Automatic Transcript Generated:
Speaker 1
All right, so Michael is asking Sarah, Rachel and Leah all gave their handmaids to their husbands so that the husbands could have children. What did the handmaid gain in this transaction? Do they have a right of refusal? An attitude which did not end well for her
Speaker 2
All right, so let’s take a look at that. Great question, Michael. It’s one of those things where us at modern times are like, why does this have to be in the Bible? And some people use it as a thing to sort of reject God because how could God put up with this sort of stuff? Which, because it’s in the Bible, doesn’t mean it’s approved, doesn’t mean we should mimic this, doesn’t mean God likes it. The start of the Bible is God is very patient, long suffering, and puts up with a lot of our crap, a lot of our bad stuff, because he knows we are so stiffnecked and he can’t change us in a day, he can’t change us in a century. It’s taking got thousands of years to fulfill the plan of restoring us to his image. I want to make sure we have that full context here. When we talk about these things, god’s not approving it at all. But yeah, we do.
Speaker 3
See, let’s say, for example, Genesis 16 three.
Speaker 2
Here’s an example verse. It says, then Sarah. So this was before Sarah became Sarah Abrams wife, took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband. So there we go. There we go. She was given her husband Abram to be his wife and so was anything given to her. Okay? So there would have been lots of servants. And if you study it, there’s hundreds. They had a massive population with them. And Abram, obviously is at the top and his wife, they’re calling the shots, they’re the bosses. And so did Hagar have much of a choice in this? Probably not. She was effectively a slave. And my understanding is they have to obey whatever they’re told and they’re basically property. And we’ll look at an example of how their property so this concept of, okay, if you do this, you’ll get that that doesn’t exist. It’s more like, okay, you will sleep with my husband and then whatever child you’ll have will effectively be mine because.
Speaker 3
You’Re my property and any of your.
Speaker 2
Kids are my kid. That’s kind of the mentality here.
Speaker 3
But she did get an elevation in.
Speaker 2
Status because how many other women is the boss sleeping with? How many of them have born his kids? So she now starts feeling like Hagar now is feeling she might be above Sarah. And that’s when she had to get the boot. Let’s look at Genesis 33. Genesis 33. It says we’re now jumping ahead to Jacob and his family. So if you remember, he went to stay with his uncle. His uncle gave him leia to marry when Jacob thought he was marrying Rachel. And then the record deal, and Leia’s like, okay, well, I’ll also give you Rachel. I just couldn’t give you Leia. I had to give you Leia first. So Jacob didn’t want two wives. He ends up with two wives, and.
Speaker 3
Neither wife is having kids.
Speaker 2
And both of these wives now start saying, sleep with my maidens. But before there we get to Genesis 33, it says, so she there is my handmaiden billa go into her, and she will bear a child on my knees, that I also may have children by her. Again, we’re seeing this language of there’s no indication at all that Billa or the maid servants are given any choice in the matter. They are given they’ll have the child, and their child will be the child of the owner. In this case, this was Rachel. So not necessarily again, right things. We’re not trying to say this is equal. This was fair. The Bible does not ever try to say necessary things for fair. It’s trying to show us a lot of unfairness and saying we should not be a part of that system. If you look at Isaiah 58 six, for example, god says, is not this the facet I’ve chosen to lose the bands of wickedness and do the heavy burdens and to let the oppress go free and to break every yoke. That’s what God wants to do. God can’t wait till the day when he can make that happen.
Speaker 2
And we as Christians today should be a part of that solution. And unfortunately, who are some of the.
Speaker 3
Biggest advocates, for example, of lock them.
Speaker 2
Up, throw them up in prison, don’t ever let them out? Is that really how God operates? Like, you screwed up, you never should get a chance or you’d be separated? And I think we really need to evaluate what we consider a good Christian moral concept. And are they really biblical? And look at this. This is Jesus, right? One of my favorite verses, John 836, therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free. Indeed, we are all under bondage. The Bible says sin is bondage. And a lot of these stories in the Bible, in the Old Testament, even Paul later on, says, this concept of slavery is kind of a symbol of sin. It could be a symbol of being under a system of works. But God wants to call us into a different life, a different living where we are free. We are above the law in the sense that the law is written in our hearts. It’s easy for us. We enjoy it. We don’t feel burdened by it, and we’re not burdened by sin. We’re going to be set free from sin. Our master would be Christ, not our lust, not Satan.
Speaker 2
And likewise, we should be the same with our fellow men and women. That is the true message of the Bible, and it’s very fortunate. I’m glad the Bible records it records humanity at its worst so that we can have knowledge of evil and know not to repeat it, and contrast that to the goodness and love of God so that we can clearly make a decision which we want. The Bible says, choose life, choose God. That’s what he wants, and let us do that.
Speaker 1
Yeah, I think so. Often there’s this idea in common culture that because it’s in the Bible, it means it’s good. Because it’s in the Bible, it means it’s endorsed by God. And that couldn’t be further from the truth. There’s so much in the Bible that is specifically there for us to see the consequences of those actions and those behaviors and these stories that we just talked about. And the question was about, I think are some of the ones that really point to that, because we see over time the issues that result from these things that are done by man’s ways as opposed listed consolates.
Speaker 4
When you look at the story of Hagar having ishmail, what was the result? Abraham had to send her away because it just caused problems in the family. And God is trying to show us, just like you’re saying, yes, I’m going to let you have choice. But the result, learn from these people’s mistakes, this is not a good choice to make. I totally agree with that. And I think like you’re saying, Jay, we have to look at what God says as far as his will, because obviously this was not his will. God told Abraham, you’re going to have a son by your wife Sarah. And they needed to do that faith and they lacked faith. And that’s when Hagar came into the picture. So Hagar was a lack of faith and everything that resulted from it. But there’s a beautiful verse in Isaiah, chapter 61, verse one, talking about Jesus and his way. And it says, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and opening of the prison to them that are bound.
Speaker 4
So God’s way is freedom. God’s way is choice. God’s way is a beautiful way. And sadly, man’s ways do nothing but problems. Exactly.
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In His Service
BibleAsk Team
