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One Wife too many
"The Young and the Restless"
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Today, we return to our exploration of Abraham and his immediate family line. We are continuing our exploration of the “Family Mess” in Abraham’s family line, and how God worked beneath it, behind it, through it, above it, and beyond it. Even though there was a great deal of “Family Mess” going on in Abraham’s immediate family, God said that He was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This helps us understand that God did not run from the “Family Mess” of this family, but on the contrary identified Himself as the God of this family.
Abraham’s wife, Sarah, had borne him no children, and to Sarah, this was the curse of God. Notice: she believed that God had prevented her from having children. To understand this passage of Scripture, you have will need to understand the culture and prevailing norms of that time. Women during that time, believed that children were a gift from the Lord and the more children they had the more blessed they were of God. They also believed, conversely, that if they had no children God had cursed them. So, children were of prime importance to women of that time. This is hard to understand by people of today, who believe that children are a curse and the fewer you have the more blessed you are!
“Family Mess” began in the world, when Adam listened to his wife, instead of trusting in God. And that same “Family Mess” is playing itself out in the narrative before us.
Husbands, there will come a time when your wives will offer you an alternative plan to the command and will of God. “Family Mess!” Your response to that offer will determine the intensity of the “Family Mess” that you will experience and pass on to your posterity.
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We must obey God, rather than man. |
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We must obey God’s Word, rather than our wives. |
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We do all that we can to please our wives, but God’s Word comes first. |
So, Abraham went into Sarah’s handmaid, Hagar, and she conceived...Abraham now had one wife too many...
When Hagar saw that she was pregnant, she despised her mistress. She now had something that Sarah didn’t have. She now had an entree with Abraham, which Sarah didn’t have. She now had an apparent blessing from God, while Sarah was apparently cursed. “Family Mess” increased when Abraham had to deal with two wives instead of one, and another child.
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