The story of Abraham and Sarah reads like the script of a soap opera. Perhaps we could call it, “As the Stomach Churns.” Abraham could have called it, “The Ways of My Wives.” To be certain, Abraham and Sarah were “The Old and the Restless.”
One part of the story that we did not learn about this week was the fact that, when a famine hit the land, Abraham went down to Egypt looking for food. Despite being a senior citizen, Sarah was still a beautiful woman. So beautiful, in fact, that Abraham thought the Pharaoh would kill him in order to take Sarah for his wife. Giving in to his fear, he asked Sarah to lie if anyone asked about the nature of their relationship. “Tell them you are my sister,” he said. Sarah agreed to go along with this, and as a result, Pharaoh did take her to be one of his many wives. But at least Abraham got to keep his life.
Ah, the tangled webs we weave. But the Lord proved Himself faithful by not allowing Pharaoh to sleep with his new bride and informing him that she was Abraham’s wife. Abraham then received a sharp rebuke from the Pharaoh, in which he was essentially told, “You should have had at least some trust in me.”
This happened, not once, but twice. And interestingly enough, we’re never told how Sarah felt about the whole thing. It makes me wonder whether there was a little bit of revenge when she was seeking when she offered her servant Hagar to Abraham. Was she perhaps thinking, “He offered me to another man. Let’s see what he does when I offer another woman to him”?
If revenge was a motive, I think it was a small one. The greater issue was a lack of faith on her part. She went to Abraham and said, “The Lord promised you a son, but He did not specify who the mother would be. And we both know I can’t have a child. I went through menopause twenty or thirty years ago. Take my servant Hagar, sleep with her, and let her be the mother of your prodigy.”
Abraham agreed, just as Sarah had agreed to lie about not being his wife. Hagar got pregnant and began rubbing it in Sarah’s face. “How long have you been married to Abraham? And all this time, you couldn’t have a baby. I slept with him once, and I’m pregnant. Maybe I should be his wife, and you can be my servant.”
My comment about whether or not Sarah was seeking some revenge comes from Genesis 16:5. After Hagar began looking on her with contempt, she went to Abraham and said, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me!”
Sarah did not say, “May the LORD judge between Hagar and me.” Her anger was not truly directed at Hagar. It was directed toward Abraham. She was essentially saying, “I may have suggested it, but you’re the head of the house. You agreed to it. You went through with it. Now, this is your mess.” Perhaps she added, “This is what you get for trying to pawn me off on Pharaoh.”
Fast forward maybe ten years, and we find the Lord again promising a son to Abraham. This time, however, He is specific about who the mother will be. In Genesis 17, He told Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her” (vv. 15-16).
Abraham laughed at the notion of he and Sarah having a child in their old age. He did not believe it was possible. So he said to God, “You promised me a son, and I have a son…Ishmael. Let him live before you. Let all the blessings you’ve promised me come through Ishmael.”
God said, “No. Ishmael is not the one I promised. Sarah will have a baby. You are to name him Isaac, and he will be the one through whom the blessings will pass and the promises be fulfilled.”
A short time later, Sarah also laughed at the prospect of becoming a mother at the age of ninety. But God was faithful. He answered His own question (“Is anything too hard for the Lord?”) by opening her womb. She had a baby, and he was named Isaac.
With all the deception, disobedience, and doubt, it is hard to imagine Abraham and Sarah as people of great faith. A man of great faith doesn’t lie about his wife being his sister. A woman of great faith doesn’t encourage her husband to sleep with another woman. And people of great faith don’t laugh at God’s promises.
And yet, both Abraham and Sarah are listed in the book of Hebrews’ “Hall of Faith.” In fact, it is somewhat surprising to see that “By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered Him faithful who had promised” (v. 11). The author of Hebrews tells us that she knew God had made a promise, and that she trusted God to keep His promise.
What does this tell us about faith? Perhaps it tells us that faith doesn’t have to be long lasting in order to be great. Sarah was not a woman who spent twenty or thirty years constantly trusting God and praying for a child. She did not patiently wait on the Lord, saying, “I know it will happen in His good timing.”
Still, she had a measure of faith. Perhaps it was wavering. Perhaps she did not express her faith until after the Lord rebuked her for laughing at the promise that she would have a baby at the age of 90. Maybe Sarah had what Jesus referred to as “faith like a grain of mustard seed” (Matt. 17:20). But it was faith nonetheless.
As with Adam and Eve, we learn from Abraham and Sarah that God is faithful. He is faithful to His people, and faithful to His Word and His promises, because He is faithful to Himself. God cannot lie, which means He cannot break any of His promises. Hence, as Wil Mayfield told us, what God has promised, He will perform.
STUDY QUESTIONS
1. What “impossible” situation are you facing in your life? What do you want or need God to do in your life?
2. Do you truly believe God can and will handle the situation? Are you trusting Him to take care of it in His way and in His timing? Or do you find yourself trying to force the issue by handling it yourself?
