Women in white raiment

by John Lemley

Sarah the Beautiful Princess—Her Faith Tested—The Mistake of Her Life—Her Lovely Character—Rebekah—An Oriental Wooing—Eliezer’s Prayer—The Bride’s Answer—Meeting Isaac—A Mother’s Love for Her Son—Jacob’s Flight—Rebekah, the Beautiful Shepherdess—Seven Years’ Service for Her—Laban’s Deception—Leah, the Tender-Eyed—Human Favorites—Divinely Honored—Rachel’s Tomb the First Monument to Human Love.

From the prominence given to Eve in connection with the temptation and the overwhelming disasters which followed the loss of the Eden home in Paradise, we are surprised the Sacred historian passes over a period of about two thousand years without giving us any record of women. The names of good men are mentioned. Enoch walked before God for over three hundred years, and the walk was such a perfect one, and it pleased God so well, that He translated Enoch. Noah also “found grace in the eyes of the Lord,” and he was “a just man and perfect in his generations,” and “walked with God,” doubtless as Enoch had done. No doubt there were others who lived clean, pure lives. Of this number was Lamech, the father of Noah, for he was comforted in the birth of his son, saying, he “shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.” Surely such men must have had good mothers to train them, and good wives for companions. But nothing is said about these women that walked in White Raiment in that dark and sinful age, when “all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth,” until Sarah, the fair wife of Abraham, is reached.

We find this beautiful princess willing to leave her home and her people in the land of Ur of the Chaldees and journey for more than a thousand miles to the land of Canaan. However, this journey was not a continuous one, for a long stop was made at Haran, in Mesopotamia, perhaps half way between Ur and Palestine.

Of her birth and parentage we have no certain account in Scripture. In Gen. xx, 12, Abraham speaks of her as “his sister, the daughter of the same father, but not the daughter of the same mother.” The Hebrew tradition is that Sarai is the same as Iscah, the daughter of Haran. This tradition is not improbable in itself, and certainly supplies the account of the descent of the mother of the chosen race.

The change of her name from Sarai to Sarah was made on the establishment of the covenant of circumcision between Abraham and God, and signifies “princess,” for she was to be the royal ancestress of “all families of the earth.”

The beautiful fidelity of this noble woman is shown in her willingness to accompany her husband in all the wanderings of his life. Her home in Mesopotamia was gladly and willingly exchanged for a tent, and that tent was often taken down and set up during the nomadic life which formed the basis of the patriarchal age. God intended to set forth in Abraham not only the thought that here man has no continuing city, but also the life of faith. And this faith of Abraham is distinguished from the faith of the pious ancestors in this, that he obtained and held the promises of salvation, not only for himself, but for his family; and from the Mosaic system, by the fact that it expressly held the promised blessing in the seed of Abraham, as a blessing for all people. But this faith had not only to be developed, but also tested. It is beautiful to read that Abraham believed God, but his faith when he went down into Egypt was far from that when he went “into the land of Moriah” to offer up Isaac. Nothing is plainer in the Bible than that a man’s faith is not a matter of indifference. He can not be disobedient to God’s calls, and yet go to heaven when he dies. This is not an arbitrary decision. There is and must be an adequate ground for it. The rejection of God’s dealings with us is as clear a proof of moral depravity, as inability to see the light of the sun at noon is a proof of blindness.

Now let us look at a few of these testings or trials of faith that came into the life of this woman in White Raiment, this princess in Israel. She was asked to give up her native land. How dear the fatherland is to the heart, only those who have passed through the experience can realize. This was not all. She was asked to give up her kindred. To move away from all the associations of childhood and youth, requires a brave heart. But she was also asked to give up her home, and what is dearer to a woman’s heart than her home? We have no doubt Sarah’s home by the beautiful streams that flow down from the high table-lands of Armenia into the rich valleys of Mesopotamia, was a lovely one, and to exchange it for tent-life was a brave sacrifice. Her love to God must have been deep and constant.

After a long, weary journey through the desert sands, the land of promise is finally reached, only to find it afflicted with a famine. How often Sarah must have longed for one look out over the fig orchards, the olive yards and waving grain fields ripening in the summer’s sun of her native Mesopotamia, as she looked out over the barren hills, burned-up fields, and dried-up water courses of Palestine. Night after night, Abraham’s tent is pitched, only to be taken down in the morning, in quest of pasturage for their herds and flocks, until the wilderness in the southern extremity of Canaan is reached. How all this must have tested their faith. Had they not mistaken the call of God? Is it possible that this parched land is the land of promise? How disappointments and failures test our faith, and the heart of poor Sarah must have been sorely tried.

But there was yet another test, and a humiliating one at that, and it seems to look as if their united faith was wavering. She was a beautiful woman, and they were now upon the very borders of Egypt, and there was no other alternative but to perish with famine or to go down into the land of the Pharaohs. Both Abraham and Sarah seemed to realize the hazard they were running, for, possibly, the bloom and beauty of Sarah’s face might cost Abraham’s life. So they agreed between them that Sarah should say that she was his sister, lest he should be killed. The declaration was not false. She was his half-sister, but it was not the whole truth, and it would seem, from their present conduct, that their faith, tested by the famine, was now wavering, for, why not appeal their cause to God, instead of taking it into their own hands? The reason for resorting to this deception was, if she was regarded as his wife, an Egyptian could only obtain her, when he had first murdered her husband. But if she was his sister, then there was a hope that she might be won from her brother by loving attentions and costly gifts, or, if her beauty came to the notice of Pharaoh she would be taken to his harem by arbitrary methods. They had not reasoned in vain. The princes of the land saw her, “and commended her before Pharaoh,” and “Sarah was taken into Pharaoh’s house.”

It is hard for us to understand what a trial of her faith this harem life must have been to the pure-minded Sarah. How often her mind must have gone out over the stretches of desert wastes to her own land abounding with streams and fertility. And to be conscious that the charms of her person were the centre of attraction in the court of Egypt.