Sweetness - Sarah Edwards

1710–58

Who were the two most famous preachers in America in the 1700s? The flashy traveling orator George Whitefield and the sober pastor-theologian Jonathan Edwards. These two led what historians call the “Great Awakening,” yet their styles were worlds apart. So it’s a bit surprising that Jonathan once invited George to preach in his pulpit. Whitefield gladly accepted the invitation, staying in the Edwards’s home for a few days.

How did it go? Fine. You might expect the two revivalists to compare notes and maybe wrangle over the finer points of theology. But what impressed George Whitefield the most was . . . Sarah Edwards.

“A sweeter couple have I not yet seen,” he wrote afterward. George himself had experienced difficulty finding a suitable wife. Just a few months earlier, he had proposed to a woman who had said no, largely because he was promising her nothing but the challenges of a traveling ministry. Now he saw Sarah Edwards as an enthusiastic partner in her husband’s pastorate. “She talked . . . solidly of the things of God, and seemed to be . . . a helpmeet for her husband,” he wrote in his journal. Sarah inspired George to “renew” his prayers that God would send him a worthy bride. (In fact, about a year later, he did marry.)

Helpmeet is an archaic term that comes from Genesis 2:18, where God decides to make for Adam a “help meet for him” (KJV). Unfortunately, some use helpmeet in a diminutive way—the “little woman” would be the assistant in the important things her husband did—but the actual meaning of that Genesis text is quite different. It uses the same Hebrew word for help that’s used for God in Psalm 46:1—“a very present help in trouble” (KJV). A “help” is not necessarily weaker, but often stronger—and thus able to provide help. The word meet merely means suitable, appropriate, or on the same level. This might be in contrast with the animals that had been created. The man needed someone on his level who could truly offer the help he needed.

Too often we make marriage a power struggle when God made it a partnership. Wives and husbands should give each other the help they need. As George Whitefield recognized, Sarah Edwards did that quite well.

The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”

Genesis 2:18