Her Longevity - Sarah

Sarah is the only woman whose specific age is stated in Scripture. A girl’s approximate age is given us in the gospels. The only daughter of Jairus whom Jesus raised from the dead was “about 12 years of age” (Luke 8:42). Sarah called herself old when she was 87 (Genesis 18:12), but she was 127 years of age when she died. Abraham had reached the patriarchal age of 175 when God called him home. Godliness has always been favorable to longevity. The “good old age” (Genesis 15:15) was a signal proof of the faithfulness of the Lord. When the Countess of Huntingdon came to die she said, “My work is done, and I have nothing to do but to go to my Father.” Surely the same contentment was experienced both by Sarah and Abraham who were not satiated with life, but satisfied with it. Abraham lived for another 38 years after Sarah’s death before his God-given task was completed. The day came, then, for Sarah to leave the world in which she had sojourned so long, and hers is the first grave to be mentioned in Scripture. Although Abraham and Sarah were nomads living in their tent in a desert land, the aged patriarch wanted a more permanent resting place for his beloved wife than the shifting sand of the desert. Here vultures and beasts of prey would wait to gorge themselves off the dead, leaving behind nothing but white bones. Breaking with the ancient custom of the desert burial, Abraham purchased a cave at Machpelah as a sepulcher for his dear Sarah, and when Abraham himself came to die his sons “buried him beside Sarah.” Thus, in death, symbolically, they were unseparated as they had been through their long and eventful life together. When Cornelia, the mother of Caius and Tiberius Gracchus, whom she called her “jewels” died, on her monument was inscribed, “Cornelia, the mother of Gracchi.” Had a monument been erected for the noble woman we have been considering, the simple inscription in enduring marble would have been sufficient—

Hebrews 11:11 - King James Version (KJV)

<11> Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.

Luke 8:42 - King James Version (KJV)

<42> For he had one only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying. But as he went the people thronged him.

Genesis 18:12 - King James Version (KJV)

<12> Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?

Genesis 15:15 - King James Version (KJV)

<15> And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.

Here lies Sarah, the devoted wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac. There is a legend that Sarah died of a broken heart as she learned of God’s command to Abraham to offer their son Isaac as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah. The sword pierced her heart, as it did Mary’s when she witnessed the slaying of her illustrious Son at Calvary. When Sarah saw her husband and son leaving the tent, taking with them wood and a large knife she became terrified with shock and died. When Abraham and Isaac returned—Isaac brought back from the dead as it were—it was only to mourn and weep for Sarah. Had she lived she might have received her dead son back from the hands of God, and heard from her husband how his hand had been restrained by the angel, “Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me.” But in the legend it goes on to tell us, eye and ear of the devoted wife and mother were closed to earthly things, and her heart stilled forever beyond the reach of the terrors, to which human flesh, and especially mothers' hearts, are heirs.Her Example When Paul came to emphasize that law and grace cannot exist together (Galatians 4:19-31), and uses the two sons of Abraham to illustrate the contrast, he mentions Hagar by name, but not Sarah. The Apostle called her “the freewoman” and “mother of us all.” In Hebrews, however, which we believe to be Pauline, the Apostle mentioned Sarah as being one of the cloud of faithful witnesses (Hebrews 11:11, 12). The reason she received strength to bear Isaac when she was so old was because she came to believe in the faithfulness of God. If Abraham is “the father of all them that believe” (Romans 4:11; Galatians 3:7), surely Sarah is their mother. “Sarah speaks of that which is in faith, and by promise, and is free—and therefore is carried on in those who live on God’s promises by faith in Christ, and have that perfect freedom which is alone found in His service, and thus belong to the Heavenly Jerusalem.”

Galatians 4:19-31 - King James Version (KJV)

<19> My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, <20> I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you. <21> Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? <22> For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. <23> But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. <24> Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. <25> For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. <26> But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. <27> For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. <28> Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. <29> But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. <30> Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. <31> So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

Hebrews 11:11 - King James Version (KJV)

<11> Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.

Then Peter takes his brush and adds another touch to the portrait of Sarah (1 Peter 3:5-7), where she is especially distinguished for obedience to her husband, becoming thereby a model of wives in subjection to their husbands. Beautiful, strong-willed and determined, Sarah, although on two occasions she lost her temper, never disobeyed her husband. From the moment she left Ur of the Chaldees with her husband, she became the obedient wife. Martin Luther once declared that if he wanted an obedient wife he would have to carve her out of marble. But Peter, exhorting wives to obedience, holds up Sarah as their model. She called Abraham “my lord” (Genesis 18:12), still her declaration of her husband’s lordship suggested incredulity rather than the obedience of faith. Yet Peter was right because all through her wanderings in desert places, and her occasional waywardness there ran the golden thread of a beautiful and loving submission to her husband’s interests, and in this respect is a pattern for “holy women” to copy. Sarah and Abraham were “two lives fused into one,” with Sarah conspicuous in sacrificial submission. How apropos are the lines of Longfellow as we think of her—

1 Peter 3:5-7 - King James Version (KJV)

<5> For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands: <6> Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. <7> Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

Genesis 18:12 - King James Version (KJV)

<12> Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?

As unto the bow the cord is, So unto the man is the woman. Though she bends him, she obeys him, Though she draws him, yet she follows, Useless each without the other! With peculiar force Peter describes Christian wives who manifest conjugal obedience, as daughters of Sarah, as long as they do well and are unafraid (1 Peter 3:6). By her faith and obedience, a Sarai became a princess among women, and she teaches us the lesson that if “Man proposes: God disposes.” It was only after much suffering and sorrow that grace was hers to look up into the face of God and say, “Thy will, not mine, be done!” Applying the life of Sarah with Abraham, Mary Hallet draws attention to Sarah’s weaknesses of jealousy and selfishness as being akin to ourselves, but by sharp contrast her fine qualities point to us an ideal of perfection. Her remarkable physical beauty may be regarded as indicative of inner grace.

1 Peter 3:6 - King James Version (KJV)

<6> Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.

We cannot doubt that, living with Abraham in an atmosphere of reverence and worship, Sarah developed a spiritual loveliness. Perhaps this can serve as a suggestion to girls of a modern day to take time for communion with God. For only in quietude, only as we listen, can we hear His unmistakable Voice.©️ 1988 Zondervan. All Rights Reserved