SARAH

Sarah's Destiny
Phases of Marriage
Sarah Attracts Worldly Attention
Pharaoh Marries Sara
Sara's Dilemma
Sara's Spiritual Warfare
The Harsh Reality of Compatibility Testing
A Message for Teens
Something Better

Sarah's Destiny

Marriage is the divine institution that is the basis for a culture.  Marriage is a building block of society.  The relationship between the man and the woman in marriage ripples into every part of a culture.  When the strategic direction of human history required a change, it began with marriage just as it had in the beginning of the Garden of Eden.  As a divine institution, marriage is more than just a loving relationship between two people or a means of procreating mankind.  It is a spiritual relationship that is the root of a culture that grows into the fabric of society.  It is the seat of blessing or cursing for a culture.  As goes marriage, so goes the culture.  As goes marriage, so goes society.  As goes marriage, so goes the Client Nation.

Phases of Marriage

The advance through these phases is required for every marriage, and the marriage of Abraham and Sarah was no exception.  The advance through the phases is accomplished by spiritual growth.  There is no shortcut to marital happiness.  The believer must advance spiritually through the daily perception and application of Bible Doctrine.  The Spiritual Life determines the temporal life.  Orientation to God must precede rapport with mankind.

Marriage is a test in the spiritual life.  To treat it any differently is to invite misery and the cursing of God.  Marriage is not the means of happiness, though happy people can be married.  A person is no different in marriage that before marriage.  Marriage magnifies human weaknesses.  Marriage is, at best, a stiff test and, at worst, a disaster and the basis for cursing the nation.  Marriage is not for children.  It demands maturity.  Maturity is proved through the testing of God.

Abraham and Sarah married in the Attraction Phase, which in the Church Age is not recommended (1 Corinthians 7:25-38).  They knew they were Right Man - Right Woman and were both saved.  They were saved the same way in the Old Testament as the New, i.e. by faith alone in Christ alone.  They did not know the Lord by the name, Jesus Christ, but referred to Him by the Hebrew tetragrammaton, JHWH, which was called Adonay (meaning my Lord) by the Jews and is translated Jehovah or LORD into English.  Abraham looked forward to the cross just as we look back to it.  Salvation by faith in Christ is an absolute prerequisite for receiving Everlasting Life and living the Christian Life.  There can be no knowledge of God apart from faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Salvation is appropriated by simply believing in Jesus Christ.

“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household.” (Acts 16:31)

After salvation Abraham and Sarah had a new Spiritual Life.  As they began to execute their new life on the basis of faith, the Lord revealed to them their destiny - that they would be the beginning of a great nation, the Jewish race.  However, in order to receive their destiny, they first had to separate from the world.  They had to leave their home in Ur of the Chaldeans and go to Canaan. Abraham was 75 hears old and Sara was 65 when they left Ur in 2086 BC.

Genesis 12:1-3 (NAS)

1 Now the Lord said to Abram,
“Go forth from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you;
2 And I will make you a great nation,
And I will bless you,
And make your name great;
And so you shall be a blessing;
3 And I will bless those who bless you,
And the one who curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Now there was a famine in the land; so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. (Genesis 12:10, NAS)

Sarah Attracts Worldly Attention

Genesis 12:11-13
11 And it came about when he came near to Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “See now, I know that you are a strikingly beautiful woman; 12 and it will come about when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. 13 “Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you.”

Now, bear in mind that Egypt was not a land of freedom, especially for foreigners like Abraham and Sarah.  Abraham had a small band of cowboys, perhaps 45 at the most; but they were certainly no match for the Egyptian army.  Abraham was going to be the father of a great nation, but at this time, he was no match for the Egyptian Empire.  So Abraham correctly assessed the situation and determined that Sarah was his problem.  She was so beautiful that Abraham feared for his own life.  In a lawless land, men would try to kill him to get his wife.  This may be difficult for citizens of the United States of America to believe because they have freedom and the protection of the law; but few nations in the history of the world have had the freedom and protection of the USA.

Sarah had great beauty, and like the world's most beautiful women, had achieved celebrity status.  She was like today's super model or Hollywood celebrity.  She also had the capacity for life to handle the engagements of high society.  She was the life of the party and adept at meeting the social demands of aristocracy.  Her name in the Hebrew was yr^c* (Sara, transliterated as "Sarai"), which means contentious or bossy.  When Abraham reached maturity, her name was changed to Sarah, which means princess, and this bossy lady became a great example of an obedient wife.

