UNION OF THE HEARTS

 

“Hearken unto me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock from whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit when ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you……”  (Isaiah 51:1,2)

There is no greater exemplary marriage in the scriptures than that of Abraham and Sarah. She honoured his priesthood in every way and he honoured God in every way. This is true marriage. God taught us this in the beginning. After Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit, God knew it was Eve who instigated the disobedience, nevertheless, He called on Adam to account for what they had done because Adam shouldered the responsibility for his union with his wife.  

This was Abraham and Sarah. He led and she supported that role. Marriage is one of the greatest responsibilities of the priesthood and both Sarah and Abraham understood that well. The more I read about Abraham’s life, the more I become amazed at their union and how well they enacted the mission that was given them to bless the nations of the earth.

Abraham’s life was fraught with trial but “in every test to which the Lord subjected him, he had been found faithful, and he was not impatient, nor was he slow to act, for he….loved the Lord” (Judean Antiquities 1.223-24, in Feldman, “Josephus”, 85-87). In my mind, Abraham could have never led the life he did and been the man he was if he did not have an equally committed wife by his side. This was Sarah.

One example of their united commitment that has had an impression on me is their arrival in Canaan, the promised land. After two years in Haran and the prosperity that they enjoyed there and the ‘souls they won’ there through missionary work, they arrived in a land that was no picnic. It was a land seeped in idolatry and overrun with heathen-worshipping sons of Cain. It was obvious the land which Jehovah promised Abraham for an inheritance was first and foremost a mission. Not only that, he encountered something unexplainable, a famine that was ravaging the land.

Imagine Abraham’s concern for bringing his wife and his converts to such a place. No doubt they all expected something much better. It is my opinion that Sarah helped him bear this burden because Sarah’s lack of criticism and complaint in the scriptures speaks volumes:

“She above anyone else had cause – even the right – to protest, for if Abraham had been told to come here by the Lord, she had been told only by Abraham. She might easily have complained also of the fact that, despite Abraham’s report of God’s promise of posterity, she yet continued childless. But her love for her husband was too great, her commitment to her covenants too strong, her faith in the Almighty too unyielding, to allow her to criticize or complain. In the words of the learned Muslim scholar al-Tabari, Sarah “was one of the best human beings that ever existed”. She would not disobey Abraham in any way, for which God honoured her.” (E Douglas Cleark, “The Blessings of Abraham” p 106,107)

I am pretty sure that Sarah’s first concern was for the feelings of her husband and the responsibility that rested on him for the welfare of their family. This is true marriage, when you put your spouse before yourself. That is a win-win situation.

Sarah’s support of her husband rested on one thing: his commitment to God and his priesthood. This means he was a righteous man and therefore all his actions aligned with God’s will. Men, this is the true sign of your right to bear the priesthood after the Order of the Son of God. And this is the ultimate safety for any woman in the covenant.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Artist Unknown)