PROPER PLANNING

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; 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 slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.

When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”

“Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.”

Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.

The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.

Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”

The angel of the Lord also said to her:

“You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”

She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

Genesis 16:1-16

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

I don’t know about you but I have come to learn that I mess up things in my life the most when I try to be in control.

You see, we all seem to have this innate inclination to be in charge and do what we think is best to get us through whatever situation we might find ourselves in.

The main problem with this is that not one person can think at the same level as God. Not even close. Yet, God still allows us to go ahead and try and manage life if we decide to want to do so. I think this is because we need to often learn the hard way that placing trust in ourselves or others instead of the Lord is often a losing proposition. For His ways are not our ways nor is His will usually aligned to our own.

The bottom line that that He wants us to commit to Him fully without compromise, allowing Him and Him alone to lead and guide us.

As we turn to our scripture passage for today, we find a classic biblical example of how someone can royally mess up things when they try to devise our own plans that are not in line with the Lord’s.

We know from earlier in the Book of Genesis that Sarai was barren and unable to conceive (11:30). Yet, God promised Abram that he would have offspring more numerous than the dust on the earth (13:16) or the stars in the sky (15:5), and as we saw in yesterday’s message, the Lord’s promises are always certain. He never goes back on them.

Despite all this, we see in chapter 16 where Sarai comes up with her own plan, one she thinks will ensure her husband, Abram, will have a son to carry on his name just as God had promised. Since she was considered barren and unable to reproduce, Sarai decided to suggest that Abram sleep with her maidservant, Hagar, who could become pregnant and give Abram what she could not.

On the surface, the plan must have seemed credible but there was only one real problem.

She didn’t run it by God first.

We see in the scriptures where Sarai’s plan didn’t carry out too well. In fact, it had a disastrous outcome. For we read where Hagar did get pregnant by Abram but then she "began to despise" Sarai. After all, wasn’t SHE having this baby for Abram? In fact, maybe she even thought that Abram should be her man and not Sarai’s.

Well, in response to this treatment from Hagar, incredibly puts the blame on Abram saying:

"You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me."

Wow, right? I mean it was Sarai who came up with the plan in the first place and then urged Abram to play his key part in it. Then she placed the culpability on him when it didn’t work out right.

Well, we read where Abram puts things right back into his wife’s court, telling her to deal with Hagar as she sees best. In other words, you started this mess so you can fix it.

Well, maybe this seemed like a good plan to Abram but again, he didn’t consult God either as to what he should do. As a result, a bad situation got worse and things unraveled and spiraled out of control between Sarai and Hagar. The scriptures tell us that Sarai mistreats the now pregnant Hagar who then flees from her into the desert.

And with this, we see where the Lord had seen enough, deciding it was time to intervene and set things straight.

First, an “angel of the Lord” appears to Hagar and tells her to return to Sarai and submit to her but he also adds the following promise:

“I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”

“You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”

Here we find the Lord giving Hagar the assurance that the son she will bear will not end up forsaken but instead will carry on a line of descendants that "will be too numerous to count." In chapter 17, Abram asks that Ishmael live under God’s blessing and God assures Abram that he will. In response to the Lord’s vow, we read where Hagar responds by acknowledging that she has had a special encounter with the Lord saying:

“You are the God who sees me. I have now seen the One who sees me.”

And with that, knowing that God had seen her and revealed his plan for her life and the life of her soon-to-be born son, Hagar goes onto give birth and obediently gives him the name Ishmael, just as God had commanded.

In the end, this story ends up having a happy ending but only because God’s plan was revealed and carried out.

I don’t know about you but I can’t help but think how this might have gone had Sarai just went before God in prayer and asked for His will in the matter. I’m certain it would never have gone off the rails as it did, that’s for sure.

Friends, we all need to see here where Sarai erred and learn from it or we are doomed to repeat her mistake. When we’re not sure what to do, when we’re trying to develop a plan to deal with life’s circumstances, we need to always go to God first and ask for His guidance and direction. For whenever we do, we can always be sure that He is never going to steer us wrong.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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