Tag Archives: be careful what you wish for

As a former high school teacher and youth pastor, I’ve observed the beginning and end of many relationships. Some of these couples ended up getting married and are still together today. Some ended abrupted with others resulting in the birth of a child out of wedlock. Whenever I talk with others about this topic, I am reminded of the classic Kenny Marks song “the Party’s Over.”

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar. ² And Sarai said to Abram, See here, the Lord has restrained me from bearing [children]. I am asking you to have intercourse with my maid; it may be that I can obtain children by her. And Abram listened to and heeded what Sarai said. ³ So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her Egyptian maid, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his [secondary] wife. ⁴ And he had intercourse with Hagar, and she became pregnant; and when she saw that she was with child, she looked with contempt upon her mistress and despised her, Genesis 16:1-4.

While studying the Book of Genesis to begin to 2023, a pattern began to develop with women rushing to have their own child without thinking about the consequences. As a desperate barren woman, Sarah thought it was a good idea to give his husband, Abraham, a second wife. Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, the father of the Arab nations, an enemy that Israel is still dealing with today.

And Lot went up out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him, for he feared to dwell in Zoar; and he lived in a cave, he and his two daughters. ³¹ The elder said to the younger, Our father is aging, and there is not a man on earth to live with us in the customary way. ³² Come, let us make our father drunk with wine, and we will lie with him, so that we may preserve offspring (our race) through our father. ³³ And they made their father drunk with wine that night, and the older went in and lay with her father; and he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she arose. ³⁴ Then the next day the firstborn said to the younger, See here, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drunk with wine tonight also, and then you go in and lie with him, so that we may preserve offspring (our race) through our father, Genesis 19:30-34.

Meanwhile, if the Jerry Springer Show existed back in the days of the Old Testament, Lot’s two daughters would have definitely been asked to appear. Jerry begins with a simple question, “what were you thinking when you had sex with your old man?” This leads to intimate details, bickering over who was better in bed. As bouncers break up this cat fight, Lot’s daughters gave birth to the fathers of the Moabites and Ammonites, pagan countries who fought with Israel in the Old Testament. Today’s passages serve as a case study of women rushing to have their own child, not an ideal outcome, past or present.

by Jay Mankus