Abraham's plan for Sara's protection in Egypt was for her to say that she was his sister.  Actually this was not an out and out lie, but a half-truth, which is worse than a lie.  She was really Abraham's half-sister (Genesis 20:12).  However, no sooner had Abraham entered Egypt than Pharaoh's sons saw Sara and told Pharaoh about her great beauty.

Genesis 12:14-15
14 And it came about when Abram came into Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 And Pharaoh’s princes saw her and praised her to Pharaoh; and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house.

Beauty in a woman is both a blessing and a liability.  The beautiful girl is far more likely to be abused.  From childhood, beautiful girls are potential victims of the world's lusts.  The chances of a beautiful girl surviving unharmed to meet her Right Man are often slim.  Although it is seldom the case that girls are born ugly, it would be one of the kindest gifts of the grace of God to protect her.  Sara's great beauty has now landed her in the castle of Pharaoh, the majestic king of the world's great empire.  Thus begins Compatibility Testing for Abraham and Sara.

Pharaoh Marries Sara

Principle:  The divine solution is the only solution; the human solution is no solution.

1. Marriage is a divine institution for the human race, for believers and unbelievers.
2. Marriage contracts are made by men.  The father of the bride (or nearest male relative) makes an agreement (the Marriage Contract) with the father of the groom (or the groom).
3. The woman is never consulted about marriage.  She does not get a vote even under the New Covenant to the Church.
4. Marriage Contracts were often made between the parents of the groom and the parents of the bride before the bride and groom were adults.
5. Marriages were consummated when the groom and bride became adults.  The groom would go to the home of the bride.  The bride's father would give her to the groom.  The groom would take his new bride to the home of his parents or to a home he had prepared for consummation of the marriage.  Consummation of the marriage was sex between the groom and bride and was often accompanied by a week (or more) of celebration with drinking, singing, and dancing.
6. Marriage Contracts were legal and binding documents under the laws of the government.
7. Marriage is administered under authority.  The bride does not have authority.

Pharaoh married Sara and sent a handsome dowry to Abraham.

Therefore he treated Abram well for her sake; and gave him sheep and oxen and donkeys and male and female servants and female donkeys and camels. (Genesis 12:16, NAS)

The verse that describes what happened to Sara appears later when Pharaoh gave Abraham a lecture on what had happened.  It is:

“Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife, take her and go.” (Genesis 12:19, NAS)

Sara's reputation is spared by the Biblical dialogue, but it is easy to read between the lines.  Pharaoh married her.  Sara played the role of the obedient wife.  She did not betray Abraham, but she fulfilled her duty to her new husband, Pharaoh.  Because of the arrogance of women today, this obedience is difficult to fathom.  Perhaps the reputation of the women of Japan (or perhaps China) are the rare example of this brand of feminine obedience.  American women, in general, do not compare with Japanese women regarding obedience.  The point that is being made is that the obedience of Sara in this circumstance, which is like that of traditional Japanese women, is entirely Biblical and entirely correct.  Why?  because Sara had no authority.  She was never asked to marry Pharaoh.  She had no vote and she did not complain.

Sara submitted to the conjugal rights of her new husband in marriage.  The picture is so clear that only a few words are needed to describe it.  Sara was a beautiful celebrity.  She executed her role as the new harem bride of Pharaoh under strict adherence to protocol.  She did not betray her Right Man, Abraham; and she did not embarrass her new husband, Pharaoh.  When Pharaoh saw Sara immaculately groomed and dressed as a harem princess to arouse his most intimate desire, he was overcome by her breathtaking beauty.  When he caught a glimpse of her feminine form, his eyes dilated from lust.  When she bared her beautiful breasts, his breath stopped.

Note:  For skeptics, the breathing is associated with the Z-axis in the X, Y, Z Space-Time Coordinate System.  Obedience to true authority produces smooth breathing.  Entrance into the Cosmic System hinders breathing.  This is the principle on which the lie detector is based.

The courage and discipline required for Sara to execute this Compatibility Test was exemplary.  She was thrust under the judgment of God into an arena of contradictions in the Cosmic System.  She was thrust into the ultimate Compatibility Test very similar to that of the Shulamite Woman in Song of Solomon.  Her mind rejected the wrong man.  Her heart (right lobe) was a battlefield of confusion and suffering from the false love of the wrong man which opposed the true love of her right man.  The right man in her soul had to win to prevent stress from entering her soul.  Her body responded to mechanoreceptors in sensual stimulation.  The mind said no; the body said yes; and the heart was the battlefield of suffering and testing.

