When flesh is stronger than faith

Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, "See now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her." And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. – Genesis 16v1-2

They must have been getting impatient. Abram and Sarai just grew older and older and older. No vast numbers of descendents, not even a single son. It looks like they grew tired of waiting.

I can almost hear Sarai’s reasoning. “It’s been ten years since God promised Abram a great nation. He is 85 years old and nothing is happening. Wait, God never promised me a son! Maybe God only made the promise to Abram. There’s Hagar over there. Maybe God wants to use her as a surrogate to give us a son.’

‘Abram, come here. I have an idea. I am not going to have any kids; that’s pretty obvious. Go see Hagar and maybe God will give us a son that way.’

Now before we get too shocked we need to remember the time. It was sin, yes, but they had no IVF or test tube babies. Their culture allowed barren women to have children through servants acting as surrogates.

So they forgot about God’s promise and acted according to their own plans. The plan worked. Hagar, their Egyptian servant got pregnant and a son was born. Problem solved, right? Wrong? Sarai didn’t like it. She thought, we don’t know whether justifiably or not, that Hagar was mocking her. So Abram acceded to her plan to send Hagar and the son away.

God found them and gave Hagar comfort that God would keep his promise. Abram’s son would be the father of a mighty nation. We now know from scripture and history that the promise came true. Ishmael became the father of the Arab peoples. Out of that nation grew Islam.

We all know the long term repercussions of Ishmael’s birth. There is no need to go into that here.

What we do need to see is the result of choosing to act by faith instead of trusting God’s promise. Hopefully none of us will ever make a foolish decision that will result in a millennia long world conflict, but when we act according to the flesh the result is not going to be good.

Earlier Abram allowed his fear to overcome his faith. Now, at Sarai’s leading, they allow their flesh to overcome their faith.

When are they going to learn that God’s way is the best way? When are we going to learn?