Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement (1 Pet. 3:6).
Sarah is held up by God as a paragon of feminine virtue. Christian women are instructed to be like her, with one caveat: “don’t be afraid with much amazement”.
What does it mean to be afraid with much amazement? How does this connect to Sarah?
Sarah is commended as an example to Christian women at the time she called Abraham “Lord”. The only time mentioned in the Bible when Sarah called Abraham “Lord” was when God had revealed that she would become pregnant with a son in Genesis 18:12.
When God spoke about this at their tent, Sarah just could not believe it would happen. She saw how old she was and she knew how old Abraham was. She heard God say that she would become pregnant, and inside the tent, out of shock and disbelief, she laughed.
God was not happy with this laughing. It showed that she didn’t believe God. God asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh?” Sarah denied laughing, but she was lying.
Interestingly, in the previous chapter, Genesis 17, Abraham had heard that he was going to have a child by Sarah. Abraham laughed when he heard this, and he was not rebuked. Why did God chide Sarah for laughing and not Abraham? Was God being unfairly harsh with Sarah?
In Genesis 17, when God spoke to Abraham about Sarah bearing him a son, he laughed out of joy, not unbelief. He was happy at this good news. He went and shared this good news with Sarah.
It appears that Sarah just didn’t believe. She couldn’t believe that in her old age she would bear a child. She didn’t believe that Abraham could be a father, even though Abraham had told her that God had spoken to him about this. Then, in Genesis 18, when she heard the word a second time, in the tent door, she laughed. Through this laughter, Sarah revealed her long-standing unbelief. Unbelief displeases God.
Sarah’s unbelief was not a light thing. It creates problems. Earlier, unbelief caused Sarah to turn to the flesh and come up with the Hagar plan. Unbelief birthed Ishmael.
Why was Sarah unable to believe God’s word for so long? The secret might be found in 1 Peter 3, where we read about how she struggled with fear. Maybe Sarah was afraid that the word of God would not happen. Maybe she was afraid that her husband had not heard from God. Maybe she was afraid that the great promises of God would not happen without her help. This fear was connected to her unbelief, and it caused trouble.
This root of fear exposed in Sarah’s life when the angel came and spoke to her in the tent door and she laughed. Her laughter exposed her unbelief, and 1 Peter 3 points to the fact that her unbelief was rooted in fear.
But in the mercy of God, this woman who was plagued by fear and unbelief and sometimes made terrible mistakes, became a princess of God – a model for Christian women throughout history.
Bethel Cornerstone 