Sara's Dilemma

Sarah in Spiritual Warfare

Shulamite Woman

Sara's relationship to the Cosmic System is the same as the Shulamite woman's in Song of Solomon as shown in the illustrations.  Under male dominance Abraham is up on the Teeter Totter and Sara is down.  Pharaoh is the paramour in the Cosmic System.  Pharaoh is under the power of Satan as revealed by the goddess of love.  Pharaoh is not true authority in Sara's life. She has received an injustice and must submit to him in marriage, but he is exercising cosmic power and not true authority.

The illustration at the right shows the effect of Pharaoh on Sara.  Pharaoh is the representative of Satan in the Cosmic System.  When Sara fails to respond to her right man in the Intimacy Room of her soul, she is literally sucked into the Cosmic System.  Her right lobe will become darkened, and she will become the slave of the Cosmic System.

During every round with Pharaoh, Sara must keep her love and respect for her Right Man as shown in the illustration at the left.  When she can concentrate on her Right Man in spite of the conjugal intimacy with Pharaoh, she will pass the Compatibility Test.  Compatibility Testing is a stress test, however, and goes on for a period of time.  Sara was in Pharaoh's harem for weeks and perhaps months before being delivered.
 
 

Sara's Spiritual Warfare

When Sara received the injustice, the justice of God was obligated to defend her.  Of course, it was the Love of God that gave Sara the test in the first place.  God loved Sara and wanted her to be promoted to the blessing of Spiritual Rapport, which could only happen when Compatibility Testing is passed.  God is perfect Justice and cannot accept injustice.  All marriage sins are judged directly from the Supreme Court of Heaven (Hebrews 13:4)  in the Church Age as in Sara's day.  What the Righteousness of God demands (promises of the Word of God to Abraham), the Justice of God judges (plagues upon Egypt) through the Love of God (relationship with Abraham and Sara) as expressed in grace toward mankind (God did not destroy Egypt).  Sara's relationship with Pharaoh brought plagues upon Egypt from the Justice of God.

But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. (Genesis 12:17, NAS)

After the enemy is defeated, the victory must be secured by combat with the Evil King, a man like Pharaoh empowered by a Throne demon.  This is tantamount to hand-to-hand combat.  An example is when Samuel hued King Agag to pieces (1 Samuel 15:33).  Sara, in her relationship with Pharaoh, is in combat with the Evil King.  When she defeats the king, she will have won the great victory over the Cosmic Empire of Egypt.  The Lord will give her the victory and she will have secured the peace.  Egypt will never attack Abraham's Tribe because of Sara's victory.  Without firing a shot in obedience to the faith under the grace of God, she secured peace with Egypt for over 400 years.  Sarah arose from this test as one of the great heroines of spiritual history.

The Harsh Reality of Compatibility Testing

So is the one who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;
Whoever touches her will not go unpunished. (Proverbs 6:29, NAS)

Sara was indeed forced into the sensuality of Pharaoh's passionate romance.  He brought her to his harem.  He married her.  He seduced her with his sensual touch.  Her body could not help but respond while her mind submitted to adulterated authority and her heart battled the cosmic intruder that would strip her soul of the last vestige of dignity, the love of her Right Man.  She was naked before Pharaoh.  He used her to fulfill his wildest fantasies.  The other women in the harem knew what was happening to Sara as did the members of Pharaoh's court, the people of Egypt, and Abraham, Lot, and their cowboys and families.  Sara and Pharaoh were the popular gossip in the streets.

Why would God order it?  The question begs an answer.  If Sara had never separated from the world or if she were in reversionism, the trials with Pharaoh might be plausible; but this was not the case.  Sara was a growing believer.  She was implicitly obedient to her husband at her current maturity level.  She responded to him based upon her capacity for life and love.  What could possibly be the benefit of such a humiliating ordeal?  While no created being can answer why God does things, there are answers in scripture.  The best answer is:  God had something better for Sara.

The Compatibility Testing of Abraham and Sara began in the harem in Egypt and ended in the harem of Abimelech, King of Gerar (Genesis 20:1-18).  If there were other harem experiences in the life of Sara, the Bible is silent.  By the time of the second harem experience, Sarah was 89 years old.  She was obviously secured for her celebrity status as a political, or state, marriage - not for sexual purposes.  The Compatibility Testing of Sarah and Abraham lasted 24 years.

During this time, as doctrine was learned, it was tested.  The Compatibility Testing Phase began and ended with stress tests - the harem in Egypt and the harem in Gerar.  The purpose of Compatibility Testing is to produce coalescence of souls of Right Man and Right Woman in real love (Marriage Intimacy Love).  In order to do this the accumulated scar tissue of the heart must be burned away.

