Sarah - Faith in the background

Have you ever had a job, or a position in a church, where your task was to support a person who had a very important role or was doing high-profile work?

People only ever saw the person whom you were supporting, rarely you; though without your support, he or she could not have achieved anything. It is not always easy to be in the background, and many people avoid that type of role. For example, most churches that I know struggle to find suitable people to man their sound desks – it’s a vital role, but it is in the background and nobody sees it, unless things go wrong. On the other hand, there is always a queue of people willing to stand in front of the church and preach or teach.

Sarah is one of those people who are largely in the background. We saw last week that Abraham, her husband, is one of the stellar figures of the Bible, and his name crops up everywhere. Sarah, however, is mentioned only four times outside the historical Genesis narrative; and even within that narrative she mostly takes a place behind the scenes, with Abraham in the limelight.

Yet, despite her background role, Sarah is commended as a woman of faith – in Hebrews 11:11 – although some versions of the Bible (including early NIV versions and the Spanish NVI) twist the Greek of this verse to make it look as if it is Abraham who is being commended.

Being in the background does not absolve us from living by faith. Indeed, it is often in background roles that God can most effectively develop our character and our faith. 40 years in an Egyptian palace qualified Moses for almost any job – but not for leading the people of Israel. He needed 40 more years keeping sheep in an obscure place in the desert before God considered him ready for this vital role!

I recall David Watson, one of the pioneers of the charismatic movement in the UK in the 1970s, telling how, when he was a new Christian on fire for God, he went as a leader on a children's camp, ready to set all these young people on fire too. However, he was given the role of peeling potatoes in the kitchen. After he had got over his indignation at being given such an 'unimportant' position, he tells how God used this to build character and humility into him, in a way that would never have happened if he had been in a high profile position. If you are in the background, if you feel that your contribution is not being noticed, this is just the place where God may be enabling your character and your faith to grow.

For Sarah, even though she was in the background, had faith that enabled her to receive power from God to conceive a child, even when she was 90 years old (!), and to give birth, because she reckoned that God would be faithful to his promise (Hebrews 11:11). She believed that he could overturn the natural laws of the human body – and he did – and he is still doing so today.

The journey of faith was not straightforward for Sarah, and she took a few wrong turnings along the way. First she took matters into her own hands and suggested to her husband that maybe the promise could be fulfilled by him sleeping with her maidservant (Genesis 16) – this was much easier for her to believe. That turned out disastrously, as it often does when we act contrary to what God has told us. Then when the Lord himself visited her and Abraham to confirm his promise, she laughed to herself, thinking, How could we ever have any sexual pleasure at our age (that's what the Hebrew of Genesis 18:12 means)? The Lord took her to task for this, and she was so embarrassed that she pretended that she had not laughed. But he knew she had.

In the end Sarah’s faith came good. The Lord himself visited her and gave her power to conceive and give birth to the promised son (Genesis 21:1); and she cooperated with him (and with Abraham!).

And that is a great encouragement to any of us who feel that our faith is weak or wobbly at times, or that we have taken wrong turnings. Even if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself (2 Timothy 2:13). There is always a way back, and God will stick with you and help your faith and trust to come good in the end.