Abraham: Getting Ahead of God
Genesis 15-16
Remember when you first got your driver’s license? You studied and got all the knowledge necessary to pass the written test, went to the office, took the written test, aced it, and then you had to take all the knowledge you had attained and put it into practice by taking the driving test. Some of us had no problem taking the theoretical and putting it into practice, but others of us, for one reason or another, just didn’t get it right.
Living life is like taking the driving portion of the license test. We have the knowledge of living a Christian life, or at the least we come to church, and study the bible, and pray, and we gain the written knowledge, but then we have to go out and put all that knowledge into practice, and sometimes we just don’t get it right. The biblical character Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, found this to be incredibly true.
Let me remind you about Abraham. When last we encountered him, he had just returned to the land God had promised him after a sojourn down into Egypt. God redeemed him and God restored him, even though he had faltered in his faith in God. Since that episode, Abraham has settled a family squabble with his nephew, Lot, and he has won a major victory over some invading allied armies, and in the meantime rescued the same nephew from those invading Kings. Three times since Abraham’s exit from his homeland has he received the promise of God, “I will make you a great nation.”
Repeatedly, Abraham has heard the promise and the voice of God. But after ten years of wondering when the promise would be fulfilled, he finally says to God, “What good is it to be a great nation if I don’t even have a son as an heir? I guess Eliezer, my servant, will be my heir” (Genesis 15:2-3).
God said, “No Abraham, I’m going to give you a son.” God said to Abraham, “I tell you what. Go stand outside and look up. See the stars? Can you count them? That’s the way it will be with your descendents” (Gen. 15:4-5). Then, verse 6 of chapter 15 says something very interesting: “And Abraham believed the Lord, and the Lord declared him righteous because of his faith.” There’s Abraham’s knowledge. He knows God’s promise. Now the test of living out the promise comes for Abraham.
After ten years of wondering, are we surprised that Abraham would ask a simple question, “Lord, how can I be sure?” (Gen. 15:8). God answers by making a covenant with Abraham. That was God’s way of saying to Abraham, “I’ll guarantee it, and here’s my guarantee.” God told Abraham what to do—lay out some animal carcasses in half—and when the sun went down, God came and danced as a flame of fire between those carcasses (Gen. 15:9-17). It was God’s handshake, God’s signature, and God’s seal all rolled up into one. So Abraham had the knowledge and the guarantee. But putting that knowledge to practice was another matter completely.
Let’s pick up Abraham’s story here in Genesis 16:1:
But Sarah, Abraham’s wife, had no children.
Despite the knowledge, despite the guarantee, Abraham and Sarah had no children. Bewilderment and discouragement are the words that best describe the problem of barrenness they faced.
This is also our problem in the life of faith. Like Abraham, we too are justified by faith. We accepted this gift of God’s righteousness by a simple act of our will. We know we possess it, not by our efforts but by our faith in Jesus Christ. Then we set about trying to please God because we are now his. We do it by the only means we know – trying to do the best we can. But we discover quickly that somehow our Christian experience loses its glow and fire, and instead of the fruit of love, joy, and peace which we were led to expect, we find life is just barren. We have the same problem Abraham had. This life which is expected to produce immediate fruit results only in barrenness and we just don’t understand.
The barren times of life are when we are most likely to try to get ahead of God. Why? Because we think we must take matters into our own hands. We think, “I’ve got to do something about it.” Abraham and Sarah both had this attitude. Listen:
Genesis 16:1b-3a
So Sarai took her servant, an Egyptian woman named Hagar, [2] and gave her to Abram so she could bear his children. "The Lord has kept me from having any children," Sarai said to Abram. "Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her." And Abram agreed. [3] So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife.
What appears strange to us is actually a sacrificial and socially acceptable solution to the problem Abraham and Sarah faced. But it is a proposal of the flesh because it is rooted in the basic philosophy that says, “God has told me what he wants, now the rest is up to me.” This attitude led to a great deal of heartache and sorrow not only for Abraham and Sarah, but also for Hagar and the child that would be born from this arrangement. It is evidence that even the best intentions end in brokenness when done for the wrong reasons.
