Friday, February 23, 2018
Now Sarai,
Abram’s wife, had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “The Lord has
prevented me from having children. Go
and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can
have children through her.” And Abram
agreed with Sarai’s proposal. So Sarai,
Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife. (This happened ten years after Abram had
settled in the land of Canaan.) So Abram
had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. But when Hagar knew she was pregnant, she
began to treat her mistress, Sarai, with contempt. Then Sarai said to Abram, “This is all your
fault! I put my servant into your arms,
but now that she’s pregnant she treats me with contempt. The Lord will show who’s wrong—you or
me!” Abram replied, “Look, she is your
servant, so deal with her as you see fit.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she
finally ran away. Genesis 16:1-6(NLT)
Abram [later Abraham]
is called the father of the Jewish community. It is said of him in Scripture that he
believed, or placed his faith in God, and that was why God accepted and blessed
Abraham. It is also true that Abraham
was not perfect in this; he caved to his wife’s “plan B” of gaining an heir
through a servant girl.
Trying to put
myself in Abram’s shoes when it comes to walking the walk to which God has
called me, I can imagine how tough it was to face the reality that he was over
80 and still without an heir. In terms
of sticking
with Plan A, it was getting really problematic! And then there was the voice of Sarai, his
wife of many years, apparantly barren, and depressed over that, and the heir
problem; she suggests Plan B and the conflict is game-on!
What is a guy to
do? Should he hear his wife’s plan? After all, having a child with a servant wasn’t
unheard of in that culture. Should he
stick to the original promise? The
biological reality was looming large; Sarai was way past child-bearing age and
perhaps this thing about having a child with the servant girl, Hagar could
actually be God’s will…what is a guy to do?
The spiritual
discipline of Lent is a mystery in terms of what constitutes the most
beneficial way to wade through the waters of seven weeks of spiritual
preparation for the most important event we celebrate in the calendar of human
existence…the anniversary of the resurrection of Messiah. This whole season is designed for
introspection and clearing the pathway for a King to reside in our hearts. The reality about such discipline is the more
deeply you look inside, the more muddy the waters can become. How do you make preparation for the God of
the universe to live in you?
Well, one of the
things we can say in response to that is to remember how wrong it
went for Abram and Sarai to derail Plan A in favor of bringing
Hagar into the bedroom. Hagar became a
thorn in the side of this operation, and the result has been contention down
through the centuries between the children of Hagar and the offspring of
Sarai. It’s always a clearer decision in
the daylight of retrospect, but choosing to do God’s will, no matter what, is
always the right response to God’s call…even when it looks like the well has gone
dry on God’s promise.
For You Today
If you’re
wrestling with a decision through this season of preparing a clean place to
host your Savior, try to remember that your cleaning tool must also be
clean. The most expedient answer isn’t
always the best, and the easiest pathway is seldom the best. Accept the burden of being kind, going the
extra mile, and being a source of extravagant, unknown generosity towards those
who are in the center of your decision.
Then watch God
unfold his plan.
You chew on
that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.
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