And God said to Abraham, [As to] Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.
God changes one letter of a name here: Sarai becomes Sarah. He speaks it at the very moment He promises a son to a couple far past the age of having children. Why does God rename Abraham's wife at all, and what does the new name say about her place in the promise?
One writer reads the change as a move from a private title to a public one:
God does not only change Abraham's name, however, but tells him that Sarai's name is to be changed to Sarah. Sarai means "my princess," as being Abraham's property, but Sarah means "the princess," giving her the wider honor of being "a mother of nations." She stands for the grace of God. Sarah was to be greatly blessed: even after 90 years of age she would have a son. She would be blessed, and others would be blessed through her. She would be a mother of nations, and kings would even be among her descendants.
Commentators differ on what the older form of the name meant:
The meaning of Sarai is uncertain. Jerome gave 'my princess;' others 'princely;' others 'contentious;' Fürst says, 'Jah is ruler.'
This pattern of renaming runs from Abram and Sarai on into the New Testament:
Changing a name always meant that the person renamed came under the authority of the one who renamed him (see Gen. 17:5-15; Gen. 32:28; Dan. 1:7). At that moment the Lord told Simon, You belong to Me; from this minute you are Mine. It was sovereign love that spoke there; and it was a divine Person who spoke to him.
One writer traces what dropped out of her name and what came in:
And now God declares Himself the God of resurrection. Sarai is to have a son — the first clear announcement of it. Her name is changed too: from Sarai (my princess) she becomes Sarah (the princess). The "i" drops out, and the merely personal part goes with it. That "i" stands for the number 10, the number of responsibility. In its place the "h" comes back, the 5, where the creature stands once more in its weakness before this almighty God. So grace and faith — the ways of God and the felt need of man — fit each other exactly and are joined together. Now grace will be fruitful: Sarah will have a son.
One writer draws out what a promise on this scale asks of the person hearing it:
But when the "Almighty God" goes on to say about Sarai, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name," he is at once overwhelmed by the promises of such wonderful power and grace to be shown to him. They went beyond anything he had known so far, and "Abraham fell on his face." As we think about a Scripture like this, we can surely say that only faith can rightly receive the "Almighty God." Faith alone gives Him His true and proper place and honours Him as He should be honoured. When the Almighty shows Himself, self must be shut out.
God gave the name to a woman whose body could not deliver it. Abraham's faith rested on God, not on anything left in himself or in Sarah:
Nature told him it was impossible, yet he did not waver in unbelief. He believed in hope — the hope of a son through Sarah, when nature said there was no hope of it. He was strong in faith. His own body was as good as dead, and so was Sarah's womb, but that was no problem to him. To him, the God who had promised was the God of resurrection. As such, He was able to give life to the dead.
The New Testament itself reads Sarah alongside Hagar, the slave woman:
Galatians 4:24-31 draws an allegory from this history. Hagar answers to the covenant of law and to the Jerusalem of that day, which was in slavery. Sarah answers to the covenant of promise and to the Jerusalem above, which is free. The conclusion for the believer is, "So then, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman." The Christian is not under the law nor in the flesh, but is free, under grace.
- Renamed. Many read "Sarai" as "my princess," a title inside one home. "Sarah" is "the princess," matching her new role as mother of nations.
- Owned. The one who gives the name holds the authority. God's renaming marks His claim on her, as He later claimed Simon.
- Shared. The "i" of "my princess" drops out and the "h" comes in. The personal claim goes, and grace turns fruitful.
- Impossible. God spoke the name over a body as good as dead, so the promise rested on the God of resurrection alone.
- Free. Scripture reads Sarah as the covenant of promise and Hagar as the covenant of law. Believers are children of the free woman, not of the slave.
And I will bless her, and I will give thee a son also of her; and I will bless her, and she shall become nations kings of peoples shall be of her.
God gives Sarai a new name, and in the same breath promises her a son at ninety, then nations, then kings. The verse raises a question that follows Abraham to the end of his life: what can God do when human strength has run out?
The change from Sarai to Sarah is small in sound and large in meaning.
God does not only change Abraham's name. He also tells him that Sarai's name is to be changed to Sarah. Sarai means "my princess," because she was Abraham's own. Sarah means "the princess," and this gives her the wider honor of being "a mother of nations." She stands for the grace of God... Sarah was to be richly blessed. Even after 90 years of age she would have a son. She would be blessed, and others would be blessed through her. She would be a mother of nations, and kings too would be among her descendants.
God changed Abraham's name in the same moment and in the same way.
Notice that Sarai's name changes at the same time, by adding the same letter. It shows the same great truth.
The promise of a child through Sarah comes when childbearing is out of the question.
And now God declares Himself the God of resurrection. Sarai is to have a son — the first positive announcement of it. And her name is changed too: from Sarai (my princess) she becomes Sarah (the princess)... So grace and faith fit each other exactly — the ways of God and the need man now feels — and they are joined together. Now grace will be fruitful: Sarah will have a son.
The timing is no accident. God waits until Abraham has nothing left in himself.
Chapter 16 is something of a side note. Abram has a promise, and now tries to make it come true without God. But then Abram is set aside. His body is now dead at ninety-nine years old. God reveals Himself and says, I am going to give you many descendants, and you must circumcise them, and so on. That is: now that you count as dead, I can do something with you.
The promise about Sarah stands in the same chapter as the sign of circumcision.
The chapter then shows grace that gives out of God's own generosity. At the same time the flesh is judged before Him. That is the meaning of this remarkable seal. So the promise comes out when Sarah's name was changed from "my princess" (Sarai) to simply "princess" (Sarah).
The promise reaches far past one child.
