Tuesday, March 24, 2009

"Marriage"

I am not certain how long Sarah and Abraham were married. I do know they were married when they left Ur (Gen. 11:29,31). We do know Abraham was ten years older than Sarah and when they left Haran, she was sixty five (Gen. 12:4). Upon her passing, she was 127 years of age (Gen. 23:1). We know between these times they were married at least sixty-two years. It looks like they were in Haran approximately 8 years from my little insight. That would have them married seventy years. That's a long time to be married to one person and it is very possible it could have been much longer. Whatever the time, Abraham missed her terribly when she passed (Gen. 23:1-2).
All of their married life they moved! They went through many things together from moving, to famines, to making a journey to Egypt having to deny she was his wife because of her beauty (Gen. 12:12-16), the trip back to Canaan, to jealousy because of Hagar, having a child in her old age and the list goes on and on. What a varied life experiences they went through together. All of her life on the move and a rebuke for her laughter at the promise of a child in her old age (Gen. 18:12-15). In all of this, she wandered in the land of Canaan for sixty-two years following her husband until one day she was laid in her grave. A loving, faithful wife for seventy long years! Then came her rest, no more wandering and the end of a sojourn.
Peter calls on her as a godly example for women to follow. Listen carefully, "For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands; just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear." (I Pet. 3:5-6) If her heart and attitude were not right toward the Lord, only being submissive "once in a while", she could have never been used as a role model. It was her attitude toward the Lord and her life pattern that brought her praise and recognition from the Lord God for women to live by.
Thank the Lord for long, sustaining marriages. There are difficulties and obstacles placed in the way, but in the end, the bond that is grown, the lives that were shared will be fulfilling, only to begin another journey called eternity in the presence of the Lord. Sarah followed all of her married life. She was placed before us as godly and submissive. In the end, Abraham followed her.

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