3. How much is God’s working in your life dependent on your level of faith? What can you learn from how He worked in Abraham and Sarah’s life, despite their apparent lack of faith?
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Misfits: Adam & Eve
What does a Christian look like? How does he dress? How does he behave? Is a Christian someone who doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, and doesn’t dance? Is a Christian someone who goes to church every time the doors are open? At the church I grew up in, we had Sunday morning service, Sunday evening service, and Wednesday night prayer meetings. Is a Christian someone who makes sure he/she is at all three?
As Pastor John explained on Sunday, for most people, their perception of what a Christian is morphs into the same person. They believe in the cookie-cutter Christian. And as I once heard a Christian comedian say, “If you don’t fit in that hole, then you just aren’t saved.”
A misfit is, indeed, a mis-fit—someone who doesn’t fit the mold of what people think a Christian is or ought to be. Ironically, we’re all misfits. Because the mold, or the standard of what a Christian should look like is Jesus Christ.
As we began our series of character studies from the Bible, entitled “Misfits”, we looked at the first two misfits; the first two humans. Adam and Eve. They were misfits because they did not fit the mold of what God intended for the human race. God intended that we all be people who love Him and perfectly obey Him. Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, became sinful, and passed the Sin Nature on to the rest of humanity.
Within his sermon, PJ suggested that Adam and Eve were the original Dr. & Mrs. Doolittle; that they could talk to the animals, or rather that the animals could talk to them. (I sometimes talk to my dog, but she doesn’t talk to me.) That this may have been the case is implied by the fact that, when the serpent started talking to Eve, she didn’t seem a bit surprised by the fact.
However, I personally would not necessarily conclude that Adam and Eve routinely conversed with all the animals. Numbers 22 tells the story of Balaam having an argument with his donkey. The fact that the LORD opened the donkey’s mouth, so she could speak, makes it clear that, at that time, animals did not have the ability to speak. And yet, Balaam was so upset that he never stopped to say, “Wait a minute. How is it that my donkey is talking to me?”
Regardless of whether or not Adam and Eve’s last name was Doolittle, the serpent spoke to Eve, she sinned, Adam sinned with her, and things went downhill from there.
The one of the overarching themes of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is the loyalty of God. Time and time again, He proves Himself loyal (or faithful). In this case, He proved Himself loyal by killing an animal, covering their nakedness, and promising to send One who would crush Satan’s head (Genesis 3). And so we find that the story, as do all stories in the Bible, culminates with Jesus Christ.
STUDY QUESTIONS
1. In what ways are you a misfit? What forbidden fruit have you eaten from the proverbial tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
2. How has your sin broken down your relationship with God? With other members of your family? How can these relationships be repaired?
3. How has God shown His loyalty to you?
As Pastor John explained on Sunday, for most people, their perception of what a Christian is morphs into the same person. They believe in the cookie-cutter Christian. And as I once heard a Christian comedian say, “If you don’t fit in that hole, then you just aren’t saved.”
A misfit is, indeed, a mis-fit—someone who doesn’t fit the mold of what people think a Christian is or ought to be. Ironically, we’re all misfits. Because the mold, or the standard of what a Christian should look like is Jesus Christ.
As we began our series of character studies from the Bible, entitled “Misfits”, we looked at the first two misfits; the first two humans. Adam and Eve. They were misfits because they did not fit the mold of what God intended for the human race. God intended that we all be people who love Him and perfectly obey Him. Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, became sinful, and passed the Sin Nature on to the rest of humanity.
Within his sermon, PJ suggested that Adam and Eve were the original Dr. & Mrs. Doolittle; that they could talk to the animals, or rather that the animals could talk to them. (I sometimes talk to my dog, but she doesn’t talk to me.) That this may have been the case is implied by the fact that, when the serpent started talking to Eve, she didn’t seem a bit surprised by the fact.
However, I personally would not necessarily conclude that Adam and Eve routinely conversed with all the animals. Numbers 22 tells the story of Balaam having an argument with his donkey. The fact that the LORD opened the donkey’s mouth, so she could speak, makes it clear that, at that time, animals did not have the ability to speak. And yet, Balaam was so upset that he never stopped to say, “Wait a minute. How is it that my donkey is talking to me?”
Regardless of whether or not Adam and Eve’s last name was Doolittle, the serpent spoke to Eve, she sinned, Adam sinned with her, and things went downhill from there.
The one of the overarching themes of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is the loyalty of God. Time and time again, He proves Himself loyal (or faithful). In this case, He proved Himself loyal by killing an animal, covering their nakedness, and promising to send One who would crush Satan’s head (Genesis 3). And so we find that the story, as do all stories in the Bible, culminates with Jesus Christ.
STUDY QUESTIONS
1. In what ways are you a misfit? What forbidden fruit have you eaten from the proverbial tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
2. How has your sin broken down your relationship with God? With other members of your family? How can these relationships be repaired?
3. How has God shown His loyalty to you?
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