A Path of our Own Making: God's Promise to Abraham, Sarah and Hagar
I heard a great sermon last night. Saturday is my usual night for church. I always thought I’d go back to the Sunday morning, traditional, service favored by most people. But I’m as comfortable with the evening option as I was when made the change over 15 years ago. And now I volunteer, a new wrinkle that will made it tougher to go back to Sunday.
The pastor laid out
the connection between Adam and Eve and Abram and Sarah. Both women pursued
their own paths by following personal choices and causing additional chaos. Their
husbands followed the advice without a lot of thought or argument. Adam with
the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and Abraham by sleeping with Sarah’s maidservant,
Hagar.
The Altered Path
Chaos happens when we don’t consult God first. Or, when the
serpent tricks us through cunning and sends us down a path that’s contrary to
God’s plan. We make a mess when we come up with another option that doesn’t
have God’s blessing. Frustration builds from waiting for the promise. We can
glimpse a future that lines up with our interests, goals and skills, but getting
there takes too long.
Most us can identify our skills. Either in relationships or
practical smarts, we’ve learned through trial and error how to make a living.
Interest is also easy to identify. No one who hates math will study accounting.
Theater kids will avoid engineering and hard sciences. Sometimes it’s better to
start with the unacceptable options and move toward acceptable ones. But these
are basic life skills and interests that we take with us. They aren’t critical
to the character we need to walk the long path of faith.
Anyone following the Lord, will come to place of surrender. Abram
had to leave his family into the unknown and trust that God had a better option,
an offspring and a legacy beyond his wildest dreams. It didn’t happen right away.
Sarah needed to be beyond her natural childbearing years. Only then could the
miracle that God promised come about. But doubt creeps in when a promise is delayed,
or taking longer than we think is reasonable. Sarah’s idea to let Abram sleep
with her servant reflects a typical human way to “help” the divine plan along. “It’s
not working like it should after all” goes the thinking. God promised Abram his
offspring would be as numerous as the stars in the sky (Genesis 15:5). How then
can that be if not through Sarah? She was too old right?
The Messy Path
Abram and Sarah took matters into their own hands and proposed
an alternate solution to the offspring issue. It’s easy to look back on this avoidable
mistake and think, “How could they misunderstand so completely?” But most of us
have taken a path of our own choosing and had to correct the mistake. It could
be a relationship that you knew wasn’t right or a risky job that seemed like
good money and quickly fell apart. I’ve made both of those mistakes. Even in my
error and selfishness, God’s grace brought me back to the true path. The fix
for going astray can be painful. Depending on how far you wandered and how long
you refused to surrender, getting back is uncomfortable. But God found Hagar in
the middle of the desert and gently brought her back to her mistress Sarah, by
reminding her of her place.
A lot of us need to know our place. That might be as an employee
for a boss that doesn’t value you. For some of us it’s working 2 jobs until a
better option opens up. Abram and Sarah’s early years in the desert is
indicative of a Christian’s early years with the Heavenly Father. Mostly life moves slow and we wonder if we made a mistake. Was our previous vision of God’s
blessing a mirage? Did we misunderstand our own abilities, interests and
desires? Did we miss a checkpoint somewhere along the way divert into some
unknown territory?
The True Path
I’m sure Abram and
Sarah had doubts over the years that we will never hear about. Their life is a
model for the Christian walk. We must surrender our skills and interests and
passions to God. Only then can he use our sacrifice and hand it back to us, cleaned
up and useful for His kingdom.
How is it cleaned up? Because the interests, passions and
skills we gave to God, have been washed of any selfishness ambition. We are becoming
complete, as Paul would say, and lacking nothing. The long road of faith is
what’s difficult to endure. We get anxious and doubtful and forget our place. How
refreshing to know that we aren’t alone. How encouraging to know that others
have walked the same path. Psalm 37:3-4 says “Trust in the Lord and do good: dwell
in the land and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord,
and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” By itself it’s a powerful verse
of God’s goodness and overwhelming blessing.
Conclusion
But the next verse completes the promise more fully. “Commit
your way to the Lord, trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass.” (verse
5) It depends on our obedience to His plan. It’s the proverbial “catch” in the
language requiring us to do our part. Abraham’s legacy speaks to just how amazing
life can be, when we surrender our way to the Lord.
