Later, when Sarah heard this she laughed as well (Genesis 18:9-15). In fact, when Abraham heard this he laughed. However, He would also make her “a mother of nations” and “kings of people” would come from her descendants.ĭespite these promises, both Abraham and Sarah both found it hard to believe as they were 100 and 90 years old respectively. In Sarah’s case, God would bless her with the birth of Isaac. With these name changes would come changes to Abraham and Sarah’s life. He changed Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah. God also said that the covenant and blessings that went along with it would be established through Isaac and his descendants, not Ishmael (Genesis 17:18-21).ĭuring this conversation, God also changed the names of Abram and Sarai. As part of this covenant, God told Abram that he and Sarai would have a child that would be named Isaac. It was after this that God spoke to Abram and made a covenant with him. Ishmael would later become the father of all Arab peoples. He said that Ishmael would be a wild man and his hand would be against every man and would one day have many sons and live in the presence of all his brethren in Shur. He also told her that she would bear a son, Ishmael, because God heard her affliction. Pregnant and alone in the wilderness, an angel of the Lord spoke to Hagar. Hagar then left and went into the wilderness of Shur.

With the pregnancy, Hagar despised Sarai and Sarai became jealous and harsh with Hagar. However, more than just a child was produced. Abram accepted Sarai’s offer to produce a child through Hagar and the result was the birth of Ishmael. She decided to give Hagar, her Egyptian maid, to Abram to produce a child. Since Sarai could not produce a child for Abram, she made a decision that would affect all of humanity. This brought anguish, shame, and despair to Sarai.

However, for a woman not to be able to produce children on her own it was believed to be a sign that there was something in the woman’s life that was causing God not to bless her. Sarai was barren (Genesis 11:30) so having Lot in the family provided her with the opportunity to be a sort of foster mother to Lot.

Bible character timeline