Peter Barnes | Genesis 23:1-20; 29:15-30:2
SERMON NOTES
TRIALS IN MARRIAGE
Genesis 11:30; 16:1-2; 23:1-2
– ‘for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health’.
1. Childlessness.
– Gen.1:28; then .3:16, and then Sarai in 11:30.
– Sarai handles it badly – 16:1-2. Jacob and Rachel in 30:1-2.
– Isaac and Rebekah do better – 25:21; Ps.113:9.
– Godly solutions – those which preserve the sanctity of the marriage relationship (no surrogacy) and the sanctity of life from conception – are fine. Yet prayer and acceptance of God’s sovereignty are crucial.
2. Sense of aloneness.
– 2:18. Hagar became, in effect, a single mother. The prospect was depressing – 21:8-21.
– Leah too suffers this aloneness even though married – 29:30.
3. Death of a spouse.
– Sir Walter Scott: ‘And come he slow, or come he fast, it is but death who comes at last.’
– 23:1-2; 35:18-19.
– Eccles.3:4; Heb.11:19 (for Abraham)