion to Sarah's memory is indicated by his bringing his bride Rebekah to his mother's own tent (Gen. 24:67)

Sarah's name is mentioned in Jewish homes today in the parental blessing of girls on Sabbaths and holidays. Her story is amplified in the Talmud and Islamic writings.

The dominant story in the narrative, and one of the most widely known stories in the Bible, is that of the projected sacrifice of Isaac (see Genesis 22). According to this account, God tested Abraham's faith by asking him to sacrifice his beloved son. At the last moment, after God was convinced of the perfect obedience of both father and son, he accepted a ram as a substitute for the youth. This story is thought to express the Hebrew rejection of human sacrifice, practiced by surrounding nations. The ram is recalled today in synagogue ritual at the solemn blowing of the shofar, or ram's horn, during the Jewish High Holy Days, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

The New Testament alludes to Isaac as a precursor of Christ and of the church (see Galatians 3:16, 4:21-31), and the obedience to his father to the extent of self-sacrifice is associated with that of Christ (see Hebrews 11:17-19). These themes were developed by several of the patristic writers, and Isaac appears often in Christian art, particularly in association with the Eucharist.

Archaeologists and biblical scholars have drawn parallels between the biblical narrative of Isaac and the history of the Semitic tribes. Abraham is thought to represent the nomadic stock out of which the Hebrew and Edomite tribes separated. Isaac is believed to represent the tribes that joined to form the Hebrew confederacy and to give allegiance to the God, Yahweh, or Jehovah, originally a tribal deity; and Ishmael is believed to represent the tribes of Edom. Isaac was a relatively minor figure compared to the other two great biblical patriarchs, Abraham, his father, and Jacob, his son; but a number of the details of the biblical account are believed by scholars to have major symbolic importance. The story of his birth is believed to be a deliberate attempt by early Hebrew writers to alter the traditions of the Semitic tribes in order to strengthen adherence to the Hebrew confederacy, a military and political alliance, by suggesting that it had divine inspiration. In making Isaac the legitimate son, and Ishmael the illegitimate son, of their common ancestor, the Hebrews claimed superiority over the independent Edomite tribes. Finally, the rivalry between Isaac's two sons is thought to reflect again the rivalry between Edom and the Hebrews.

Angel (Greek angelos, "messenger"), celestial being believed to be a messenger, or intermediary, between God, or the gods, and humankind. All religions are concerned with the relationship human beings have or may have with the supernatural realm. In ancient Greek religion, in Judaism and Christianity, and in Islam this relationship is thought to involve angels—divine messengers sent to humans to instruct, inform, or command them. An angel can function also as a protective guardian, as a heavenly warrior, and even as a cosmic power. Moreover, the line between a good angel and a bad angel, or demon, is sometimes unclear. Hence, angels can be broadly described as personified powers mediating between the divine and the human.

Even in its commitment to monotheism—the worship of one God—ancient Israel was able to embrace the image of a council of gods by turning all but one of them into angels who serve the one God, much as earthly courtiers serve one king. This acceptance of a belief in angels was a development made relatively easy because both lesser gods and angels could be called sons of God. In traditional Israelite thought, angels were assumed to have the form of human males, and as a consequence they were sometimes mistaken for men.

Later developments in both Judaism and Christianity show a remarkable growth of angelic folklore, in part as the result of continuing the ancient practice of absorbing the gods of polytheistic religions by turning them into angels. Although belief in angels is amply attested in both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, many biblical scholars nevertheless suggest that the concept was adopted not only as a literary device to personify the divine presence but also as a means of subordinating the gods of polytheistic religions.

In the early and mid-1990s there was a resurgence of popular interest in angels. This interest manifested itself in such diverse phenomena as the proliferation of celestial iconography on greeting cards and household objects, a spate of television specials devoted to encounters with angels, the appearance of "angelology" among the course offerings of alternative educational institutions, and the tremendous success of Tony Kushman's Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Angels in America."

Contributed By:

J. Louis Martyn