From childhood scar tissue builds in the Right Lobe of the soul, which is called the heart in the Bible.  The illustration shows bands of scar tissue.  The blue band illustrates legalism, which is commonly referred to as the "hardness of the heart."  However, along with the band of legalism is a band of lawlessness underneath.  Legalism and lawlessness are just different sides of the same coin.  The soul is tested in both legalism and lawlessness as a cycle.  What goes up comes down.  If the problem of legalism is not handled and the test of lawlessness is not handled, then a band of scar tissue is formed in the soul.  When the problems of life are not solved by application of Bible Doctrine, the defense mechanisms of dissociation, repression, and denial are used.  These defense mechanisms produce scar tissue of the heart.  They result from arrogant rejection of the Plan of God and lying to self.  Failure to Rebound then leads to repeating the cycle, and each time more scar tissue is added.

In order to receive blessing from God, the heart must be free from scar tissue; otherwise, the distractions of the world will choke out the fruit of the Spirit.  The illustrations shows how God wants to bless the believer.  There is no way to receive such blessing with a heart that is crippled through scar tissue.  In Compatibility Testing, the individual is given the opportunity to reject the cosmic alternative and choose divine viewpoint with a Problem Solving Device.  This means dying to the desires of the Old Sin Nature and replacing the desire with virtue love from the Integrity Envelope.  Thus, instead of building scar tissue and going down in reversionism, the scar tissue is burned away and the individual is promoted under the grace of God.  Spiritual growth continues with each test that is passed.

The process of dying to the old self and living the new Spiritual Life is called the circumcision of the heart.  Circumcision of the heart means cutting away the bands of scar tissue of the soul that produce hardness of the heart.

Principle:  There is no way to have real soul love with scar tissue in the soul.

When Abraham was circumcised, he was sexually dead.  He was unable to have sex.  He was unable to have sex under the energy of the flesh.  He was unable to have sex under human power.  The sexual death of Abraham illustrates the death to the flesh that occurs in circumcision of the heart.  Abraham died daily until there was nothing left - not even the ability to have sex.  This has to occur in Compatibility Testing because the new spiritual life demands a spiritual solution.  God's solution is the Sexual Fountain of Youth, which controls sex under divine power.  Both Abraham and Sarah received the grace gift of the Sexual Fountain of Youth.  Abraham was sexually dead and Sarah was past the menopause (Romans 4:19).

Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have become old, shall I have sexual delight, my husband being old also?” (Genesis 18:12)

Marriage is so important in the spiritual life that it demands a spiritual means of execution.  Compatibility Testing is required to burn away scar tissue of the soul and receive grace promotion.  The stress testing in the Compatibility Phase tests the Integrity Envelope, which houses the Intimacy Room and the cup for love with the Marriage Intimacy Connection.

A Message for Teens

Any type of illicit sexual activity, and there are ten thousand varieties, will produce scar tissue in the heart and will have to be circumcised during Compatibility Testing before real love for Right Man or Right Woman can occur.  Coalescence of souls will not occur until the scar tissue has been removed.  Fornication and adultery will lead to Intensified Discipline.  When either the Right Man or the Right Woman fornicate or commit adultery, the other soul mate also receives Intensified Discipline because both are on the Teeter Totter together.  The sexual sins affect not just one person but at least two.

The sexual sins can be associated with the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, or the arrogant pattern of life.  Sexual sins produce scar tissue of the soul.  There are arrogant cosmic evangelists today who teach that the rigorous standards of God's word do not apply.  They condone sexual sins in the name of love.  Sexual love for someone other than Right Man - Right Woman is not love.  It is a sin.  It will produce scar tissue in the soul that will have to be circumcised before Marriage Intimacy Love can occur.  The sexual sins of the past leave behind scar tissue that must be removed through suffering.

Any violation of God's standards for marriage will bring immediate judgment from the Supreme Court of Heaven.

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge. (Hebrews 13:4, NAS)

The Bible is full of examples of teens who faced the stiffest tests in the world and passed to go to Spiritual Maturity.  Some of them were:  Joseph, David, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, Esther, Ruth, Rebekah, the Shulamite Woman, and the teens of the death march (Psalm 119).

There has no testing overtaken you but such as is common to mankind, but God is faithful who will not permit you to be tested beyond your capability, but He will with the testing  also provide the solution so that you will be able to bear up under it (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Something Better

Sarah's love for her Right Man withstood the worst humiliation the world could offer.  She overcame the agony and demonstrated the efficacy of real love to withstand any test on earth.  In the words of the Shulamite Woman, who was tested in a similar manner in the harem of Solomon:

Many waters are unable to quench real love; nor rivers overflow it. If a man were to give all the wealth of his estate for love, he would be utterly despised." (Song of Sol. 8:7)

Released 1997 - Revised December 31, 2004