Genesis 16
Somewhere around ten years has passed since Abrahm heard the call of God. Several times over the years there has been the promise that Abraham will have a son and will be the father of countless descendants. However after ten years nothing has happened. There is no son. There is no sign of the promise being fulfilled. So what is to happen? Have they got it wrong? And so begins a game of trying to double guess what God is doing. And Sarah decides that God needs a hand since there can be no other real solution. It seems here a reasonable solution. We do what we think is wise and the end will justify the means, therefore this must be what God mean to happen. Of course the other factor that we must remember is that God has not as yet promised the son will be through Sarah. Although that must have been the obvious inference since she is Abraham's wife. Sarah will have been as anxious as Abraham to receive the promised blessing of God.
People are impatient when it comes to God fulfilling his promises. I have seen more disasters than I can remember follow such actions. God has promised this, God should do this, therefore we must make it happen. Impatience. An ungodly rush. Although we have read that Abraham had put his trust in the Lord here that trust is tested by his wife Sarah. Now I really don't like the gloss that the GNB has put on the translation of the opening verse of this Chapter so let me read the appropriate verses from the NIV : it reads thus: "The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her. Abraham agreed to what Sarah said. So after Abraham had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarah his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife."
This particular translation makes it quite clear the motivation that lies behind Sarah's actions. She is going to try and fulfill the promise of God through Hagar. She appears to be acting from high motives but in fact is showing a lack of real trust in God. She gives Abraham a second wife - we see here polygamy in action and yet as we know this was not God's way and yet it had not yet been expressly forbidden since as yet the Lord has not revealed his holy law.
God often does this. tests us to the limit. it is in truth the only way we can end up beleiving that it was God who acted. For if there was any other way there would have been a doubt in all our minds. Think of Jesus - his death and resurrection. Even up to the last minute despite what had been said by Jesus, the disciples were trying to manipulate events along the lines of conventional human wisdom. Later God is going to take Abraham to very limit in his dealings with Isaac. You see it is easy to say we trust God. Very easy. Easy to say he is the most important thing in our lives. Easy to say we are commited to following him. Easy to say we are disciples. But trusting God can be very hard. We can be tested right up to the last minute.
And so this couple who are blessed by God depart from the way of God. And it is Sarah who instigates this departure and Abraham readily agrees. Do you see how the pressures to depart from the things of God can come from within the family and even from those closest to us......how our loyalties even within marriage can be tested to the limit. And what is the result. It is disaster. Hagar behaves in a terrible way and in repsonse Sarah behaves no better and Abraham just abdicates all responsiblity having it appears washed his hands of the whole affair. Hagar runs away. How terrible it must have been for her and yet perhpas we might say that she had brought her trouble upon herself by the way she had treated Sarah. It all gets terribly complicated and sinful actions abound -all because people were trying to decide for themselves the right way to go and applying human wisdom to the situation instead of trusting in God.
But God is compassionate and He sends an angel to Hagar as she wanders in the wilderness. The situation having got out of control is now corrected by God. Hagar is encouraged to go back to continue in her former life and to follow the path mapped out for her by God. She is blessed and comes to her senses. We can read between the lines here that she mustnhave repented of her ways and of her behaviour and she stands in holy awe of what has happened. She asks herself in wonderment, "Have I really seen God and lived to tell about it?" We can sense her feelings of deep unworthiness.
nd isn't that always the way? When do we ever feel worthy of being blessed or called by God?
Do you remember Isaiah - do you rember how he felt when God was calling him, "There is no hope for me! I am doomed because every word that passes my lips is sinful, and I live among a people whose every word is sinful. And yet with my own eyes, I have seen the King, the Lord Almiighty." And that is the way in truth we must all feel in the presence of God and the way we all feel when God calls us towards some task. You see God sees us as we really are. He sees us faults and all. But he also sees us as we will be. He knew that Abraham would stumble and fall but he also knew that this man would in the end give him his all. The Lord saw the same in Peter. He knew what Peter was like but he also know what Peter could become. The Lord saw Paul and saw what Paul could do and become. And he looks at us that's what he sees. He sees our futures. He knows our mettle. He sees our potential. So unworthy though we know ourselves to be nevertheless we when God calls we should in all humility listen and respond. It is about trust.
Much trouble still lies ahead for Hagar and for Abraham it will be another fourteen years before the promise given to the Lord will bear fruit. Nearly quarter of a century will pass between Abraham hearing the prmoise and it being fulfilled.
Patience and trust and waiting for God no matter how impossible that might seem. Those then are the real messages that God gives us today in his word.