THERE’S A TIME TO WAIT

GENESIS 16 THERE’S A TIME TO WAIT We don’t always learn from our mistakes. When we have to relearn the same lessons, the consequences are usually more severe and longer lasting. Abram knew he had taken action without faith or even asking God for guidance when he went to Egypt. Now, he was well along in his eighties, but even as an older man, instead of asking if Sarai’s suggestion to have the long-awaited son through a surrogate mother was what God intended, he acted on his own initiative. “Abram heeded the voice of Sarai.” For lack of patience and spiritual discernment, he stepped into a snare with far-reaching effects. The Sad Mistake. Waiting is not easy. There is often the temptation to take matters into our own hands when things are not happening the way we thought they should or according to our timetable. It is true that the temptation came from Sarai, but Abram did not have to yield to that temptation. Perhaps she did not know the promised seed would come through her. She did know it was coming through her husband. She had faith in God’s promise and seemed willing to deny herself the privilege of having a child to see that promise come true. Her motive was likely genuine and self-sacrificing, but the proposal was wrong and the method was wrong. It was wrong against God who was waiting until Abram’s faith was completely in Him. It wronged both Hagar and Sarai. The Sad Results. Hagar became insolent, although that was natural and inevitable since she had almost become like a second wife to Abram. Human nature doesn’t stop being human nature, and home conflict was a result. Sarai blamed Abram for the injury to her pride and self-esteem. Misery was another result that came on Abram because of the conflict and he was powerless to avoid it. Hagar was Sarai’s servant/slave and so was her property to do with as she chose! Injustice against Hagar was another result because she was treated worse than before she bore Ishmael for Abram. These are lessons for us to consider before we take questionable steps. “Whatsoever is not of faith, is sin.” Payday comes someday! The Glad Intervention. Man blunders and fails, sins, and suffers. God sees the conditions we bring upon ourselves, and in wonderful grace, overrules them with grace and divine providence. God found Hagar overwhelmed with grief and human troubles. He guided her to the best possible result as a representative of natural humanity, in spite of the failure of His own children of faith. God still does that today. He saves people in spite of the failures of Christian believers.

God is interested in human troubles and He expects submission to His word and will in dealing with our need. Even in difficult circumstances that He does not take away. He is there to give what is needed to either solve the problem or live with the problem. The mistakes we make do have consequences. God assured them, as He does us, that he can bring spiritual blessing out of troubled events and times. He doesn’t make demands of His people without a promise. “I will be with thee.” He overrules events and circumstances by revealing there can be reasons to be encouraged by them and in them. Hagar was changed at least in her attitude. She realized God knew her and saw her. A well was named to remind her and all involved, that God keeps His promises. The Facts. We still have the old nature. We are always in danger of failure when we get our eyes of faith off of our Lord. Temptation can come from unexpected sources, even those close to us. High motives don’t negate wrong actions. Waiting in faith is one of the necessities of spiritual life. Keeping in constant touch with God is the secret to a meaningful and happy life.

When is faith full-grown, or does it ever mature to where it is intended to be? It is God’s intention that we live by faith. Our daily living is intended to be one of trust and confidence in God. It is also intended that nothing else but faith is the guiding principle in our lives. Self-will, self-interest, and self-satisfaction are not to be the motivating factors in our lives at any stage of our growth in the Lord. Faith in God stands alone as the power, source, and substance of our living.

Those who are strong in faith will be tested by one means or another even as Abram was. He knew God’s promise was true, but he added his own efforts to make the promise come true quicker. That is a lack of faith. Waiting patiently and calmly when under pressure of doubt and skepticism, is hard to do. We may think as say we are trusting God alone, but the death of our own strength and will hasn’t come yet. So, we seek to live by our own strength rather than die to ourselves and live by the power of God. When we are content to accept the death of self, we will still have struggles with the “bondmaid,” the deeds of the law, and the temptation to do things our way. Hagar is a type of the natural world and doing things like everyone else does. If we seek our help from that source, “faith” would be using a worldly principle of natural strength.

It is when in despair we cast away that principle that seeks to control our lives, that we become truly alive and fruitful through the principle of grace given when grace is needed. Grace works through faith. When our natural strength is put away, and our impatience is calmed, God can act on the promises that He gives which are without the sin-polluted efforts of the “natural man.” Abram got a son all right. “Hagar” is fruitful but cannot produce the promised heir. The fruit of the flesh is very different from that which is by faith. Abram was promised that through his “seed,” singular – one seed, the promises God made would be fulfilled. The results were not what was promised. Sarai was despised by Hagar. Hagar became an arrogant surrogate wife. Abram was miserable in a household of contention. Sorrow comes when using that which is good is used out of place. “The law is good if it is used lawfully.” Sorrow comes from exalting the law and making it the guiding principle of life rather than a living faith in a living God.

History has shown the effects of Abram’s mistake in adding to the promise of God the results of his own impatience. The true seed that bears the right fruit, comes from death and barrenness. The power of resurrection life is then seen as God gives life in His own way. The inward actions of faith are our concern, not the outward fulfillment of that which is the result of man’s own will. We will only get what we have been saved for when we act in faith. “Not the labor of my hands, can fulfill Thy law’s demands. Could my zeal no respite know, could my tears forever flow; all for sin could not atone; thou must save and Thou alone.”