Women of the Scriptures - Sarai/Sarah

Women of the Scriptures – Sarai/Sarah

Not really a picture of Sarah but possibly similar to what she would have looked like

Favorite pastime:  Nothing, in all my many years, has been greater than spending time with my son, Isaac.  I waited 90 years to have a child and I am not missing a moment to be with him, especially after Abraham took him up the mountain and almost sacrificed him.  (Genesis 22)

Favorite place to eat:  We eat best when we pass by a city and can trade for spices and honey.

Favorite food:  I make cakes with fine meal and we often eat them with milk and butter.

Education:  In Ur we were wealthy but wicked people and I was taught to pray, worship and sacrifice to idols.

Favorite thing about where I live:  We have traveled thousands of miles from my homeland of Ur to Haran, all around Canaan and even to Egypt.  I prefer the cities where we are often blessed with fine goods.

Favorite thing to do with my family:  This might sound odd but on several occasions when Abraham and I have entered a large city (Egypt and Gerar) he has insisted that we tell the King that I am his sister because he is afraid that the King will see my beauty and kill him so that he might make me his wife.  Since we were both born of the same Father this is not entirely a lie.  Both times we have done this God has protected us and we have been richly rewarded by the Kings in order for them to regain God’s favor.  (Genesis 12 & 20)

Children:  After many years of being barren and giving Hagar, my handmaiden, to Abraham so that he might have a son, God finally remembered his promise to me and I bore Isaac. (Genesis 21:2)  I even sent my maidservant, Hagar and her son Ishmael away for fear that Ishmael would harm my son (and I was a little bit jealous and regretful of my earlier hasty decision to allow Abraham to have Hagar to wife).  (Genesis 16 & 21)

Where did you grow up:  In Ur of the Chaldees, East of Canaan near Babylonia in Southern Mesopotamia.

Hobbies:  Baking, traveling (not sure if it’s a hobby but I have done it for so long that I have gotten very good at packing and repacking and learning to travel light!)

Anything else interesting about you:  I was born with the name Sarai.  However, with the new promises from God of being blessed with a son and becoming the ‘mother of nations’ came a new name.  I am now called Sarah.  (Genesis 17:15-16)

Women of the Scriptures - Jezebel

Women of the Scriptures - Jezebel

Favorite pastime:  Plotting revenge against Elijah for turning the people against Baal with his little magic fire trick and killing my prophets.  (1 Kings 21:23)

Favorite place to eat:  At my own royal table with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah as my guests, oh, and my husband, Ahab, King of Syria.

Favorite food:  Meat sacrificed to Baal and then charred to a crisp.

Education:  I am a princess and was afforded a great education by my Father.

Favorite thing about where I live:  Now that the three year famine is over that Elijah prophesied would come because of our supposed wickedness the land is again bountiful.  We now own a vineyard next to our home in Jezreel for my husband’s herb garden because I had the previous owner falsely accused and stoned.  (1 Kings 21:1-20)

Favorite thing to do with my family:  Worship Baal in the temple that I convinced my husband to have built.

Children:  Ahaziah and Joram were my first two boys but I have had several other children.

Where did you grow up:  I am a Princess of Tyre, my Father is Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians.

Hobbies:  Killing prophets of the Lord, adorning myself with makeup and beautiful trinkets of gold, ordering my weak-minded husband around and basically ruling the kingdom.

Anything else interesting about you:  Elijah went so far as to prophesy my death (1 Kings 21:23) but I am sure that none of his silly prophesies will ever come to light, that famine thing was just a coincidence.  (To see Jezebel’s actual fate read 2 Kings 9:30-37, but be warned, it’s pretty gruesome.)