Wives and resentment

[PeteR]

There was another one that mentioned children born of a maidservant. If the father acknowledged them as his sons, they had full rights in paternal inheritance. (Implying that they had no rights to the other wifes inheritance for her children). If he did not acknowledge them as sons, they and their mother were freed upon his death, but no part of the paternal inheritance

Which explains these verses:

Now Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac; but to the sons of his concubines, Abraham gave gifts while he was still living, and sent them away from his son Isaac eastward, to the land of the east.
Genesis 25:5‭-‬6 NASB
https://bible.com/bible/100/gen.25.5-6.NASB

Abraham blessed the boys, but Scripture refers to them as 'sons of the concubines' not 'sons of Abraham.'

Now, I need to go back and see how Ishmael is referred to. Because he helped bury Abraham, I assume he is referred to as a son, but because of the promise, he doesn't get the blessing.

 

[Verifyveritas76]

My take away was a caution to the maidservant. Don’t spit on the one who blessed you.

It reads that she’s not to assume that she’s now the equal of a freeborn wife. Specifically that had owned her.

I thought of a couple of verses that seem appropriate to this situation but I’d never connected it with a plural setup before.
Proverbs 13:10. Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom
Proverbs 16:18. Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

A maidservant has a haughty spirit to her former mistress who blessed her, she’s gonna take a fall.

 

[Hisdaughter]

I think jealousy is an ownership emotion. Wives are the husband’s, as in she belongs to him. It makes sense with the name change at the day of marriage...
So, we who are washed in the blood are Christ’s. The husbands emotion of jealousy couldn’t be counted as sin if we parallel it to God being jealous of His people. It’s the other bite of the fruit (deception) so to speak, when the verse in the NT ( 1 Chor 7:2& 4) is interpreted to say wives own our husbands. It doesn’t even make sense. How can a man own someone whom also owns him? So it’s an ownership thing.
Envy is an ungrateful, “you don’t deserve what you have, I should have that” attitude.

The main difference between envy and jealousy is that envy is the emotion of coveting what someone else has, while jealousy is the emotion related to fear that something you have will be taken away by someone else. (Copied from grammarmonster.com)
This definitely clears up a lot of what I felt in the beginning as we started talking about PM... I had a husband and he was going to be taken away by another woman... that’s where understanding my role as a wife has helped work somethings out in my mind and heart.
Perhaps this is elementary to many of you all...

Well said!

 

[Brenna]

The main difference between envy and jealousy is that envy is the emotion of coveting what someone else has, while jealousy is the emotion related to fear that something you have will be taken away by someone else. (Copied from grammarmonster.com)
This definitely clears up a lot of what I felt in the beginning as we started talking about PM... I had a husband and he was going to be taken away by another woman... that’s where understanding my role as a wife has helped work somethings out in my mind and heart.
Perhaps this is elementary to many of you all...

I'm so glad to read this thread, it kinda hits the nail on the handle.. turning myself over to God, then my husband, then growing through the tough work of overcoming my jealousy and envy and truly loving my neighbors as myself. I do find that a good bit of my resentments are from my own controlling expectations. I am definitely challenged in this category! Seems like I most always am fighting the devil.