Day 17: Genesis 16-18

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2016-18&version=NIV

In Genesis Chapter 16 we have the story of Hagar and Ishmael. Abram is living and acting by the flesh and not by the Spirit. He was influenced by Sarai, his wife. So she said to told Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her." (16:2)

God has told Abram, in Genesis 12 and 15 that he will have offspring that will be numerous and in Genesis 15:4, God told Abram that a son coming from his own body will be his own heir.

But Abram did not believe in the promise of God. He doubted that God would fulfill His covenant with Him. He decided to take matters into his own hands. Oh, how we often do the same thing! We put time limits on God; if He doesn’t act by this time then we will act. Just like Abram and Sarai did. They thought a ten year wait was long enough.

When we decide to act on our own, we are acting as we are under the law and not under Grace.

Paul writes of this in Galatians 4:21-30

²¹Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? ²²For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. ²³His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.

²⁴These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. ²⁵Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. ²⁶But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. ²⁷For it is written:
"Be glad, O barren woman,
who bears no children;
break forth and cry aloud,
you who have no labor pains;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
than of her who has a husband."

²⁸Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. ²⁹At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. ³⁰But what does the Scripture say? "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son." ³¹Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

So, let us act as what we are, we are children of the free woman, and we live according to the promises of God.

On a different note, I would be remiss if I did not share with you another great verse. How many times do you hear people say God is not fair in how he acts in the world? Unbelievers and agnostics often say this and believers sometimes even say this.

In verses 23 to 25 in chapter 18, Abram asks God if He will destroy the righteous alongside the wicked. Abram then asks in a question what he knows to be true about God’s work and providence in the earth.

“…….Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (18:25) How great is this!!! We have a God who always does what is right. Abram knew this when he asked this question. He was asking if God would be true to His character. In the subsequent discourse between God and Abram, God illustrates that he will not destroy the righteous alongside the wicked when Abram asks God about the hypothetical number of righteous in the city being gradually reduced from 50 to 10.

So when someone asks you if God is fair in His dealings with us – answer them with Genesis 18:25. This is a true statement as it is in God’s Word, which is the truth.

^“Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” John 17:17

To God be the Glory.

This post submitted by Russ Shellhamer