Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
Sarai’s self pity complicates Abrams life and hers.
Friday, November 16, 2001
“bo” qal imperative an order, a euphemistic order, a softened order.
A woman who is a responder has lots of initiative.
Self-pity is the great attack on the self-consciousness of the soul.
To become occupied with self and filled with self-pity is one of the greatest distractions in life.
Seeking to gain pity from others is living a phony life.
Satanic strategy tries to get believers to be self-centered, which leads to frustration, then to self-pity resulting in operation blame game.
Turn to JON 4:5
Self-pity only intensifies any problem. Self-pity removes you from any possibility of a solution.
qal imperative bo + na I am going to ask you the first time nicely but if you resist I’ll keep on nagging you to death until you do it.
Her self-pity plus emotion equals impulsiveness.
The problems of life can be complicated by sin but never solved by sin.
Sarah became emotional about the problem and her emotional solution is related to ignorance.
She suggests that an heir promised by God should come from the womb of a female slave of the Egyptian race.
Terah hindered Abram from going forward with God’s calling upon his life and God had to take his father away by death, GEN 11:31-32.
His nephew Lot and his nephew’s wife had to be removed, Gen 13.
Abram has a problem with his wife, Sarai, and while his wife cannot be removed, she certainly did get in the way.
Abram entered into worldly human viewpoint hindrances; he ran away to Egypt, Gen 12, and he will run away to Gerar where the Philistines are, Gen 20.
There were some self-hindrances, Gen 15 – his worry and his blasphemy connected with it.
Gen 16 – his impatience and his submission to his wife when he should have been telling her what to do. Gen 17 – he desires a fleshly heritage instead of the divine promises of God.
Turn to PSA 37:1
Pseudo-prosperity can come from Satan to the carnal believer; however, it is not a part of the timing of God.
Turn to PSA 62:5
ISA 30:18 “Therefore, the Lord waits to be gracious for you. Consequently He waits on high to have compassion on you. For Jehovah is a God of justice Blessed are those who wait for Him.”
God’s timing is perfect, and God’s delays are a part of man’s progress.
I looked upon a farm one day, That once I used to own; The barn had fallen to the ground, The fields were overgrown. The house in which my children grew, Where we had lived for years, I turned to see it broken down, And brushed aside the tears. I looked upon my soul one day, To find “it too” had grown With thorns and thistles everywhere,
The seeds “neglect” had sown. The years had passed while I had cared; For things of lesser worth: The things of heaven I let go When minding things of earth. To Christ I turned with bitter tears, And cried, “O Lord forgive! I haven’t much time left for Thee, Not many years to live.” Those “wasted years” forever gone, Those days I can’t recall; If I could live those days again, I’d give him my all and all.
Turn to Gen 16
You could be unhappy with great sex.
1. Sarai is emotional and impulsive.
3. Sarai tries to help God.
5. God does not help those who help themselves.
Sarai and Hagar, wife and free woman, female slave and bondwoman.
In human history after the flood there are only four races, three immediate races – Shem, Ham and Japheth – one later race from Shem, the Jew.
6. Rationalism and unbelief emphasize the instrument – the womb. Faith looks at the promises and the doctrines – the solution.
7. A man made solution is human viewpoint. A man made solution glosses over the real issue. 8. It is impossible for God to renege on a promise.
9. Sarai suggested adultery, a sin, for the solution, and the problems of life are never solved by sin.
10. Sarai was not only emotional about the problem, but her emotional solution is related to ignoranc