role reversal-3

Hagar's meeting with God.

7 The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

   “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.

 9 Then the angel of the LORD told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”

 11 The angel of the LORD also said to her:

   “You are now pregnant

   and you will give birth to a son.

You shall name him Ishmael,^[a^]

   for the LORD has heard of your misery.

12 He will be a wild donkey of a man;

   his hand will be against everyone

   and everyone’s hand against him,

and he will live in hostility

   toward^[b^] all his brothers.”

 13 She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen^[c^] the One who sees me.” 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi^[d^]; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

Then the angel of the LORD told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” 10   I love that God never offers a solution to our problems the includes going against the system he set up.  Slaves were to be submissive to their masters.  Hagar needed to go back and submit, even though from a human standpoint it looked like she needed to get out of there.  Wow, that is grounding isn't it?  

Hagar had run from Sarai.  She didn't seek the Lord either.  But oh the wonderful part: The Lord sought out Hagar! What a comfort it is! The presence of the Lord in her life gave her comfort and security in a time of extreme pain and fear.Vs 13“I have now seen^[c^] the One who sees me.” Sometimes we are like Hagar. Sometimes we are the victims of others decisions made outside of seeking God.  Sometimes we are hurt and we want to run from our circumstances.  We need God to seek us out and remind us that he sees us and he will protect us.  Whether we need to repent and seek, or we need God to get our attention, what we need is to be in the presence of God, To see the one who sees us"  In that we find peace and the solutions to our problems, real or imaginary :)  

Hagar recieved the courage she needed to go back to Abram and Sarai and lived there many more years with her son.  

role reversal-2

Vs 4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.

   When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.”

Role reversal in a marriage will only lead to more problems.  The result of their little plan was that Hagar began to hate Sarai once she became pregnant.  Now it doesn't say exactly why, but I imagine knowing that the only reason your mistress gave you to her husband was so you could give them a baby might lead to a little bit of bitterness. Sarai blamed Abram.  Goes to show you, taking the lead role over your Godly husband, though it may seem like a solution, will only result in a loss of respect.  Sarai blamed abram and wanted him to find a solution.  Instead of taking control, Abram continued to allow Sarai to rule the roost by telling her to do whatever she wanted to Hagar. “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.You can see though that he didn't consider Hagar a wife. Shows his heart was sinful even though from the outside the marriage to Hagar was legit.  Sarai, once again, took matters into her own hands, with out submission to God , and was mean to Hagar.  That Goes to show you, not seeking God, and not submitting to your husband, will result in a loss of leadership and make you miserable.  Sarai was unhappy and was lashing out against God, Abram and Hagar.  Again they both missed an opportunity to repent and ask God to help them leading them to make the wrong decisions. 

There is beauty in the rest of this story leading up to the result of their sin: the birth of Ishmael.  Hagar's meeting with God...to be continued

Role Reversal

Genesis 16:3-15 

Vs 3 Abram agreed to what Sarai said. ³ So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. ⁴ He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.

Abram agreed to what Sarai said. In alot of ways, I mean really, can you blame him?  He was only  human after all.  He submitted to her. They even tried to smooth over the reality of the sin by Abram marrying Hagar. (see God, it is alright to do this because I am not just sleeping with Hagar, I am making her my wife) There were problems though.  One, Abraham did not stop to pray about this life altering decision.  Neither did Sarai.  Wow! The man who had spoken to God who had Heard from God on a person to person leval.  Abraham had a very deep close relationship with God, and yet in the instance he chose not to seek the Lord. Our past relationship with God does not exempt us from seeking him in every situation. Proverbs 3:6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.^[a]Sarai knew of Abram's relationship with God and as a help meet, she didn't submit her idea to him for prayer, she said "take my handmaid"  and he agreed!  May we never loose sight of the fact that no matter how good of an idea we think we have, and no matter how close or far away God may seem to us, me must consult him first thing.  If Sarai would have done this, she wouldn't have took the lead role.  Even if she, after praying and seeking God, still thought it was the right thing.  (although I seriously doubt she would have still wanted to do that) If Abram had stopped to seek the Lord he wouldn't have agreed.  They were solving a problem that didn't exist using methods that were backwards.  As wives we must submit to our husbands as to the Lord. Ephesians 5:22 ² Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.  I love that verse, the submission to our husbands is a direct result of our habit of seeking the Lord.  Are you having a problem submitting to your Godly husband? That is probably a symptom of you not seeking the Lord.  If you think it is because he isn't seeking the Lord, as his help meet it is your responsibly to encourage him to seek the Lord as you yourself are doing.  I promise you, seeking the Lord will change your attitude about submission!

