In a time when many couples are choosing not to have children, we simply cannot appreciate the humiliation that Sarah felt at being barren. Her condition was not looked upon as a gynecological problem in that pre-scientific time. Her condition was viewed as a sign that she was out of favor with God.

Sarah was an embarrassment to her husband, Abraham. She had failed in her primary function as a wife--to bear him an heir. There were surely nights when she cried herself to sleep. "What is the matter with me?" she asked herself. "Why am I being punished like this?"

Sarah is no teenager when we pick up the story. In fact she is an old woman--90 years of age. No wonder that she laughs when she hears the Lord tell Abraham that she will bear a son. Abraham is one hundred and she is ninety. What …