Isaac is this child of promise. He was born to Sarah when she was 90 and Abraham 100, when their bodies were as good as "already dead" (Rom. 4:19), and any natural hope of childbearing was long gone. But God stepped in with sovereign grace to fulfill His own word. Sarah is the free woman... a picture of the godly remnant in Israel who live by faith and by grace, and Christ came from them (pictured in Isaac) when all natural hope of blessing was gone. Isaac then is a beautiful picture of Christ, the promised Seed (Gal. 3:16). He came to earth, not because man kept the law well or anything like that, but because of the unbreakable promise of God, fulfilled by grace alone.
Writers describe the arrangement in different terms — some as covenant, others as figure. One puts it this way:
Having settled Abraham as the father of many nations, and the new covenant in Sarah as the mother of them and even of kings; after this we get the communications of God with Abraham for his own soul, and joy, and as to His dealings with a corrupt world.
Abraham falls on his face and laughs. On its own, that reaction looks like doubt.
He fell on his face and laughed, asking himself in his heart about his own great age, and Sarah's too. At first sight we might take both the laughter and the words as a sign of doubt. But in the light of Romans 4:18-20, we should read them instead as joyful wonder.
The size of the promise is what floors him.
These promises went beyond anything he had known so far, and "Abraham fell on his face." This teaches us a great deal. Abraham with his face in the dust, overcome by the fullness of almighty power and grace!
- Name — Sarai, "my princess," becomes Sarah, "the princess." A private title becomes a public one, and the same letter joins her husband's name in the same moment.
- Death — The promise waits until both bodies are past hope. God calls Himself here the God of resurrection, and a man counted as dead is the one He can work with.
- Gift — What Abraham tried to secure without God, God now gives: grace out of His own generosity, while the flesh is judged by the sign of the covenant.
- Reach — The blessing runs outward from her: a son, then nations, then kings. Last of all comes the promised Seed, who came by unbreakable promise, not by law-keeping.
- Response — Faith's answer is a face in the dust and a laugh; read with Romans 4, it is joyful wonder, not doubt.
And Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall [a child] be born to him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear?
Abraham is ninety-nine, Sarah is ninety, and God has just promised them a son. His response is to fall on his face and laugh — and readers have argued ever since over what kind of laugh it was.
The promise of a son comes only after every natural possibility has closed.
Chapter 16 is a kind of parenthesis. Abram has a promise, and now he tries to make it good independently of God. But then Abram is set aside, his body now dead at ninety-nine years old. God reveals Himself and says, I am going to give you many descendants, and you must circumcise them, and so on. That is, now that you are viewed as dead, I can do something with you.
This is not his first time face down before God. Since then his name has changed from Abram to Abraham — and so has what he does on the ground.
Again he falls on his face — now as Abraham… Abram once had fallen on his face and listened; but now Abraham fell on his face and laughed.
Commentators differ here. Some read the laugh as wonder. They point to how the New Testament describes Abraham at this age.
At first sight we might take both the laughter and the words as a sign of doubt. But in the light of Romans 4:18-20 we must see them instead as an expression of joyful wonder.
Others take the questions at face value. Abraham measures God's word against his own body and finds it hard to accept.
Abraham's faith was too weak to accept what God had positively spoken. He laughed inwardly, just as Sarah did later (Gen. 18:12). Could he, at 100 years, become a father? And Sarah, at 90 years, give birth to a son? Of course, in natural terms this is impossible. But God is not limited by impossibilities.
The laugh was inward, in his heart. Sarah laughs too, one chapter later, and Scripture treats the two laughs as different. God read what was behind each one.
God seems to accept the faith of Abraham, and Abraham's laughter in his heart gives a name to his son — Isaac, laughter. It was simplicity of heart at unexpected good news. Sarah's — for God can discern — was a disbelieving, mocking satisfaction.
The two ages Abraham names are the real obstacle. Faith here rests on who God is, not on what the body can still do.
God told Abraham that he would have a son by Sarah. Nature told him it was impossible. Yet he did not waver at it through unbelief. He believed in hope — the hope of a son through Sarah, when nature said there was no hope of it. He was strong in faith. The deadness of his own body and of Sarah's womb was no difficulty to him. To him the God who had promised was the God of resurrection. As such, He was able to give life to the dead.
Abraham's question mentions Sarah, and God has already moved to answer it. Her new name is part of the same act of power that raises life out of two worn-out bodies.
The power of His resurrection must be known. That power alone can work in a dead man, to lift him out of death and into this new sphere… This power now comes in: "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name." She too must be made partaker, as it were, of the divine nature. Like him, she must have the breathing of God's name put to hers, so that in figure she may be of the new creation also.
The laughter did not stop with that moment. God tied it to the child's name.
Isaac, "laughter," recalls the laughter of both his parents in view of his birth, and suggests the joy which the coming of the true Son brings.
That joy did not stay private. The laughter changed character and spread to everyone within reach.
I have no doubt that the day in Abraham's heart is the day the Lord Jesus meant when He said, "Abraham rejoiced that he would see My day. He saw it and was glad." Abraham's home was then filled not with the laughter of irony or unbelief that had marked it before, but with the laughter of holy mirth. That laugh is contagious. When it has a place in our own hearts, it will spread to others, as Sarah said, "everyone who hears will laugh with me."
- Dead first. God waits until Abraham's body is as good as dead at ninety-nine. Human ability must be out of the picture before God acts.
- The laugh questioned. Commentators differ. Some read Abraham's laugh as joyful wonder, in line with Romans 4. Others read it as faith too weak to take God at His word.
- The laugh discerned. God judges Abraham's laugh and Sarah's differently. He reads the heart behind the sound, not just the sound.
- The laugh answered. The two impossible ages become the ground of faith: the God who promised is the God who gives life to the dead.
- The laugh named. God turns the laugh into a name — Isaac. That joy grows until it fills a home and reaches everyone who hears.