Genesis 18:9 records the question that The Lord and the divine visitors asked Abraham after he had served them a feast and was waiting on them. The question was “Where is Sarah thy wife?”  Now does it not seem odd that the omniscient God would not know about the physical whereabouts of Sarah, for there is absolutely no place that exists in which one can hide from the seeking spirit of God – not even in the heaven (heights) nor in hell (depths) (Psalm 139-7-10). So why then was this question posed? It certainly did not seem to be rhetorical in its intent.

Although Abraham responds to this question with a reference to Sarah’s physical whereabouts – that she was in the tent – as he said “Behold (look), in the tent”, the Lord does not respond by asking Abraham to go get her, which implies that the Lord’s question was taking into account, more than just the physical. I am convinced that this was a spiritual question – a question not about Sarah’s physical whereabouts but about Sarah’s spiritual condition, much like the question that God asked Adam as to where he was (in the garden) when Adam disobeyed God and fell in his spiritual condition (Genesis 3:9).

If this is true, then one would wonder as to what was Sarah’s spiritual condition? To answer this, we need to go back a few chapters which gives the account of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar. Note, what Sarah’s understanding of God was. She believed that it was the Lord who had restrained her from bearing child (Genesis 16:10) despite the promise of God to Abraham of his own seed, from his own bowels (Genesis 15:4-5). She did not recognize at that moment that there was nothing too hard for the life-giving God who fashioned man out of the lifeless dust of the earth. I believe that the question “Where is Sarah?” was a question to find out, if Sarah was still in her misunderstanding of God.

Points to ponder:
Many of us are much like Sarah. We limit God to our understanding and at times even blame him for our barrenness in life, failing to recognize that there is nothing too hard for the Lord. He is a life-giving God and despite man’s dire conditions after the fall of Adam, he made The Way to bring life and Salvation to all mankind by giving us, Jesus his only begotten Son (John 3:16) to take away our wages of sin (that is death), giving us life. What is your understanding of God? What is my understanding of God? Now think and answer the question “Where is Sarah?” by replacing the word ‘Sarah’ with your name!

Genesis 18:9 (KJV)
9 And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent.

Psalm 139:7-10 (KJV)
7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.