Sarah's Good Looks
Question: Sarah was quite old yet seems to have held on to her looks, how come?
Answer: Yes, Sarah was pretty old, and still pretty. This was not an uncommon trait among the women in the line from Adam to Christ.
Sarah is the only woman in the Bible to have the distinction of her age being recorded at her death. “Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old” (Gen 23:1).
And it’s true Sarah had an unfading beauty, from which we learn an important lesson: “Let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God” (1 Pet 3:4).
At the centre of our being there is a “hidden person”. God sees the hidden person but we cannot.
“The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Sam 16:7).
Jesus tells us that it’s what’s in our heart that counts: “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Luke 6:45).
If we have the beauty of Jesus within us then we have the “imperishable quality of a quiet spirit”, for Jesus was lowly of heart. And let’s understand that this quality is imperishable. “The way of the ungodly shall perish” (Ps 1:6), but not the way of the righteous.
What immense value there is in a gentle and quiet spirit. Those who shout and are quick to make their irritation known are not pleasing to God. “Fools show their annoyance at once, but the prudent overlook an insult” (Prov 12:16).
Jesus showed us the beauty that resided within him: “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly” (1 Pet 2:23).
The enemies of goodness threw all they had at Jesus, even the death of a cross, yet the “imperishable quality” of Christ’s gentle Spirit would overcome all his adversaries: “He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. After the anguish of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied” (Isa 53:10–11).
The hidden person of the heart is where our true beauty comes from. This beauty is unfading, and Peter tells us that this is where our adorning should come from. Peter chose Sarah as an example: “like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear” (1 Pet 3:6).
Sarai, who became Sarah, had outward beauty as an example of her inner beauty. When Abram went to Egypt he told Sarai to masquerade as his sister because she was from the line to Christ, the women were “fair,” in fact they were so fair that they had the beauty, strength, and long years to cause angels to fall.
Even though Sarai was now in her late sixties she had lost nothing of her splendour, and as Abram suspected, the Egyptians quickly spotted her and it wasn’t long before she’d made it all the way to the palace to meet Pharaoh. However, God was not happy with Abram’s deceit for two reasons: deceit is not part of his nature and secondly, Sarai was an important part of the royal line leading to God’s Son being born.
Twenty-nine years later, Sarah had still not lost her good looks, for a similar scenario took place with Abimelech who was king in the southwestern area of Canaan.
The women of Adam’s line leading to Christ’s birth had power and beauty:
• Sarah, “I know what a beautiful woman you are” (Gen 12:11)
• Rebekah “was very beautiful” (Gen 24:16).
• “Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance” (Gen 29:17).
Mary was from that line, and when she gave birth to Christ the beauty and power was released into the world.
The power and beauty that the women had was only there as a symbol of the real power and beauty that lay within them, and was to come into the world!
The beauty of the women points to the beauty of Christ. For it is Christ who is fairer than ten thousand, it is his beauty that David wanted to gaze upon all the days of his life; it is Jesus who is the rose of Sharon, a lily of the valley.
We pray that our beauty too, will come from the hidden person of the heart.