The heart of her husband trusts in her,
and he will have no lack of gain.~ Proverbs 31:11
The heart of her husband trusts in her,Bruce Waltke explains this remarkable claim in his commentary on Proverbs:
The statement [the heart of her husband trusts in her] which entails that his well-being stands or falls on her reliability, is remarkable. Outside of this text and Judges 20:36, Scripture condemns trust in anyone or anything apart from God/the LORD [...] The present exception elevates the valiant wife, who herself fears the LORD, to the highest level of spiritual and physical competence. The claim implies that this husband and wife enjoy a robust spiritual relationship.
This robust spiritual relationship is exactly what we see between Jonathan and Sarah Edwards.
Sarah Edward’s spiritual vibrancy was always attractive to her husband.
In the front page of Jonathan Edwards’ Greek grammar book he wrote his famous description of the woman who would one day become his wife:
They say there is a young lady in [New Haven] who is beloved of that almighty Being, who made and rules the world, and that there are certain seasons in which this great Being, in some way or other invisible, comes to her and fills her mind with exceeding sweet delight, and that she hardly cares for anything, except to meditate on him [...] Therefore, if you present all the world before her, with the richest of its treasures, she disregards it and cares not for it, and is unmindful or any pain or affliction. She has a strong sweetness in her mind, and a sweetness of temper, uncommon purity in her affections; is most just and praiseworthy in all her actions; and you could not persuade her to do anything thought wrong or sinful, if you would give her all the world, lest she should offend this great Being.
The Edwards’ were knit together spiritually.
The external blessings that Sarah lavished on her family came from a deep well of spiritual delight. Elisabeth Dodd writes,
The casual observer saw the difficult husband, the endlessly giving wife. Actually, more than anyone on the outside guessed, she leaned on him. Though she carried all the practical details of managing the house, Sarah depended on Edwards for her own spiritual replenishment. She would dart into his study during the day, confident that no matter how intent he was on his writing, he would put down his pen and turn to her with lighted face. She fed on his leadership of family prayers and on the quiet time she and Edwards spent together on devotions after the children were in bed, the time that put a benediction on all the bustle of the daylight hours.
Through a time of depression, Sarah Edwards grew even closer to God.
For a few years the physical demands, the babies, and now the absence of her traveling husband began to wear on Sarah. To the outsider she seemed just as cheerful and competent as ever, but Jonathan knew her struggles. And then, for one month in January 1742, Sarah went to pieces. When her husband returned from traveling he was the one she went to with all that had happened.
By promptly reliving the strange weeks she had just spent [by relaying them in full to her husband], Sarah seems to have discharged the pressures of fourteen taut years. From then on, she sailed through strains that would have sent another woman into bitter seclusion or into whining invalidism [...] She went back to making jams and hemming linens, but after this time her work appears to have been done without resentment. [...]
For the rest of their life together, Edwards was to marvel at his wife’s good disposition. As he put it, she lived with a “…daily sensible doing and suffering everything for God..eating for God and working for God and sleeping for God, and bearing pain and trouble for God, and doing all as the service of love, and so doing it with a continual, uninterrupted cheerfulness, peace and joy.” [...]
Her husband makes it plain that Sarah’s [...] state did not make her neglect the everyday matters of actual living. As a matter of fact, it made her more efficient.
Sarah Edward’s deep and feeling love for her Savior underpinned her labor. And as she stands encouraging me to love my husband and children and to be a worker at home, she does not demand that I do it in my own strength. No, Sarah Edwards in every way points to the reality that this is a life that overflows from delighting in the Gospel.
Questions for thought and discussion (feel free to leave comments below!):
- Am I trying to go about my work without constantly meditating on the deep love of my Savior?
- Does my time with God incline me to neglect the ever day matters of actual living?
- What do I expect to satisfy my soul when I walk through seasons of darkness?
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