It was a legitimate solution, and when you think about it, an understandable mistake. In Genesis 12 and then again in Genesis 15, God promised Abraham many descendants, indeed that the entire earth would be blessed through him. Abraham knew that it was God’s plan for his life to be the father of a great nation. So when Sarah showed up in Genesis 16 with a plan to make it happen, Abraham was on board:
“Abram’s wife Sarai had not borne him children. She owned an Egyptian slave named Hagar. Sarai said to Abram, ‘Since the Lord has prevented me from bearing children, go to my slave; perhaps I can have children by her. And Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So Agram’s wife Sarai took Hagar, her Egyptian slave, and gave her to her husband as a wife for him. This happened after Abram had lived in the land of Canaan for 10 years. he slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant” (Genesis 16:1-4).
You can certainly understand where this came from, right? I mean, it had been over 10 years since God had promised Abraham a kid. And the biological clock was already ticking away at that point. They had waited and waited and waited, and then logic took over.
“God promised us we would have a son.”
“We’ve waited for that to happen. Is it possible we misheard Him?”
“We know what His plan is, we just don’t know the specifics of how to get there.”
“Here’s another option to get to where God wants us to be.”
That’s how Ishmael came to be—an effort to get where God wanted Abraham and Sarah to be. Often we make the same mistake. We have a sense that God has called us to do this or that with our lives, but then the days get long. We get impatient. We start to wonder if we heard Him correctly. And then finally, we take matters into our own hands and presume upon the wisdom, timing, and plan of God.
There is a fine line to walk here between actively waiting for God to fulfill His purposes and promises and becoming a self-promoter. Abraham erred to the latter.
Now interestingly enough, centuries later, Paul commented on the whole Ishmal/Isaac situation in the book of Galatians, saying one child was born according to the flesh and one born according to the promise. In the context of Galatians, you might also say that one child represents a life lived by works and one represents a life lived by faith. When we live according to works, we feel like we have to take matters into our own hands. We have to promote our cause. We have to do something. We have to move, to network, to MAKE IT HAPPEN. That is contrasted to a life of faith.
The life of faith frees you from having to promote your own cause. It frees you from presuming upon the promises of God. It frees you to trust and live and wait for God, trusting in His wisdom and timing.
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“We have to move, to network, to MAKE IT HAPPEN”
Thanks for this Michael. How do we know when we’re taking things into our own hands too much and not waiting on his timing and acting on our faith?
I struggle with this in business especially. The bills are always compelling us to MAKE things happen. I try to be sensitive to situations where it seems the Lord is pushing me away or trying to remove something. It’s so easy to push through blindly into something not good.
This is a great question, Josh, and something I too struggle with.
For me, the line comes when I find myself building relationships strictly for what I can get out of them. Sure, there maybe benefit to me in any relationship, but to do so strictly out of a desire for personal gain seems to be exclusively self-serving. Even in business relationships I think we can treat people as valuable, rather than just a means to our end.
a great word much-needed for this pastor wanting to WILL a new staff member on to our team … better to have an Assoc. Pastor for Families with Youth by faith rather than works. thanks man.
Abraham never seemed to have a problem with active obedience regardless how bizarre and difficult God’s requests must have seemed (“uproot and start walking”, “ok”, kill your son”, “ok”, etc). I think he would have agreed with Tom Petty that the waiting is the hardest part. I really like your definition of faith, though, if I read into it correctly: “active waiting”.
Benny – Don’t know if I wrote “active waiting,” but I like that too.
Understood. I tripped over your phrase, “actively waiting for God” about 3 paragraphs up and had to stop and think about what sounded like an oxymoron at first glance. The more I thought on it the more I enjoyed your use of that phrase. To then offer it up as a definition for faith may have been me over-reaching but I like it nonetheless.
I like your writing. Makes me wish I did more reading. 🙂