Chris Miller Miller 1

Ms. Akers

Honors English 9

16 October 2017

Sarahs Struggle
In The Bible, there are many figures who struggle both physically and mentally. Such as

Eve, Moses, or the People of Israel. But there was one character whose struggle is often

overlooked, that person is Sarah. She is the wife of Abraham, featured in Genesis. Being

someones wife might not seem very significant, but in this case it is important considering

Abraham is essentially the patriarch of monotheism. Sarah suffers because she cannot have a

child, and then her husband gets to have a child, with another woman. This suffering was

incredibly important because it led to the eventual creation of the worlds three largest

monotheistic religions: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.

Sarahs hardships first start because she is barren, and therefore cannot have kids, which

having an heir to whatever you owned was very important back then. Abraham tells this to God

by saying, O Lord God, what can you give me seeing that I shall die childless, and the one in

charge of my household is Dammesek Eliezer! Since you have granted me no offspring, my

steward will be my heir (72). God responds by saying, Look toward heaven and count the

stars, if you are able to count them. So shall your offspring be (72). Gods response establishes

that Abraham will have an abundance of offspring, the question is still about how they will have

a child with Sarah not being able to produce any. It is in fact Sarah who proposes a solution for

this problem, one that will cause her a large amount of emotional pain. Sarah says to Abraham,
Look, the lord has kept me from bearing. Consort with my maid; perhaps I shall have a son

through her (72). This means that Abraham has to make a child with Sarahs Maid, Hagar. After

the child is conceived, Sarah is angry about it, and therefore treats Hagar extremely harshly.

Eventually the child of Abraham and Hagar, Ishmael, is born. Sarah still does not view Ishmael

as a legitimate child because he did not come from herself and Abraham, and is jealous of

Abraham and Hagar.

All of these hardships are significant because they tie into the creation of three major

religions. At one point in the story, Sarah treats Hagar so badly, that she runs away. An angel of

the Lord finds her by a spring and tells her, Go back to your mistress, and submit to her harsh

treatment. He then says I will greatly increase your offspring until there are too many to

count(73). This is foreshadowing to what will happen in the future. But before that happens,

Abraham is told by an angel that he and Sarah will have a son, and in the next year they have a

son together, named Isaac. Sarah still is jealous of Ishmael and Hagar, so she makes Abraham

cast her out. This relates back to the angel telling Hagar she will have many offspring, because

when they are cast out Ishmael eventually goes on to form Islam. Judaism is carried on by Isaac,

until far later on in history, Christianity splits off of it.

Since Sarah was originally not able to have her own son and Abraham had to then have a

son she viewed as illegitimate, with her servant, the second largest religion was eventually

formed. If however Sarah did not go through the pain of not being able to bear a son, Islam

would never have diverged from Judaism.