21st.: Abraham, Hagar, & Sarai’s Plan
Abram was/is important to God.
If nothing else, Abram was willing to listen to God.
Therefore, God promised Abram,
“Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them. So shall thy seed be.” (Gen. 15:5).
No doubt Abram told Sarai about God’s promise to give Abram many descendants.
Sometime later, Sarai became impatient. She told Abram,
“Behold now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing.
I pray thee, go in unto my maid. It may be that I may obtain children by her.” (Gen. 16:2a).
Sarai decided that she needed to help God. When Abraham heard her solution,
we speculate that he may have thought that this was God’s solution to filling the promise from Gen. 15:5.
However, instead of immediately accepting Sarai’s suggestion, Abram should have asked the Lord,
“Do you plan to keep your promise via the handmaid?
If God had answered, Abram would have avoided several heartaches.
To his defense, at this time in his life, Abram may not have realized that he could have asked God this kind of a question.
What can we learn from this? When someone proposes some means to solve something,
we can take it to the Lord, to see what He has to say.
If we learn to take issues to the Lord sooner, and more often,
we too can avoid certain headaches, and heartaches.
“Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward, receive me to glory.” (Ps. 73:24)