# 129 Surrogate Parenting

The Book of Genesis Day 129 Ge 16:3 Then Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. 4 So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. Surrogate parenting has been around a long time. It was perfectly legal and sanctioned in Abram’s day. A son born as the result of the union between her husband and the wife’s slave could be claimed by the wife as her own. Although this was permissible in ancient societies and tolerated by God in Old Testament times, it (just like divorce) lacked divine sanction. Jesus commenting on the permanence of marriage had this to say in Mt 19:4-6, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' 5 "and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? 6 "So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate." Like it or not, in surrogate parenting, man’s customs and laws, were mingling with the union of Abram and Sarai, and therefore “separating” their God-blessed and sanctioned marriage. Something that God had joined together was being messed with….the two were becoming three instead of one. Though well-meaning, surrogate motherhood is not part of God’s original plan for marriage and when practiced can result in all sorts of domestic strife. Nasty court fights have come about over parental rights and children (created in the image of God) are sometimes tossed around like legal footballs! Pr 30:21-23 says, “ For three things the earth is perturbed, Yes, for four it cannot bear up: 22 For a servant when he reigns, A fool when he is filled with food, 23 A hateful woman when she is married, And a maidservant who succeeds her mistress.”Did you note number 4? That’s what was going on between Sarai and Hagar, “The earth is perturbed” is just another way of saying, this goes against nature, and that usually means trouble! Trouble that can be avoided if we would just stick to God’s original plan. Pray: Father forgive us for those times when we take matters that belong in Your hands and place them in ours.