I would like to do a closer examination and backstory of the “daughter of Abraham” statement that Jesus said about the deformed woman who was healed in the previous chapter.
Abraham was the man of faith who was chosen in the Old Testament to bear a child in his old age. This child was born because of a promise that God gave to Abram and Sarai. God even changed their names to Abraham and Sarah so that when they spoke, they would be in agreement with what He had told them about this coming birth. Abraham means “father of many nations” and Sarah, a “mother of nations.” The promise that they would have a son was spoken to them in Genesis 17. Even before this time, God had spoken to them about their descendants, but they had tried to help God and, as a result, Abraham had a son by a maidservant. Abram was 99 years old when God came to him in Genesis 17 and said He would make a covenant with him, at which time God changed his name to Abraham.
Gen. 17:4-8 “As for Me, behold My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”
Following this, in Genesis 17:15-17, God changed Sarai’s name to Sarah and He promised to bless her and give Abraham a son by her. God had previously spoken to Abraham and told him to look at the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore because these were pictures of the numbers of descendants that he would have through this child that God had promised. Sarah was 90 years old at the time. They already had a son that was conceived by a maidservant, but God said this was not the son through whom the blessing would come. Within a year, Isaac, the son promised by God would be born. This was the lineage that the blessing of the nations would come through.
So when God called the deformed woman, a “daughter of Abraham,” this is what he was referring to. She was a descendant of Abraham and as such, she was included in the covenant and the promises that God had made to Abraham. As such, she was entitled to all the blessings of that covenant and all the promises that God had made to Abraham.
If your parent were to die today, with no other heirs but you, you would inherit everything your parent had. Everything promised to you by your parent would be yours. The Old and New Testaments are like that. They are a guarantee, a declaration of everything God has promised belongs to you.
That’s why, Jesus said, as a daughter of Abraham the woman ought to be healed from her deformity. It was her right, Sabbath or no Sabbath. And so she was healed. Miraculous healings are found throughout the entire Old Testament. In the New Testament, Jesus majored on healing the sick which demonstrated God’s love for His people.
Dogtags and Pearls...the plain and the precious 