Anyone that has kids or works with kids know that when they jump in to help sometimes they make a big mess. Even if they help clean it up you have to go behind them to really get it cleaned up. Likewise, when we think God needs our help in certain areas by doing things in our own finite mind things tend to become big blown up messes that God in His infinite wisdom has to clean up. Sometimes we still have to deal with those messes for the rest of our lives.
Sarai in her fleshly mind could not see how after all these years being barren she decided to take things into her own hand. She tells Abram because she has not been able to give him a child he should sleep with her maidservant Hagar. Which he did.
Remember when Abram took things into his own hands in Egypt, not trusting God to protect him? They got kicked out with all that they had. Hagar was sent with Sarai as a get out of here gift. Hagar was an Egyptian princess who lost favor with her brother the Pharoah at the time. Now she was Sarai’s maidservant.
Once it was apparent that Hagar was pregnant Sarai lost it. She blamed Abram for the situation she was now in. It wasn’t her child it was Hagar. It didn’t work out the why she had planned. Hagar saw that she was able to do something Sarai couldn’t and exalted herself above Sarai because she was with child. Her attitude outraged Sarai so much that she went and blamed Abram for the whole situation. That backfires on Sarai as he told her that Hagar was her problem.
Does this sound like a soap opera yet? So things get so bad between the two that Hagar runs off. The princess turned servant is now homeless and wandering the desert alone and with a child. That is when the Lord sent an angel who told her to go back only after telling her:
Behold, you are with child,
And you will bear a son;
And you shall call his name Ishmael,
Because the Lord has given heed to your affliction.
He will be a wild donkey of a man,
His hand will be against everyone,
And everyone’s hand will be against him;
And he will live to the east of all his brothers.Genesis 16:11-12
This is the problem with the Middle East today. He will be against everyone and everyone against him.
Hagar returned gave, birth to Ishmael, and the mess continues. As we see with sometimes when we try to do things on our own not waiting on God even when he does step in to clean up the mess we made there are circumstances that we may have to live with for the rest of our lives and beyond.
Bonnie Sue Writes 