Her name at the time was Sarai, and her husband was Abram, before God changed her husband’s name to “Abraham” (Gen. 17:5) and hers to “Sarah” (v. 15).   (The name “Abram” is said to mean ”exalted father,” while “Abraham” means “father of a multitude” [Brown-Driver-Briggs’ Hebrew Definitions.])

It was to Abraham that God spoke of these name changes; and after mentioning Sarai’s name to “Sarah,” the Lord then told Abraham that she would be blessed by God and bear a child and, thus, become “a mother of nations” with “kings of peoples” that “will come from her” (v. 16).

On hearing this, “…Abraham fell on his face and laughed”; and he “said in his heart, ‘Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?’” (v. 17).

When the LORD appeared to Abraham again by the oaks of Mamre and said, “I will surely return to you at this time next year; and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son,” “Sarah was listening at the tent door, which was behind him” (Gen. 18:10) – and she “laughed to herself” over the thought of having a child at such an old age (v. 12).  And not only had Sarah been “old, advanced in age” and way “past childbearing” (v. 11), but she had also been “barren”  (Gen. 11:30).  So she was “sterile,” as that Hebrew word (“aqar”) is also defined (James Strong and Brown-Driver Briggs), and, therefore, not able to conceive children even in her younger days.

With these factors against her, what is the possibility that she could have a child?  Thinking from merely a physiological standpoint, we would conclude that there is nothing she could do about it.  And, perhaps the thinking would also be, that for her to conceive a child, it would certainly have to be something totally up to God.  But was that how it was?