"When Helping God Hurts" January 12 Readings: Genesis 12-16

Today's Reading - Genesis 12-16

Background

Genesis 12-15 reveals what is often called Abrahamic covenant. In Genesis 12:1-3, God gives to Abram three blessings. First, he gives Abram a land that he would show him. Second, he promised that he would become a great nation - an amazing promise to a childless man. Finally, he promised that he would bless Abraham and through Abraham, he would bless the world. Land. Seed. Blessing.

In Chapter 15, the covenant is confirmed and expanded. God gave to Abraham and his descendants the land of Israel, the promise that they would survive, and that he would bless the world through them. These literal promises have been fulfilled in part and will find their fullness in the future millennium.

Devotional

It is among the worst of all the bad choices that have ever been made, behind only Adam and Eve's fateful choice. When Abraham was 75 years old, God made a promise to him, that he would be the father of many nations. Now, he was 87 and his wife was 77 - it just didn't seem likely anymore that a childless couple would become fertile at that age.

And so, in Genesis 16:1-2, Abram and Sarah decide together that they should do something to "help out God" who had not seemed to be able to accomplish his promises. Sarah gave her servant Hagar to Abram to bear him a son. God had said that he would provide offspring to them, but they lost faith and they lost patience and they tried to accomplish in the flesh what God had promised to do by his power.  

It is a decision that still haunts Abraham's chosen descendants today. Hagar's son, Ishmael, fathered many nations as well. Several of the Canaanite nations that hounded Israel were descendants of Ishmael. Today, many of the Arab and Muslim nations that threaten Israel's safety and existence are the offspring of the child of the flesh. Abram and Sarah made a bad choice, and 4000 years later, their children still pay the price. 

But let us not focus on the Arab-Israeli conflict today. That is only an illustration of the point. When we try to do in our fleshly power what can only be done in the power of God, we can cause more damage than we can imagine. 

We are not called to be passive; to sit around and do nothing. But still, we must wait on the Lord. We must not try to push people to make a decision for Christ until the Spirit works his work of grace in them. We must not attempt to be the Holy Spirit for others either. We proclaim the gospel. We proclaim truth. But we must leave the work of God to God. 

The sad thing is that God had a perfect plan that he was working, in his time. It involved a miracle and it produced joy. If Abram and Sarah had waited on God in faith, things would have been so much better. 

Years ago, our family needed a new vehicle, so I went out searching for a new (to us) van. I saw one down the road with a "for sale" sign on it and I wanted it. I didn't really pray about it nor did I wait for God to lead or to provide. I just went out and made a deal on the van. It was pretty much a piece of junk. I drove it for a while and then got rid of it because it was no good. 

But, while I still had the van, God drove home the point of this devotional to me. I ran into a friend of mine and he told me that he had been planning to give me his van when he purchased a new car. But when he heard I'd bought a van, he just sold it to someone else. The worst thing was that he sold it to a good friend of mine. Every time my friend came to church or to my house, I was reminded of the fact that God had a gift for me, but in my impatience and self-will, I messed it up. 

We must learn to seek God, to lay our needs and our challenges before him, and to wait on him as he reveals his answers in his time.

Lord, help me to trust you. Your promises are always true and perfect, but in your time, not mine. Teach me patience and trust - waiting on you instead of always taking matters into my own hands. 

Think and Pray

Do you sometimes try to "help God out" - to make happen what you think God should be doing?
While we ought never be idle or passive, we need to trust God for results and not seek to insert our will and our strength ahead of his.