Tag: Sarai

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God chooses outliers.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

”The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭12‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Just to be transparent. These exact verses came up a year ago, but I have recently been in a sermon series called, “Stepping into God’s Story,” so I’ve been marinating in Abram’s call all week. I’m copying over some discoveries from my notes, because it is absolutely fascinating to see how God chooses and who He chooses to allow them to partner with Him to save humanity. Here’s what we know about Abram…

▫️His dad was an idol worshiper. The Bible confirms that his father, Terah, was an idolater, worshiping other gods (Joshua 24:2)
▫️ He was considered to be a pagan, a non-God or multi-god believer.
▫️ God pursues him, speaking to him, promises are made.
▫️ At 75 years old – he listens, believes, and obeys God.
▫️ Abram was wealthy.
▫️ Sarai was stunningly beautiful, but barren, she could not have children.

And even though God reminds Abram several times that He will keep His promises, Abram still has a lot of questions. He BELIEVES, but tries to figure out how the promise could be fulfilled because he and Sarai were barren and old! Abram asks God how it will happen!

Maybe you were taught or believed that you could not ask God questions. Maybe you were taught that questions equal doubt or disbelief. I am here to tell you – that’s just not true. Here we have the most famous, ancient patriarch of Judaism asking God a lot of questions! Now, I realize, God did not answer him with specifics, but continued to reinforce His promise and His ability to fulfill that promise. It’s almost a comical dance that takes place when Abram asks about his future kids, God says “look at the stars, count them – that’s how many kids you’ll have.” God didn’t give details He gave an object lesson in truth and trust! Isn’t that beautifully FRUSTRATING! We want details, God just says, “TRUST ME.” Faith over form! Let God handle the details. Thats hard for us as “checklist,” scheduled, calendared people! We want to control the details and the timeline, but that is not our job. Our job is to believe and obey!

Abram and Sarai get themselves in the biggest mess by trying to circumvent or help God with His plans! Sarai gets weary of waiting, gives up on God’s plan, and makes her own. She convinces Abram to use their slave girl as a surrogate to produce an heir. The Ishmael/Isaac story is one of the most famous feudal fiascos of all time! And, we are STILL paying the price for that decision thousands of years ago.

A couple of things we can learn from all this: 1. God often chooses the least likely people to accomplish His purposes. Maybe God is calling you to listen, obey and follow, no matter where He leads. 2. God makes and keeps His promises. Through the Holy Spirit, God wants us to listen for His voice, His leading. God wants us to believe and have faith in Him. God wants us to obey and follow him, even if no one else does.

Prayer

God,
As I read Your living Word, sometimes I have to remind myself that life is, or can be, very simple. By listening, believing and obeying – it becomes so uncomplicated. Not easy, but simple. Faith is difficult but also very freeing. Looking back on my life I know this to be true because you chose me – the outlier, the underdog, the underperforming nobody. This alone brings gratefulness and joy. It brings a humble confidence, not at all in myself, but in you. It also has me convinced, if you can do this wondrous work in my life, you can do it through anyone! It has not been easy, but it has been good, because you are good. Amen.

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Sin can’t get me satisfaction.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

“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

God had brought Abram through some extraordinary faith exercises. Leaving the land of his father and continuing on to the place God had promised. A conversation about Abram’s heir and God demonstrating his blood contract with Abram in Genesis 15. Each one of these encounters were a gift of grace extended to a man who would choose to lie instead of trusting God (saying, Sarai is my sister!).

Yet, Hebrews tells us that Abraham had faith. And that faith was accounted to him as righteousness. Faith came way before the law and will go on long after the fulfillment of the law by Christ’s death on the cross. Faith still moves God’s heart, it still pleases God!

Genesis 16 opens with a huge faith test – Sarai is not happy and doesn’t want to wait to see if God will come through for her. Oh, I get it. This kind of “against all odds, never been done before,” kind of faith is extraordinarily tough. Did Abram share his faith building stories with Sarai? Or the promises God made to him? Did he talk about hearing from God and reassure Sarai that God would keep his promise? We don’t know. What we do know is that Abram was just as desperate to a have child as Sarai! Abram is thinking legacy, having an heir lined up in his old age. Sarai is bearing the shame that often comes with perceived infertility. Both were well past childbearing years, even back then when people lived much longer than today.

Abram loved Sarai. Abram did not want to see his wife suffer the shame associated with not having any children. Sarai was extremely persistent. Abram conceded and Hagar conceived. Forget about all the moral and cultural legalities at that time for a moment. Yes, multiple wives was a thing and I don’t see that God judged it nor sanctioned it. I can’t pretend I understand all that. The fact is, the son, produced by Hagar was considered to be the legal, firstborn heir of Abram. But, as we know with Esau and Jacob, things don’t always go according to plan.

As soon as Sarai, who so desperately wanted a child, found out that Hagar was pregnant with Abram’s heir, she began to treat the woman with contempt and immediately blames Abram! Real or not Sarai sees Hagar very differently after making the deal, “Now that she’s pregnant, she gives me that look of pride and pity!” The reality of taking a shortcut to fulfill God’s promise hits her hard.

There are shortcuts to making God’s will happen, forcing a promise to come sooner rather than later. The results are always the same – bitterness, brokenness and fractured relationships. Is the sin the action, the decision to get what we want without waiting for God to come through? Or, is our sin the lack of faith to believe God at his word, trusting his will, his way and certainly his promises? Maybe every sin is some kind of skewed decision to get our own way rather than believing God?

Hagar became a constant reminder of a failed attempt to self-fulfill a promise made by God. Interesting side note, God protected and blessed Hagar and her son Ishmael, a rightful heir to Abram’s lineage. Hagar had a beautiful, enduring faith in God herself, saying to God, “You are the God who sees me.” Abram and Sarai’s shortcut did not get them satisfaction. Our shortcuts of sin will never fully satisfy either.

Prayer

Dad,
This is the sad state of our humanity! Even when we hear and understand your promises, we are so impatient in seeing them fulfilled that we disbelieve. We create another way, a quicker, more convenient shortcut to get it or do it ourselves. This is so human! It’s an embarrassing fact of our brokenness. Yet, you are still gracious to us, still making and fulfilling your promises to us even when we do not deserve it. Thank you for your patience, your long suffering and mercy. I need you, I need faith desperately more than the shortcuts.