20
Daughters of God
Sarah, Wife of Abraham, Mother of Nations
This chapter is based on
Genesis 11-23
.
There was given to Abraham the promise, especially dear to the
people of that age, of a numerous posterity and of national greatness:
“I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make
thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.” And to this was added
the assurance, precious above every other to the inheritor of faith,
that of his line the Redeemer of the world should come: “In thee
shall all families of the earth be blessed.” Yet, as the first condition of
fulfillment, there was to be a test of faith; a sacrifice was demanded.
The message of God came to Abraham, “Get thee out of thy coun-
try, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that
I will shew thee.” In order that God might qualify him for his great
work as the keeper of the sacred oracles, Abraham must be separated
from the associations of his early life. The influence of kindred and
friends would interfere with the training which the Lord purposed to
give His servant. Now that Abraham was, in a special sense, connected
with heaven, he must dwell among strangers. His character must be
[26]
peculiar, differing from all the world. He could not even explain
his course of action so as to be understood by his friends. Spiritual
things are spiritually discerned, and his motives and actions were not
comprehended by his idolatrous kindred.
“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place
which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went
out, not knowing whither he went.”
Hebrews 11:8
....
Besides Sarah, the wife of Abraham, only Lot, the son of Haran
long since dead, chose to share the patriarch’s pilgrim life....
During his stay in Egypt, Abraham gave evidence that he was not
free from human weakness and imperfection. In concealing the fact
that Sarah was his wife, he betrayed a distrust of the divine care, a
lack of that lofty faith and courage so often and nobly exemplified
in his life. Sarah was fair to look upon, and he doubted not that the
dusky Egyptians would covet the beautiful stranger, and that in order
to secure her, they would not scruple to slay her husband. He reasoned
that he was not guilty of falsehood in representing Sarah as his sister,
for she was the daughter of his father, though not of his mother.