Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife… (Genesis 16:3)
Seeking Soul, did you realize sometimes God needs help? That is what Sarai (Mrs. Abram) figured out. On this seventh day of prayer and fasting, you are highly expectant of beginning to receive answers to prayer. You feel you have just accomplished the perfection season of God. Today, God did a miracle by directing me to meet a stranger I barely knew, to intervene in the needs of our church in a significant way. God answers prayer!
Sarai may have heard the conversation between God and Abram and wondered how that could be. God had promised Abram in Genesis 15:4 “…“This one (Eliezer) the servant, shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” Realizing she was aging and without the biological viability to become pregnant, she crafted a plan that would help her realize God’s promise.
Dear Seeking Soul, does that sound familiar? You need a relationship; you search for it. You need money; you work for it. Have you not heard the common phrase that “God helps those who help themselves?” You bribe to get your way and thank God for giving you money to realize your desire. Soul, are we not the proverbial hyena who finds a bone on the road and instructs the bone that “if you don’t move from my way, I will have no choice but to eat you?”
In chapter sixteen of Genesis, Sarai relates her bareness to God, who has “restrained her from bearing children.” She is generous enough to offer her maidservant to the husband to bear a son for her as a surrogate mother of sought. That was a common customary habit of wealthy people who would get children through their “slave” laborers.
Seeking Soul, the Bible clearly indicates that “…Abram heeded the voice of Sarai.” What? Oh yes, even after the elaborate argument with God and sealing the covenant with blood, Abram never thought it prudent to consult with God before implementing his wife’s “emergency intervention plan” (emip). Please hold on before casting the first stone on Sarai. Don’t you think that is who we are?
Seeking Soul, do you feel as though you have waited too long for the answer to your prayer? You know you have done it right by praying, fasting, meditating on the word, and waiting upon the Lord. You suddenly remember that maybe I need to take the initiative by making this one call; what is wrong with spending one night to demonstrate my love? It looks like we will get married anyway! Soon, you realize you have made compromises and must bear the consequences of the drastic steps taken without consulting God.
It is not long before Sarai and Abraham are faced with a domestic quarrel. The slave girl despises Sarai now that she has gotten pregnant, Sarai blaming Abram for the jealousy fit and Abram lashing back at Sarai to deal with the girl according to her desire. Sarai renders Hagar the slave to become homeless, and if it were not for God’s intervention, a pregnant woman would have starved to death in the wilderness. Seeking Soul, what lessons do we learn from this love scandal episode?
- Divine Plan: There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. (Proverbs 14:12) Does your plan have the approval of God? Count the cost of the ultimate consequences.
- Ultimate Purpose: Sarai intended to get a child through her husband; she never cared about the means. God was particular and had already stated that Abram was to get an heir, not just a child. Besides, this heir was not to come through the slave path. God never needed help from Sarai to make that happen. Thus says the Lord, ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession (Psalm 2:8)
- Sure Posterity: Through Abram’s son, a nation would be formed, a righteous nation after God to displace all the idol-worshiping nations that existed in the land. Abram’s heir would become a solution to the “evil” that prevailed. Unfortunately, with the coming of “Ishmael,” a lasting “restlessness” would coexist among the brothers. The Bible says, “Ishmael, shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man, And every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.” (Genesis 16:12)
Seeking Soul, how have you found yourself attempting to help, instead of waiting on God?
Talking of helping God, I have done it countless times.There is this time when I was in a financial crisis.I needed God to come through for me. After realizing that “time was running out “,I went and got money from a Shylock. “God helps those who help themselves”.
Thank you for talking on our behalf. I have a friend who has lived almost all her adult life making man to pay shylocks on loans that do not end. Every short cut we take Agnes has consequences. Can you imagine those of us with the burden of extra obligations because we found ourselves trapped in families we had no plan to start and now we have become “victim of circumstances.” Consequences…