Sarah’s Action and Abraham’s Follow
Sarah
takes matters into her own hand. She
goes to Abraham with a plan. And that
plan succeeds. Abraham is able to
conceive a son with Hagar. Sarah gets
her way regardless of how much or how little planning was involved on her end.
Even
though this plan is not God’s will, God does not prevent it from happening,
either. God has a plan for all of us,
but He certainly does allow us to make our own mistakes along the way. I think for me this is one of the biggest
understandings that have come my way as I mature in faith. God is big enough to allow us free-will and to
allow our mistakes to come to bear on our lives. God doesn’t force the evil in our life;
rather He has granted each of us the ability to have free will and bring evil
into our own lives as well as into the lives of others.
In reading
Warren Wiersbe’s “Be Obedient,” he makes a great point that I think is worth quoting. He says that there are four characteristics
of faithfulness:
- Patience in allowing God’s plan to happen on God’s time
- Concern about bringing glory to God
- Seriousness about obeying God’s Word
- Being filled with God’s peace and joy
I think
those four elements are worth remembering and using as a litmus test to whether
we are being faithful to God in our thoughts, words, and actions.
For as
much as we have said about Abraham being faithful in prior blog entries, this
is one chapter where Abraham does not pass the test. Neither he nor Sarah was patient. Neither he nor Sarah was concerned with the
glory being God’s; rather they were concerned with having offspring. Neither he nor Sarah was serious about following
God’s Word. Certainly the event itself
does not bring about a time in their life where they are concerned about God’s “peace
and joy” given all the infighting that occurs.
Infighting
Now let’s
talk about the infighting. There was an
easy solution to the infighting: admit fault, accept consequences, and move
forward. Nobody – not Abraham, not Sarah,
and not Hagar – does any of these things.
Let’s look
at Hagar. She sleeps with a man who is
not her husband at the direction of a married couple. She looks down on Sarah’s barrenness. When trouble arises, she runs away. How often are we guilty of simply “following
orders” without checking if it is in the Lord’s will first? How often do we look down on people who are
not able to do what we can do? How often
are we guilty of running away rather than dealing with our problems?
Now let’s
look at Sarah. Notice what she actually
gets upset with? She’s actually not
upset that Abraham got Hagar pregnant! How
could she be, it was her idea! Rather,
Sarah is upset that Hagar looks down on her because she is barren. Sarah begins to mistreat her. How often are we guilty of lashing out
against those who abuse us rather than confronting those people and making sure
they understand they are wrong and outside of God’s will first?
Finally we
turn to Abraham. Here’s a man who
listens to the ideas of his wife without testing them with God’s words. This is not a judgment against Sarah as much
as a reminder that we should always test the words and ideas of another
regardless of who the other person is! In
Abraham we see a man who rather than advising Sarah and Hagar to deal with
their problems he instead advises Sarah to “do whatever she wants with her own
servant.” Abraham should have been the
spiritual leader of the community, but he abdicates all authority and allows
people to do what they want.
God’s Response
This is a
dark blot on Abraham and his community. Yet,
notice that in the end God does not abandon this community in their dark
hour. God comes to Hagar and gives her
hope – at the very least tells her that her problems are heard and being dealt
with. She bore the son and Abraham named
the son, so clearly Abraham accepted Hagar back into the community and things
moved forward from there.
The
community has a dark moment, but the community understands that moving forward
with God in spite of sin is far more important than allowing sin to derail our
relationship with each other and God.
God’s message is clear. Go in
peace, sinners of His own redeeming. Go
back into your relationships and plow forward towards restoration in spite of
whatever sin may exist. Deal with the
sin and move on! Sounds like advice I can
take myself, too.
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