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3rd May 2024
FridayReflection
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Jeremy Myers explains
Hagar: The Horrible Mistake
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In Genesis 16, Abram once again shows that though he is the father of faith, he still makes mistakes and has doubts.
It is always a bad idea to try to accomplish God's plan in your own way and your own timing.
God's plans come complete with His methods and His timing, and when we try to tinker with that, it messes everything up.
Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children.
And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar.
Sarai said to Abram,
"The Lord has kept me from having children. Why don't you sleep with my slave? Perhaps she can have a child for me." Abram agreed with what Sarai said. (GNV)
Sometimes God does not give us all the information we think we need to follow Him.
Sometimes, He only tells us what He is going to do; not how He is going to do it.
Abram and Sarai find themselves in such a situation.
When Sarai dealt harshly with her, Hagar fled from her presence.
When others may ignore you and mistreat you and abuse you, never forget that God sees and He knows, and He cares.
He wants to show Hagar that He cares for her, and so He asks her the lead in question. Hagar answers
"I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai."
Notice that she only answers one of the questions, and that not very well.
The Angel of the Lord has already indicated that He knows Hagar is Sarai's maid, and that Hagar has run away from her, and Hagar doesn't really provide any new information.
She is vague about why she is fleeing, or where she is fleeing. Maybe she feels guilty about what she is doing.
But the Angel of the Lord doesn't rebuke her.
He just gently corrects her and tells her what to do.
You see, everybody thinks that our behaviour toward others depend on how they treat us.
But that is completely backwards.
The Bible says that we should treat others the way we would want to be treated if we were them.
From Hagar will come a multitude of descendants.
She called the name of the Lord who spoke to her,
You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, "Have I also here seen Him who sees me?"
She has been mistreated and abused, but she recognizes that God does see all.
Do you know that God sees you?
It is one thing to know that He loves you and that He hears your prayers, but it is quite another to know that His eyes are upon you. He is watching you.
This doesn't mean He is spying on you to punish you when you fail.
No, the concept of God seeing us is a loving concept.
He watches us because He is concerned about us, and loves to see us.
God loves to watch us.
It gives Him joy to see us go through life, and learn about Him, and interact with other people.
And He also watches to protect us from harm, so that if something starts to go wrong, He can immediately be there to help us through it.
God sees you. God watches you. Why?
Because God loves you.
Hagar, knowing this, returned to Abram and Sarai, where she had her son.
Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.
Abram was 75 years old when he first received the promise of God for a son, so it has now been eleven years waiting for this promise.
God sometimes moves slowly, and He will always allow us to outrun Him if we want, but when we do, we inevitably make a wrong turn, and find ourselves in a dead end.
Then God has to come lead us back to the right road, and continue on from there.
Running ahead of God never speeds things up, it only slows things down, and causes great heartache and headache later on.
God-fearing people sometimes try to fulfil God's will in their own ways - and complicate things.
But God can even be in their mistakes and use their mistakes to work out His plans.
If you have made a mistake in your past, do two things.
First, own up to it. Admit what you did was wrong.
John calls this confessing your sin.
Take responsibility for your actions.
Then, once you have done this, move on.
Trust that God, in His sovereignty, can even bring good from your mistakes, and that your mistakes never thwart God's plan and purposes for you.
><(((°>
This is an edited version.
The full article and Bible references are avaiable on request
Redeeming God
Liberating you from bad ideas about God
Hi! I'm Jeremy Myers.
I write books, teach online courses, lead a discipleship group, and publish podcasts about Scripture, theology, and following Jesus.
I was a pastor numerous years before becoming a prison chaplain.
I have degrees from Moody Bible Institute and Dallas Theological Seminary.
At RedeemingGod.com, I seek to help you follow God in a more relational way by liberating Scripture and theology from the shackles of religion.
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