This is what happens to us. The bible says, “Go make disciples” (Matt. 28:18), and we say, “develop a strategy, spend some money, find someone to go.” It’s up to us to carry out God’s will. We do get some fruit from this, too, but the fruit seems a bit bitter. As Christians, we know we are supposed to be like Jesus. What do we do? We set out to be like him. We make a list of rules of acceptable behavior. We get busy working for God, going to church, doing things for the Lord. We do our best, but deep in our hearts we know there is nothing but barrenness. Barrenness happens because while we may know God’s will, we’ve not yet discovered God’s way.
Listen to the calamity that followed:
Genesis 16:4-6
So Abram slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress Sarai with contempt. [5] Then Sarai said to Abram, "It’s all your fault! Now this servant of mine is pregnant, and she despises me, though I myself gave her the privilege of sleeping with you. The Lord will make you pay for doing this to me!" [6] Abram replied, "Since she is your servant, you may deal with her as you see fit." So Sarai treated her harshly, and Hagar ran away.
Getting ahead of God always leads to the same things. Pettiness, jealousy, anger, selfishness, and lots of other ugly emotions that always lie near the surface of every fallen human heart, come to the surface when we know God’s will, but for some reason think he’s taken on a job too big for himself. Whenever these symptoms are present, we must ask the question, “Have we gotten ahead of God?” We may know the will of God, but we need to stop and find the way of God.
The way of God is always the way of grace. Listen:
Genesis 16:7-16
The angel of the Lord found Hagar beside a desert spring along the road to Shur. [8] The angel said to her, "Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where have you come from, and where are you going?"
"I am running away from my mistress," she replied.
[9] Then the angel of the Lord said, "Return to your mistress and submit to her authority." [10] The angel added, "I will give you more descendants than you can count." [11] And the angel also said, "You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard about your misery. [12] This son of yours will be a wild one—free and untamed as a wild donkey! He will be against everyone, and everyone will be against him. Yes, he will live at odds with the rest of his brothers."
[13] Thereafter, Hagar referred to the Lord, who had spoken to her, as "the God who sees me," for she said, "I have seen the One who sees me!" [14] Later that well was named Beer-lahairoi, and it can still be found between Kadesh and Bered.
[15] So Hagar gave Abram a son, and Abram named him Ishmael. [16] Abram was eighty-six years old at that time.
The angel of the Lord found Hagar. When we compare this phrase with other uses in the Old Testament, we find this is none other than the pre-incarnate Christ. This is Jesus himself appearing to Hagar, and he says to her the same things he says to us when we are lost:
1) Where have you come from and where are you going? Isn’t it interesting? Hagar answers the first question, but she doesn’t answer the second. How like us. We may know where we’ve been, but how many of us can say we really know where we’re going?
2) Then, he says, “Return and submit.” Jesus knew if she wandered in the wilderness both she and the child would die. He knew the only way to experience grace and the blessing of God was to return. Sometimes, he says to us, “Go back to those circumstances you don’t like, and I’ll work it out my way.” Otherwise we are forever lost.
3) Finally, he says, “I’ll give you more descendents than you can count.” Listen, blessing always follows obedience.
Hagar, amazed by the power and presence of God, calls him “The God Who Sees.” She knew God had seen her, and known her. So she named the well she was at “The well of the One who lives and sees,” and the well was located between Kadesh and Bered. Kadesh in Hebrew means holiness. Bered in Hebrew means judgment. Hum? The well of God’s grace lies somewhere between holiness and judgment. Somewhere between getting it right and completely blowing it we encounter the amazing grace of God.
Sometimes God’s grace encourages us. Sometimes God’s grace convicts us—as it did with Hagar in the wilderness, and sometimes God’s grace simply sustains us—as it did with Abraham and Sarah, for it was another thirteen years before they would finally live in the promise of God. But whether God’s grace encourages us, convicts us, or sustains us, it always calls us—calls us to himself somewhere between getting it right and blowing it. That is God’s way. When we live in God’s grace, we’ll never get ahead of God. And all the knowledge of his promise will be met in the practice of our lives.
