A Life Worth Living

Life is messy because people are messy. Bible stories are no different. They are messy and full of complicated family dynamics. In Genesis we read the story of a man named Abraham. Abraham is married to Sarah and we quickly learn that she is not able to have children. Barren is what the bible calls her. God appears to Abraham several times and one of this times, He promises him many descendants and not figuratively because God would give him a son. 10 years pass and nothing happened so Sarah comes up with her own solution to bring about this promise of a descendant.

Hagar, Sarah’s servant is introduced as the solution. By all accounts in their time and culture, taking on someone else to bear you a son was acceptable and even reasonable. However, Sarah’s great plan quickly turns into bitter rivalry after Hagar gets pregnant. Hagar is arrogant and disrespectful towards Sarah who is cruel in return. Things are so bad that Hagar runs away. But wait for it…Hagar encounters “the angel of the Lord” who asks her to go back and submit to Sarah. Amongst other things, she is also told she would have a son, Ishmael, because God has heard her affliction.(Gen 16:9-12)

To me, sending Hagar somewhere else…possibly far far away from Sarah at this point seems easier and more convenient. I can picture the relief from both women not having to deal with each other anymore. Yet God uses the less convenient and more painful path. Why would God put them through that? I imagine Sarah’s pain in having to accept pregnant Hagar back into her home and hear her re-tell her encounter with the Lord and know she would have a son -the one thing she could not give her husband. While she was still in the same position she was in before Hagar ran away. A position with no angelic encounter and no child. I wonder what Hagar thought when the same God who had said He had heard her affliction was asking her to return to the person/situation she was running away from. And if returning wasn’t humiliating enough, she had to actively submit to Sarah. This situation required both women, to die to self. Sarah to her self reliance and Hagar to her pride. I think in this story God had a lesson for both women to learn.

Could it be that as Hagar spoke of Elrohi the God who sees, Sarah would know that God sees her too? Would she deal with the pain of longing for something and not having it, by crying out to God as opposed to taking it out on Hagar? Would she learn to depend on God alone and not try get results her own way? Would Hagar learn that even though she had God’s blessing she had to walk in humility?

Just like those two women God often allows us to be in situations that require us to die to our self reliance and pride so that we can fully depend on Him.

My dear friend where does self reliance and pride show up in your life? When God hasn’t given you what you want or you find yourself in a situation you would not want, are you relying on your own ingenuity? Or are you going to God and trusting His timing, waiting for how and when He will intervene? Do you flaunt what you have or look down on people who don’t share your same social economic status or education? Is it hard to submit to someone you think is less than you ?

My dear friend, Gods is not arbitrary in what He does, Trust Him. God’s timing is His timing. When He answers is the right time. Walk humbly before Him recognizing that the blessings you have are from Him.