Good Morning Friends,
“Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no
children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; so she said to
Abram, ‘The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my
maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.’ Abram agreed to what
Sarai said. So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife
took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.
He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.” (Genesis 16:1-4)
Sometimes people — including you and me – get
the idea that our plans are better than God’s plan. Disastrous things can
happen when we pursue our way of doing things instead of the Lord’s way!
God had promised Abraham descendants who
would form a great nation – so many descendants that they would be as many as
the stars of the heavens or the sands of the desert. But Abraham and Sarah
didn’t even have a single child to begin that line of descent. Abraham and
Sarah were getting old -- very old -- well past the normal child-bearing years
for a woman.
Sarah got an idea. She had a plan for
bringing God’s promise to reality. She gave Abraham her servant, Hagar, and
Abraham fathered a child with Hagar. It seemed like a good plan to Sarah – and Abraham
agreed to it.
The results of Sarah’s plan were disastrous.
And they weren’t just disastrous for Sarah and Abraham. They were disastrous
for Abraham’s promised descendants and ultimately disastrous for the whole
world.
It was disastrous for Sarah and Abraham
because this decision brought discord into their house. Hagar and Sarah didn’t
get along. Sarah was disrespected and Hagar was abused. And Abraham was caught
in the middle.
It was disastrous for Hagar and her son,
because eventually they were cast out of Abraham’s household.
It was disastrous for the descendants of
Abraham and Sarah because the son of Hagar and the eventual son of Sarah and
their descendants would war with each other for generations to come.
It was disastrous for the whole world because
the child that was born to Abraham and Hagar was Ishmael – who would become the
father of Islam. The son of Abraham and Sarah was Isaac – who would become the
father of the Jewish people. And the war between Islam and Jew continues today
and disrupts the peace of the whole world.
It was a simple plan. It was Sarah’s attempt
to bring God’s promise to reality. And it backfired and caused – and continues
to cause -- huge problems.
Perhaps the problems that are caused by the
pursuit of our own plans instead of waiting on God’s plans aren’t as disastrous
for the world as Sarah’s was – but they are just as disastrous for us!
His, by Grace,
Steve
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