Genesis Day 29: Sometimes you hear a plan, and you just know that nothing good can come of it
As you read Genesis 16, did you just get a sense, “This is not a good plan”? I did. I don’t care that it was 4,000 years ago. And even if you ignore the fact that God promised Abram… and Abram said he believed… and then Abram asked how he would know… and God did that “cut the animals in half thing”…
Even if you ignore all that, you just have a sense that this (sleeping with your wife’s maidservant) is not a good idea.
I do stupid things. Not that I sleep with my wife’s maidservant (as if we had one—and even if we did, well, you know what I mean).
But I do stupid things. Things that if I could picture God visibly standing next to me, I think He would be shaking His head. He would be thinking, “After all we have been through, after all the times I have shown you to just wait a bit longer, you go ahead and do that!?!”
Perhaps God would not say any of that. It does not lessen the fact that I do stupid things. Sometimes things that hurt others.
Let’s get serious for a moment. What Sara and Abram did was wrong—and it hurt Hagar. And it would continue to hurt Hagar. We see God go and love on Hagar.
This chapter ends without the situation being resolved… and just a head’s up, it won’t be. But this chapter is a necessary element in the story of God and humanity. Over and over, as we read the Bible, as we know God’s Plan… we are going to read about some human plans, and we are going to think, “That doesn’t sound good!” and we will be right.
There are two key things to note:
God’s response—the Bible is the story of God chasing after us, even after we do stupid things.
To remember that it is easy to be critical of others, but perhaps you, too, do things that hurt God and others. The amazing thing about God, is that He is there for all.