Despite God’s promise to Abram, his wife Sarai remained barren. Ten years they’d resided in Canaan, their promised land, and yet they still had no promised son.
Losing confidence in God and desperate to provide Abram children, Sarai devised her own plan of action. She gave Hagar, her Egyptian maidservant, to be a second wife to Abram so that she might obtain children through her. Abram agreed to Sarai’s plan.
Sure enough, Hagar conceived, but things didn’t turn out the way Sarai expected. Hagar flaunted her pregnancy, looking down on her barren mistress.
Sarai couldn’t handle Hagar’s insolence, so she blamed Abram for the situation she had created. Undisturbed, Abram told her Hagar was hers to do to her what she pleased. So Sarai dealt harshly with Hagar until she fled from her presence.
What a mess Sarai made when she got impatient with God and took matters into her own hands. Though it was an accepted custom at the time to use servants as surrogate mothers when the wife was unable to conceive, this was never God’s plan.
Why did Abram go along with Sarai’s contrivance? Probably because he, too, was desperate to fulfill God’s promise. In their eagerness to see God’s plan come to fruition, they created complications that could have been avoided.
Anytime we take our eyes off God and turn to worldly solutions to solve spiritual situations, we sacrifice God’s best for our lives.
If God has blessed you with a promise for the future, don’t try to rush it. God, alone, knows all that needs to transpire in order to align all the pieces in the most perfect positions. Though the wait may take years to fulfillment, the blessings will be worth it.
Sarai in the Bible: Genesis 16: 1-6
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Oh my! I have really stepped out of my bounds and messed things up in which the consequences were dire. Not only for me, but for a lot of people. Hopefully, we learn from our mistakes. Some are more like terrible blunders than just mistakes. Thank goodness for mercy and hope from our Lord.
Oh yes! How many times have I done what I thought was right in my own mind only to realize how foolish I’d been. I do think, though, God uses those experiences to humble us and help us to be more understanding when other people mess us.