Previous post: Genesis 15
This week, we hit the story of Sarai and Hagar. It’s that story where Sarai’s like, hey honey, how about you sleep with my servant lady? And, Abraham is like, “Well, I can’t think of a single reason why that would be a bad idea.” So, he does, and gets the girl pregnant, which shockingly makes Sarai jealous. She lashes out at both Abram and Hagar, eventually leading to Hagar fleeing where she is met by God at a well.
What a weird story. But, there’s really quite a lot going on here on a bunch of different levels.
First, I was 40 years old before I caught the parallels between this story and the story of Adam and Eve.
Eve offers Adam the fruit. Take of it and you’ll have everything.
Sarai offers Abram the girl. Take her and you’ll have all the lineage.
Adam accepts the fruit of the garden. Abram accepts the fruit of the loom. I’m sorry that was terrible. But, you get the point.
Adam shifts blame to Eve who shifts blame to the serpent.
Sarai shifts blame to Abram who shifts the pawns off the guilt on Hagar.
It’s a weirdly similar story. Here’s what I took away from it.
It’s really tempting to try to help God out in ungodly ways. It’s really tempting to try to hit the fast forward button on God’s plans for our lives.
For example, the Bible is pretty clear on the concept of keeping the Sabbath holy. Jesus goes as far as to say that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. What do we do? Honor the Sabbath? Nah, I gotta hustle 7 days per week. Gotta provide for my family.
Proverbs 10:4 “…the hand of the diligent makes rich” (ESV). That sounds great, but I’m really looking for the get rich quick.
Psalm 46:10: “Be still, and know that I am God.” (ESV) How about instead I be real busy and act like I’m the God of my own destiny. Like I’m the master of my fate, like I’m the captain of my soul.
It’s all the same temptation that we laugh at Abram and Adam for.
My point: sometimes, in this American life where we want so badly to hit the fast forward button on our careers, our finances, our ambitions, our dreams, and our relationships, it’s really important to remember the false promise of trying to speed up the process by taking matters into our own hands.
Adam and Eve’s mistake created an ever-expanding tsunami of brokenness that exploded out of the garden and throughout nature, humanity, and history.
Abram and Sarai’s mistake created an ever-expanding tsunami of geopolitical conflict that persists to this day.
Carrying out God’s plans in ways contrary to his instruction has consequences. Of course, there are a thousands ways this can play out. I’m just picking on the Sabbath because, well, the American Dream sometimes tries to kill it; and, it is something I personally struggle with. I’ll leave you with these three quotes to ponder this week:
"Most of the things we need to be most fully alive never come in busyness. They grow in rest." — Mark Buchanan
“Our patterns of work and rest reveal what we believe to be true about God and ourselves. God alone requires no limits on his activity. To rest is to acknowledge that we humans are limited by design. We are created for rest just as surely as we are created for labor. An inability or unwillingness to cease from our labors is a confession of unbelief, an admission that we view ourselves as creator and sustainer of our own universes.” ― Jen Wilkin
“Sabbath is that uncluttered time and space in which we can distance ourselves from our own activities enough to see what God is doing.” —Eugene Peterson
This week’s AI rap summary:
Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
I laughed out loud reading the intro to this one 😀
Really good