When I first thought of this, I immediately thought of the two times where she was kidnapped and married Pharaoh and Avimelech. In the case of the kidnapping in Egypt, Sarah was quite far from the birth of Yitzchak. Because the people of Egypt were known as the opposite of morality and ethics, both Avraham and G-d probably felt that they could not accept Pharaoh's word that "nothing happened". What would have become of the promise if Sarah had become pregnant and had the child of the Pharaoh? If she was barren at that time, then there would be no chance of Sarah's side of the promise being messed up. When I looked back at her initial description, the Torah tells us that she was utterly beautiful and attractive. If she was so attractive, then why were men able to stay away from her and Avraham? Maybe it was because they knew that she was barren and had a "weird set of religious beliefs". Later on, she was kidnapped by Avimelech. At that point, she may have already been pregnant. (We don't know this for sure because "there is no order in the Torah".) The case with Avimelech was a little different from the one with Pharaoh because Avimelech did not know what he had gotten himself into and immediately recognized morality and ethics as the way to live properly. He did not even hesitate in returning Sarah to Avraham. This tells us that absolutely nothing happened and that he respected Avraham and Sarah's marriage.
All in all, there was probably a reason for her being barren until age ninety. We don't even know much about her first sixty-five years of life. Depending on where she lived, there might have been many opportunities for her to have more children. The main point of the promise of descendants with Avraham was that the child of both Avraham and Sarah would continue on their nation of ethical monotheists. Luckily, her first child was Yitzchak, whom we all know went on to promote ethical monotheism. His descendants would be the Jewish people.
It occurred to me after I posted this that Sarah is not the only "foremother" to be barren until her son is finally born. This other mother is, or course, Rachel. She was barren for many years and watched her sister, Leah, have six kids. When she finally has a son, it is Yosef, who we know has a special place in history. Just like Yitzchak, he was the favored soon. Out of jealousy, his brothers sold him into slavery. I think the commonality between Yitzchak and Yosef is that they were both involved in advancing the promises of Zerah and Aretz. I think the situations of the two mothers relate because they were both barren until they had sons who played crucial roles in the development of a nation of ethical monotheists-the Jews.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely that both Yitzchak and Yosef advanced the promise of zera and aretz, but so did Yaakov and all of Yosef's brothers. I think it doesn't have so much to do with the fact that it took their mothers a long time to conceive them as just who they were and what family they were born into. The only insight I have into this is that, as you said, they were both the most favored sons. But then, Binyamin was also favored and again, all of the brothers as well as Yaakov played huge parts in the advancement of the promise just like Yitzchak and Yosef. So basically, I just have a problem with the connection of both of their mothers being barren to them furthering the promise. If you or anyone else could clear that up a little for me that would be great.
Delete