Two, Sarai taking the lead, caused her to blame Abram when the plan took a turn for the worse...to be continued

Magnification of Faith

Hebrews 11

This passage gives us a list of our Faith bearing forefathers/mothers.  A great Cloud of witnesses as chapter 12 says.  It is interesting to me that like Sarah, all of these people's assets were not mentioned as evidence of perfection (as we sometimes assume).  On the contrary, they are evidence of God working to reveal his glory in spite of their weaknesses.  The great things God does in us and through us by our faith, resulting in obedience,  are magnified in comparison to the mistakes we make outside of faith.  this is why God does not condemn us when we screw up.
The visual example I have in my head is this: I see, for example, the life of Abraham written on a piece of paper.  All the good and all the bad.  I also see, a magnifying glass.  When I look at the page through the magnifying glass the things that pop out at me are the things he did by faith.  If we are not careful we tend to only look at his life through the magnifying glass leading us to believe he had achieved some level of perfection.  What we fail to see is that without the mistakes he made in his life there would be no need for a magnifying glass.  It is in comparison to the sinner Abraham really was that the things he did through faith are magnified, revealing the glory of God, not the glory of Abraham.

The Daughters of Sarah

Daughters of Sarah

Genesis 16:1-2

1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”


Sarah, even after seeing all God had done in their lives, including rescuing her from the King of Egypt when Abram gave her away, took her eyes off God and started feeling insecure about herself. The woman Peter used as an example in 1 Peter 3 had a horrible flaw?  Yes, the same one that we all have as women-the Tendency to play God.

Sarah had seen better than anyone Abrams strengths and weaknesses, and through it all she respected him.*  But, she began to believe that she wasn’t enough for him.  VS 2“The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave.”  She saw that humanly speaking she could not give Abram what he needed and decided since she wasn’t enough, he needed someone else. 

The covenant between God and Abram was no secret to Sarah.  She had, no doubt been waiting all those years for the fulfillment of a child.  She believed it would happen until it became clear that humanly speaking, it was impossible. (That is why she laughed in chapter 18)  It was like “Ok God,, I know you said I would have a baby, but see, I am past the age of childbirth and it is out of your hands now”

How often do we do that?  We believe God only when it is easy or seems possible, but stop believing when it looks like it is impossible.  We start seeing God as being only within human limits. We put him in a box restricting his power to only what is humanly possible.  This always leads to our playing God.  If God is only as powerful as a human, and we aren’t getting the results we think we should be getting from him, we then take over.

Funny the difference between Humility and Pride.  Humility says “God, when I look at myself I see that I can’t do what you are asking me to do, but I am here, I know you can do what you want through me, so take me as I am”

 Pride says “Ok God, I heard what you said, but I gotta tell you, I know me better than you do and I can’t do what you want me to do, but don’t worry God, I can fix this.” Then we proceed to take over God’s job.

Sarah blamed God for what she saw as failure in her life.  What arrogance! “The LORD has kept me from having children. She justified her sin by saying God wasn’t doing his job. So, she took over God’s job. In saying “Ok Abram, I can’t give you what you need so here is another woman”  she was actually saying “The promise God made to you isn’t going to happen now, but I know how to fix it, sleep with Hagar and we can share her baby. See? I can give you what God can’t!”  Vs 2 perhaps I can build a family through her.”

Sarah felt insecure about who she was and what she could be to Abram when she took her eyes off God.  That insecurity led her to take control of her house and lead her husband to sin. When we stop believing God and trusting him, the only recourse is to trust in our own abilities and in doing so we must let go of all that is true and do the opposite of what God wants.  When Sarah did this, the relationship she had with abram and the dynamic of their home was perverted.  She became the leader. Vs 2b Abram agreed to what Sarai said.   I find it interesting that she thought she could fulfill God’s promise to Abram.  She thought she could, through doing something that was wrong (and encouraging Abram to sin) she could be a successful wife.  She could then attain the security she lost apart from God, who through her unbelief she had, in her mind, rendered powerless.

What is sad is that her assumption was correct. She couldn’t be all that Abram needed. He did need some one else. He needed God.  In reality, God had already given Abram and Sarah everything they needed in each other, but only through him. 

Vs 2b Abram agreed to what Sarai said.   Lets not forget that Abram agreen to this little plan.  Even the Father of Nations was only human after all.  Don’t underestimate the influence we have in our husbands lives.  It is a great responsibility.  One of the most helpful things we can do for our husbands is to realize we are and never will be enough for them--apart from Christ.  Knowing this we must cling to the Lord and allow him to work through us to plug us into our husband’s lives.  So that we can be everything they need in a wife.  We can’t be God for them, We can’t be the only thing that prevents them from weakness, But God can and he is capable of using us in their lives!  In fact he designed it to be that way! He designed us for them! Our purpose in life is to bring glory to God, being what God wants us to be for our husbands is an expression of worship to our God!

Why did God make a covenant with Abram and Sarai? Why did he honor that covenant even though both of them were far from perfect?  Because it wasn’t about who they were, it was and is about who God is.

* It is interesting to me that it isn’t our husbands’ lack of weakness that leads us to respect them, it is their response to those weaknesses.