Sarai was stressed
GOD promised Abram an heir, but Abram, a loyal husband, had not had a child by the time he was 85. It must have stressed Sarai — and so she thought she’d help GOD with His promise.
Preparing the Bride for GOD’s Story
How do we prepare as the Bride of Christ? One aspect is to learn GOD’S STORY. He created us in His image…. Piece by piece, and peace by peace, we learn to walk as He has walked. And we learn His perspective.
Genesis 16:1-8
“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes.
Then Sarai said to Abram, “My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord judge between you and me.”
So Abram said to Sarai, “Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please.” And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence.
Now the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. And He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.””
Sarai tried to help
Sarai was desperate for a child, but she didn’t have one. GOD had promised Abram a child so by the time Sarai was approaching 80, she thought of an idea.
Beware “the idea”!
Sarai took her eye off GOD’s promise for Abram and thought about herself. Desperate for a child, she told Abram to use Hagar so that Sarai could have the child. Out of love, I think, for his wife, Abram complied.
What a HUGE consequence that idea coming to fruition caused. Hagar and her son Ishmael, are the people from whom the 12 tribes of Arabs descended. And the Arabs and the Jews have been enemies for millennia.
Hagar’s thinking
What could have been Hagar’s thinking when she was told to sleep with Abram? All we’re told is that, once the child was born, she despised Sarai. And women being women, Sarai could see it.
“….. I became despised in her eyes.”
So, we have a woman who wants a child, and a woman with a child through the first woman’s husband. What tension that brings!
But GOD
But in spite of all this tension, GOD sends an angel to comfort ‘the other woman’ —because GOD loves us all.
“Now the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness,”
Sarai and Hagar… and Abram
The story between Sarai and Hagar is a tragic one. It reveals how we can be driven to have what we want, but when we get it, it isn’t at all what we’d expected.
Have you helped GOD?
When I was a much younger Christian, both in years and in understanding, I would receive a word of promise from someone on behalf of the LORD. Often, I believed the word, or at least it gave me hope. And then I would help GOD to bring it to pass.
It never worked. Why? Because GOD doesn’t need my help. My help was in fact interference, and showed a lack of understanding. What He needed was my trust and my surrender. (Of course I thought I’d given both — I didn’t intend to get in GOD’s way.)
What about you? Have you heard promises from GOD? What did you do with them?
I’ve learned we don’t need to do His work for Him. What we do need to do is to surrender to Him and say “Yes” when He makes a way forward for us.
To be fair, there is a fine line between preparing for GOD’s outworking and interfering. It’s life’s journey “to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling” while “resting” and “being still” at the same time.
GOD reveals through Sarai and Abram that we can trust Him thoroughly and it is best that we do…