Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible Part in the Book of Genesis. Tonight is Part #15 of Genesis, chapter 17 and we are going to read Genesis 17:15-22:

And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. And he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.

We are continuing to go, verse by verse, through this chapter. We saw earlier that the Lord changed Abram’s name from Abram to Abraham and now God is changing Sarai’s name to Sarah. A similar statement was made regarding both of the change of names. It had said in Genesis 17:5-6:

Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.

Notice how similar it is to what God said in Genesis 17:15-16:

And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.

The Lord told Abraham he would make nations of him and kings would come out of him. He said of Sarah that she would be a mother of nations and kings of people would be of her. It is very similar because God is speaking of the same “seed” of Abraham. In the first instance, He is speaking of Christ and He is also speaking of the body of the elect that are in Christ and are counted for the seed. God used Abraham as a picture of their father and Sarah as a picture of their mother. This was the picture we also saw in Galatians 4:22:

For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.

Abraham was the father of both nations. He is the father of a son by the bondmaid and the father of a son by the freewoman. The bondmaid was Hagar and the freewoman was Sarah.

It says in Galatians 4:23-26:

But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Mount Sinai is where the law was given, so Hagar and those born of her are under the covenant of the law and they are in bondage because the law cannot deliver anyone. Hagar is the covenant representative of Mount Sinai or the law and Sarah, the freewoman, is the covenant by promise. Hagar represents the covenant of “Jerusalem which is now” or earthy Jerusalem and Sarah represents “Jerusalem which is above” or the kingdom of God. It also says that Jerusalem above is the mother of us all because Sarah is typified as the mother of Isaac, a type of Christ, and all those counted for the seed in Christ, the elect. In that regard, Sarah is the mother of us all (the elect) and the kingdom of God gives birth to the children of the “freewoman.”

It says in Genesis 17:16:

… and she shall be a mother of nations…

If we go to Revelation 21, where it looks at the heavenly Jerusalem of the new heaven and new earth where the elect will dwell for evermore, it is described in Revelation 21:2:

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

The whole chapter gives a description of this city. It says in Revelation 21:10-12:

And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:

As we continue to read this chapter, the number “12” is greatly in evidence in the description of this heavenly city, which points to the fulness of the elect believers that comprise the city.

It says in Revelation 21:21-24:

And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.

God had said to Abraham that He would make nations of him and kings would come out of him – they are the nations that are saved (the elect) and, here, they are in view with the description of the glorious city, the new Jerusalem. Likewise, it said of Sarah that she would be a mother of nations and kings of people would be of her.

Again, it said in Revelation 21:24:

And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.

These are the “nations” and “kings” of the elect. They are not physical nations or physical kings, although there are some literal kings that became saved, are there not? David was a king and he is counted among the number of the nations of them that are saved and of the kings of the earth that bring their glory and honor into it. We could cite Hezekiah and Jehoshaphat and a handful of literal kings. But what is in view are “spiritual kings” and they are the ones that bring their glory and honor into it, as it says in Revelation 1:5-6:

And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

We are made “kings” through salvation. Christ is of royal blood and King of kings and He has begotten us unto a lively hope. He has begotten us through His Word and we are, figuratively, born of Sarah. Sarah also identifies with the Word of God, the Bible. We are born from above of the Heavenly Father, which can be typified by Abraham. We are born of the nations of them which are saved to become spiritual kings.

This is what is in view with the language the Lord uses to describe Sarah. By the way, it is an appropriate place for God to say that kings of people shall be of her, because God changed her name from Sarai to Sarah. The word “Sarai” is Strong’s #8297, a word that appears to derive from Strong’s #8269, which is the Hebrew word “sar,” a word that can be translated as “captain,” “chief,” “governor,” “master,” “prince,” or “ruler,” and so forth.

So, Sarah already has some identification with a ruler, but the name Sarah is Strong’s #8283 and it is identical in spelling (including the vowel points) to Strong’s #8282, which is translated as “lady,” “princess” or “queen.” For example, in Esther, chapter 1 when Queen Vashti refused to come after King Ahasuerus called for her, it says in Esther 1:18:

Likewise shall the ladies of Persia and Media say this day unto all the king’s princes, which have heard of the deed of the queen. Thus shall there arise too much contempt and wrath.

The word “ladies” is a translation of our word for “Sarah.” We should not think (and I have thought this in the past) that the word “ladies” refers just to women that are married and now all the wives of the kingdom are going to rebel against their husbands. However, what is in view is the “ruling class,” when it says, “Likewise shall the ladies of Persia and Media say this day unto all the king’s princes.” You see, the concern was for the ruling class, the princes of the kingdom. If the king’s wife, the queen, refused to come when called, then the “ladies” or the wives of the princes will follow her lead, so the word “ladies” is not referring to the average women in the village, but to women that are married to princes.

Also, we find this word for “Sarah” in connection with Solomon, who had seven hundred wives or princesses. It says in 1Kings 11:3:

And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.

These seven hundred wives were all princesses because they were married to the king. They were royalty. They were of the ruling class.

Our word is translated as “queens” in Isaiah 49:23:

And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I amJEHOVAH: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.

Again, it says that “queens” are thy nursing mothers. So, the name “Sarah” identifies with “ladies” that are married to princess and with princesses and with queens. God is saying that now Sarah is of royal blood and the seed that would come forth from her, likewise, shall be royalty – they shall be kings. Once again, those that would be born of her, spiritually, are kings and they are God’s elect. Remember, it said 1Peter 2:9:

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

To be “elect” is to be chosen, as God predestinated or chose all those He would save from the foundation of the world. We were chosen by God according to His good pleasure. We are a royal priesthood because we are descendants of the King – we are sons of God and God is King of kings. He is the essence of royalty.

In the world, kings are made. Israel decided they wanted a king and, all of a sudden, there were kings and their descendants became kings, but God is the essence of a King. He is sovereign. He is the Ruler of all. He possesses all power and might. And every characteristic that we would want in a king, God possesses.

So, God made King Saul a king by causing Samuel the prophet to anoint him as king, but he was just an earthly king. God has made all those He has saved kings by the anointing of the Holy Spirit as He entered into all that were chosen and we became spiritual kings and queens and prophets unto God, a royal priesthood. We were born of Sarah, in a figure, and kings truly did come from her.