Week 2; Day 2

GENESIS 14-16
What a day full of events. Today’s reading begins with war. Abram faithfully obeys the oath he made with God in chapter 14. Chapter 15 begins with one of the most beautiful statements in all of scripture, “Do not be afraid, I am your shield.” Incredible. God goes on to make an amazing promise to Abram, then look at verse 6: “Abram believed the Lord, and He credited to him as righteousness.” This verse leaves me speechless. Abram firmly trusted God’s promise with absolute certainty so God accounted him to be a righteous man for the faith he possessed. The covenant is then established between God and Abram. No sooner do we see this man of unwavering faith enter into a covenant with God, then do we see him place more trust in his wife. She blames God for her barrenness rather than trust His timing then proceeds to convince her husband to take matters into their own hands. Oh, how often do we think, “God, you won’t do this, so I will.” Maybe Abram was one of those husbands who just tries to keep his wife happy. I’m not real sure but I do know that we can learn a tremendous about as women from this one chapter; the war between Sarai and her servant Hagar. Poor Hagar had no choice in any of this. Sarai acted on an emotional whim, persuaded her husband then ruined another’s life. By taking matters into her own hands, the result was nothing but jealousy. Due to her doubt and disobedience, a child is born that will father a people of hate and war. There are a couple of things that I don’t want us to miss from these three chapters. First, from Abram we see that He goes from a completely obedient faith in chapters 14 and 15 to just going right along with his wife. He doesn’t run the idea by God. He doesn’t talk the idea through with his wife. He just does what she says. This man, that God accounts as righteous, makes a horribly dumb decision. And we can all find ourselves doing the same thing. I suppose this is why Paul warns in Philippians that we must not “think more highly of ourselves than we ought.” No matter how strong my relationship of God may be, I’m always capable of disobedience. I’m going to camp out on Sarai for bit. What a woman and how much like her we are. She acts and reacts entirely out of emotion. Ladies, we cannot trust what we feel. It is crucially important to our decisions that we take everything to God. We are no better or different than Sarai. We need our fathers and husbands and those closest to us, to speak truth to us rather than just try to make us happy. I pray that my husband takes every whim that I have to God before he agrees.  It is not our husband’s obligation to make us happy but to live in obedience to God. As hard as it is to admit, we can be wrong. Sarai needed Abram to lead her in this moment. He failed but God still kept His promise. Yet, much heartache would have been spared if she would have simply sought God first. Both Abram and Sarai are responsible for the tragedy of this situation. How often do we have some idea that we think is simply genius, that we think will be exactly what we need to make us happy. We do whatever it takes to make it happen, then, when it’s too late, we find nothing but disappointment. Sarai raged in jealousy and hatred towards Hagar when it was herself that was to blame. We cannot miss the wisdom to be learned from Sarai’s actions. We cannot make decisions apart from seeking God and bringing our emotions to Him. Feelings will fail us every single time. Yet, as for God, His way is perfect. Ladies, we cannot trust ourselves. Abram is to blame here, as well. He should have been her second line of defense. She didn’t make the decision to go to God, but when she took the idea to Abram he could have taken the idea to God. He didn’t. He just went along with it. Ladies, be thankful for the people in your life who speak truth to you, who tell you that you should pray about it, who say “no, that’s not what God wants.” Our husbands aren’t given to us to make us happy. They are to help us grow in our pursuit of God. Sarai blamed Abram and Hagar when it was her own scheme. Don't leave out the fact the she whined and threw a fit when her plan didn't turn out the way she intended. Own it girl! You blew it. Everyone did what you wanted, it didn’t go the way you planned and now you’re blaming. Good grief, I want to be hard on her but us women are the same way today. Let’s be wise enough to learn from her actions rather than repeat them.