Faith Breaks Down
Genesis 16
Gen 16:1-3 Now Sarai,
Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant
whose name was Hagar. 2 And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has
prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall
obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
HERE is one of those Bible stories that can
cause us to ask, “Where was your faith, Abram and Sarai?” After all, they had
just head from God a reaffirmation of his plan to bring a great nation to life
through them. It seems they could have waited to allow God to work to do his will
in his time.
Waiting,
though, is hard, isn’t it? Waiting is even harder when you’ve been promised something.
“We’ll
go to Disney World.”
“When,
dad?”
“I’ll
get you a pony.”
“When,
dad?”
“I’ll
give you a son.”
“When,
Lord?”
As
children impatient for the promise sometimes devise their own schemes to get
dad to act more quickly, Sarai and Abram devise their own scheme to fulfill God’s
Word. Sadly, we see how the faith break down immediately causes conflict. Hagar
disdains Sarai with a feeling of superiority. Sarai rejects her. Abram refuses to
protect Hagar from Sarai’s anger. These faith breakdowns caused the Lord to step
in to right the wrong, as he saved the lives of Hagar and her unborn son Ishmael.
He also saved Sarai and Abram from the guilt of murder.
Then
God judges Sarai’s and Abram’s failure to trust his word with a plan of conflict
between the descendants of Hagar’s son Ishmael and the descendants of Abram’s future
son. The people from these sons are still in conflict today.
As
in the Garden of Eden, mankind failed in their faithful commitment to God’s Word.
Conflict came. And conflict still exists today.
LIFE Link: Faithfully wait on God and build a
family of peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment