Trust in God’s way, don’t try a DIY life.
Mom: Sarah
Children: Isaac
Gospel Connection
God’s way through faith brings joy and trying to force God’s promises brings destruction.
Ice Breaker Question
Would you rather be rich and powerful or have children?
Bible Reading: Genesis 16:1-6
Summary
Sarah was Abraham’s half-sister and wife who followed him to an unknown destination when God promised to bless Abraham as the father of a great nation. On their journey, Abraham did not trust God to protect them and lied, saying his beautiful wife was his sister to keep powerful men from killing him. Eventually, they reached God’s promised land and God made a covenant with Abraham, promising again many descendants. Sarah though was watching the years go by with no baby and was no longer content to wait for God to provide a child. Taking matters into her own hands, she gave her servant Hagar to Abraham as a wife, in an attempt to “help” God fulfill His promise of offspring.
Of course, God does not need help, and this lack of faith led to many troubles. God is always faithful though, and when she was 90 years old, God blessed Sarah with her son Isaac. Isaac means “laughter” because Sarah laughed at the Lord when he promised a baby to her as an old lady. Now, she was laughing with joy because God was faithful to her, even though she created problems for her family with her foolish impatience.
The Bible calls Sarah an example of faith, believing that God would provide her a child. She is also called a holy woman who submitted to her husband and is worthy of being followed. Instead of beautifying herself with clothes and jewelry, her beauty came from her faith and commitment to her husband and God.
Question led Discussion
1. Like all of us, Sarah sometimes trusted God and sometimes had doubt. Where do you see those times in the story?
Sarah doubted God’s promises when she agreed with Abraham to lie and pretend to not be his wife. Later, she came up with a plan for Abraham to start their family with a different woman because she did not trust God. However, the Bible says that Sarah did eventually have faith in God to give her a son, and He did! Also, it must have been difficult for Sarah to leave her whole life behind and follow her husband to a place they did not know.
2. Can you tell about a time when you had to trust in God to take care of you?
Give opportunity for people to share
3. 1 Peter 3:5-6 says that wives should be like Sarah and submit to their husbands. What does this mean and what make it difficult?
God has set up a family with special roles. The husband has a responsibility to love, protect, provide for, and to lead his wife. A wife should not dominate her husband, but is called to respect and submit to him, not as her boss, but as her loving and sacrificial leader. This can be difficult sometimes because we know that our spouses are not perfect and can sin against us and hurt us. This is why it is important that our trust is ultimately in God who always does good. We need God to give us faith that His way is best.
4. Can you think of a family conflict that has caused trouble for a long time?
Abraham and Sarah’s bad decision has led to 4,000 years of conflict. The son Abraham had with Hagar was Ishmael, the father of the Muslim people. Sarah’s son, Isaac is the father of the Jewish people and through faith, Christians. When we try to do things our way instead of God’s way, the consequences can be devastating and long lasting.
5. Sometimes, in our communities, men might have two or more wives and families. How would that make you feel?
This is not God’s plan for marriage. God created marriage for people to reproduce, love each other, and to give a picture of Jesus’ love for His bride, the church. When we live outside of that standard, we tarnish that picture. In Sarah’s story, the bad feelings from that situation led to Hagar sinning by mocking Sarah and looking down on her. It also led to Sarah’s sin of treating Hagar harshly and eventually sending her and Ishmael away into the wilderness.
6. Have you had to learn a hard lesson from your mistakes?
From the life of Sarah, we can learn from our mistakes and we can learn to trust God. We can learn that our sin has consequences and we can learn to forgive. God used Sarah to become the mother of a great nation, but He only gave her one child. Later, God would test Abraham’s faith and command him to sacrifice their boy Isaac. Abraham’s knew that God was faithful to His promises and so he trusted that God could even raise Isaac from the dead. Sarah had to trust God with her life and her family’s lives. God stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, but He would not spare His own Son, Jesus. Isaac was just a shadow of the true Son of the promise. Jesus came and gave His perfect life for the sins of Sarah and Abraham, and you and me. Because like Sarah, we lack faith and patience and we deal harshly with others, we need a Savior. Today, if you repent of your sins and trust in Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, you can be saved to eternal life with Him and a faith that will allow you to follow wherever He leads.
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