From the Pulpit...

Starting a family was not going as planned, so Sarai suggested that they have a child by a surrogate mother, Hagar. Bad idea! Sarai is in the wrong to suggest the idea even though it was a common cultural practice. Culture is often wrong. Furthermore, Abram caved to her plan when he should have stood up to her and said “no.” Just because his wife nagged him to sin was no valid excuse to follow her idea. But Abram went ahead and took Hagar as a second wife and fathered Ishmael. The problem of polygamy is raised here. God records it in His Word to show the consequences of it and by contrast the beauty of a wellordered marriage. Obviously, the Bible does not smile upon their perversion of the marriage relationship, as evidenced by the consequences that follow in the family structure (16:4ff). Two-becoming one in the marriage relationship makes it impossible for polygamy to be morally upright or workable.