Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 16-18.

I am struggling with how to write out the lesson I see in the story of Hagar and Ishmael.  God had promised Abram that he would have a son and that through that son God would bless the entire world.  But Abram was 86 years old and Sarai had not given birth to a son.  So, she decided that Abram would need to have a son by another woman.  She chose to give him her slave, Hagar, to be his wife, to bear him a son.  This led to all sorts of problems, but God nevertheless chose to bless Ishmael, even though he was not part of God’s original plan.  Because Sarai tried to “fix” things so as to bring about the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abram, she created problems for herself.  Because Abram did not stand firm on God’s promise and allowed Sarai to try her hand at “fixing” things, he had problems in his household which I am sure tore at his heart.  Because she became arrogant and looked at Sarai with contempt created problems for herself.  Nevertheless, God chose to bless Ishmael, even though he was never part of God’s plan to bless Abram.  It appears that God renamed Abram to Abraham because he had born Ishmael, thus, with the blessing which God was going to give Ishmael, Abram became the father of a multitude.  Thus we learn that we would be better off waiting on God, but that God will still bless us even when we move ahead of what He planned for us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 16-18.

I love writing about the account of Abram negotiating with God about how many righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah would be enough to save the city, because it should inspire us to realize how few people of God it takes to transform a society.  However, today I was really inspired to look at the account of how Ishmael came to be conceived.  It starts shortly after God had made a covenant with Abram that his offspring would inherit the land of Canaan.  We have here a clear example of bad interpersonal relationships.  Sarai suggested that Abram take Hagar to his bed in order to have children.  Then when Hagar became pregnant, she became conceited and despised Sarai.  Sarai blamed Abram for Hagar’s attitude.  Rather than do the work to fix things, Abram backed Sarai, allowing Sarai to mistreat Hagar.  Finally, rather than adjust her behavior towards Sarai, Hagar ran away.  God intervened and sent Hagar back.  When I read this, I go back and forth from feeling for each of the three of them, but all three handled this poorly.  Sarai lacked faith, Hagar got arrogant, and Abram failed to take control of the situation.  There was blame to go around in this situation.  Any one of them could have chosen to be the “bigger person”.  In the same way, most relationship issues we face can be resolved if we choose to act with love towards those around us.  It is also an example of the problems with polyamory.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 16-18.

I am often struck by the fact that Sarai’s decision to encourage Abram to attempt to have a son by Hagar immediately follows God entering into a covenant with Abram promising that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky.  Then, after Ishmael is born, God gives Abram the name Abraham and Sarai the name Sarah while once more promising that Sarah would bear Abraham a son. And Abraham scoffs at the idea that Sarah would bear a child at her advanced age, and asks God for Ishmael to live under His blessing.  So, we see here that Abraham, the man who is held up as the exemplar of faith, struggled with doubts.  If Abraham had doubts, why do we think that we can’t ever have any doubts?

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 16-18.

Abraham and Sarah are held up throughout the Bible as people whose faith we should emulate, and rightly so.  Yet, here is today’s passage, Sarah, while she was still Sarai, convinced Abraham, while he was still Abram, to sleep with her slave woman in order to provide heirs for Abram, and Abram did as she asked.  Some time later, at slightly different points, both laughed when God told them that Sarah would bear a son before the following year was up.  So, we have evidence that doubt does not indicate a lack of faith.  Despite his doubts, Abraham had all of the men and boys of his household circumcised according to the covenant God had given him when He reiterated His promise.  In response to Sarah’s laughter, she was asked if anything is too hard for God? Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that nothing is too hard for the God who created the Universe and later raised Jesus from the dead.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Genesis 16-18.

The Old Testament allows for polygamy.  Yet, in every instance where polygamy is addressed in the Old Testament, things go badly.  Here, Abram takes Hagar as his second wife at Sarai’s suggestion, but as soon as Hagar becomes pregnant things go wrong.  If we look at the story closely we can see the aspects of human nature which came into play to make things go badly.  One could argue that people could choose to behave differently, but that is not the point.  We learn from every story in the Bible where a man’s relationship with multiple wives are an important part of the story that humans are designed to be monogamous.  There is also a lesson in this account about the importance of waiting for God’s timing.  Abram and Sarai knew that God had promised Abram descendants who would inherit the Land of Canaan.  Since Sarai had been unable to bear children, they thought that they needed to take this action to make God’s promise come to fruition.  There may be times when God desires us to take some action in order to bring His promises to us to fruition.  This was not one of them.  Yet, despite the fact that Abram and Sarai acted outside of God’s plan, God promised to bless Ishmael.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 16-18. I have decided to switch from suing the New Living Translation to using the New International Version because, all in all, I prefer the NIV.

Abram was 99 years old when God changed his name to Abraham, and he became circumcised.  I am not entirely sure of the significance of that, but it really struck me this morning as I read this passage.  The passage also tells us that Ishmael was 13 years old at the time.  This means that Abraham was circumcised not less than 14 years after it was said about him that he believed God and God credited it to him as righteousness, a point which Paul makes in his letters. Abraham was not righteous because of his actions (being circumcised), he was circumcised because he was righteous.  And, no, that does not mean that we should be circumcised today.

I was struck by a thought about Abraham’s intercession with God for Sodom and Gomorrah.  I have always assumed that Abraham did so because his nephew Lot lived there.  Yet, I realized today that the passage does not mention that Abraham thought about his nephew.  No, God told Abraham that He was going to bring judgement upon those cities and Abraham immediately begged God not to do so if there were as few as fifty righteous people there.  Abraham continued to intercede with God on behalf of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah until God agreed that He would not destroy those cities if He found as few as 10 righteous people there.  I do not believe that Abraham interceded with God for Sodom and Gomorrah because Lot lived there.  I believe that he interceded (prayed) for Sodom and Gomorrah because he cared about the suffering they would experience when God brought His judgement against them.  I believe that this passage provides two lessons for us to follow. First, we should pray for those upon whom we see God’s judgement is about to fall.  Second, we should strive to live as one of “the ten” whose righteousness will cause God to withhold His judgement upon those among whom we live.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Genesis 16-18.

There are several lessons to be learned from the story of Ishmael’s birth.  One of them concerns faith.  Abram and Sarai are held up for us as examples of people of great faith.  Yet, in this story, Sarai chose to give her maid servant to Abram so that he could have a son by her in order to fulfill God’s promise to Abram…and Abram agreed with her offer.  This in itself teaches us two lessons.  One, we do not need to figure our how to make God’s plan work, He already knows what is needed.  Two, even people of great faith sometimes have moments of doubt.

Ordinarily I try to avoid going over a lesson from a passage which I know I went over previously on this particular passage, but I think the lesson from the Lord’s discussion with Abraham about Sodom is worth reminding ourselves of every chance we get.  In a way, this story is a precursor to what Jesus said about the Kingdom of Heaven being like yeast.  Both this story and Jesus’ parable about yeast tell us that we as Christians have failed in Western Civilization.  If there had been as few as 10 righteous people in Sodom the city would not have been so wicked that God found it necessary to destroy it.  There will always be wickedness around us as long as we are in this world.  But, if we truly express God’s love in our lives, others will feel that love and show it to others around them, even if they continue to reject God.  If we remember that evil is the absence of good and that good drives out evil in the same way that light drives out darkness, we will see how this works.   As we do good there is that much less space around us for evil.