Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
What you are is what is in your soul, not what is in your bag.
Wednesday, November 28, 2001
The arrogance of Hagar indicates Sarai had been previously weakened by her power lust and her inordinate ambition.
despised – qal imperfect – kalal = to be lightly esteemed, to be despised, to be small, to be unimportant.
A man in the passion of his lust entering into an affair with a woman is not necessarily a thoughtful person.
The man who very easily seduces a woman is not going to be the gallant, thoughtful gentlemen you really need for the long haul.
Hagar assumed her pregnancy from Abram meant she had superseded Sarai and she was now queen of the mountain.
Since women are responders, the male of the species turns them into monsters.
When people are promoted beyond their capacity or above their station in life, they suffer from arrogance.
In her thinking, she was now the new mistress and Sarai was just the old “has been.”
a wild ass of a man = totally undisciplined, a law unto himself, he will reject the rights of others, and be guilty of inordinate competition.
His children, the beginning of an Arab nation, will be just as wild, lawless and arrogant as anyone under a burnoose in Arabia today.
No two brothers could be as different as Ishmael and Isaac.
Ishmael is typical of many people today who want to solve their problems by rejecting authority.
Ishmael was born because Sarai rejected Abram’s authority; Abram ignored his own authority; Hagar rejected the authority of her mistress Sarai.
In almost every language the word womb means a bag.
You are not responsible for how any seed in your bag turns out, EZE 18:20; DEU 24:16.
1. Hagar did not protest this abuse of her slavery; she welcomed it.
LEV 5:17 “Now if a person sins and does any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done, though he was unaware, still he is guilty, and shall bear his punishment.”
2. Hagar wanted to have sex with Abram.
Wahkare Achthoes III said about Abram – he “couldn’t defeat him” – that impressed Hagar, who was from Egypt.
3. Not only did she enjoy having sex with Abram, but she also wanted to lord it over her mistress Sarai.
4. Abram’s only protection in this game was his honor and his integrity.
The believer must leave both the means and the end to God.
qal imperfect – amar = she kept on saying this to Abram, as she expresses jealousy and the irrationality which goes with jealousy.
Jealous people, and people who cause controversy and dissension and constantly practice inordinate competition – they always fail to face reality and blame it on someone else.
wrong – chamac = wrong; injustice, violent dealing, cruelty.
alekha = “by you” rather than “upon you.”
1. Sarai is telling Abram that he should have judged Hagar for wrong doing.
2. In obeying the voice of his wife, he lost the authority in the home.
3. The irrationality of Sarai’s jealousy is obvious; she forgets that she has robbed Abram of that power and authority to judge.
4. Sarai’s own scheme backfired, and once started, wrong follows wrong.
Those involved in inordinate competition become like children; they become petty and small in their thinking, action and function.
Self-vindication produces self-righteousness, and self-righteousness intensifies the inordinate competition.
Self-righteousness is evil and seeks to justify that evil in self-vindication.
ROM 12:19 Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.