Notes of Faith November 17, 2025
Slow to Chide
So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.”
Genesis 16:2
One of our greatest hymns, “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven,” was written by a British vicar named Henry Lyte. You’ll find great encouragement from a phrase about God in the second stanza having to do with God’s grace and favor. Lyte said our Lord is “slow to chide and swift to bless.” We need a God like that because we’re so prone to sinfulness and mistaken actions.
Take Sarah (Sarai), for example. She was impatient for God’s promise to be fulfilled, so she devised a plan that involved Hagar, her maid, to have a child with Abraham in her place. We, too, get impatient and do things God doesn’t want us to do. But the Lord forgave Sarah, and in the end, He still used her to fulfill His promise.
When we sin, the Lord is merciful, and that’s why we can sing, “Praise, my soul, the King of heaven.” Praise Him today for the daily mercy He imparts to us.
Praise him for his grace and favor to his people in distress. Praise him, still the same as ever, slow to chide, and swift to bless.
Henry Lyte
Gen 16:1-6
Now Sarai, Abram's wife had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, "Now behold, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Please go in to my maid; perhaps I will obtain children through her." And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3 After Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Abram's wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife. 4 He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her sight. 5 And Sarai said to Abram, "May the wrong done me be upon you. I gave my maid into your arms, but when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her sight. May the Lord judge between you and me." 6 But Abram said to Sarai, "Behold, your maid is in your power; do to her what is good in your sight." So Sarai treated her harshly, and she fled from her presence.
We are more than grateful for God’s mercy and forgiveness for our sin as the illustration above suggests, but what is left out of the illustration is that there are consequences for our actions. We are still suffering the effects of Ishmael (the son of Abram and Hagar, Sarai’s handmaid) vs Isaac (the promised child of God that did come to Abram and Sarai 13 years later when both of them were “supposedly” as good as dead in being able to produce a child. The nations that came from Abram through Ishmael have not ceased in trying to destroy the Jewish nation that came from Abram through Isaac and Jacob to this day. But the promises of God will always be fulfilled! He will continue to gather the true believing Jew or Greek (everyone not a Jew) to Himself until His chosen ones are taken to be with Him in their eternal home. Another reason for praise!
Come quickly, Lord Jesus.
Pastor Dale