Randall Caselman
Bella Vista Church of Christ
Feb. 25, 2001 a.m.
Abraham’s Desperate Mistakes Scripture
Reading - Genesis 16.1-16
Satan knows that if he can bring us to the point in life where we feel... that we’ve run out of options... that we are between a rock and a hard place... then he can have his way with us.
You see... It is amazing what we are willing to do... the mistakes... the bad choices we are willing to make... When we are desperate.
-A wife who has been faithful to God and to her husband for years, aware of her aging body and fading physical attraction, she throws discretion to the wind and has an affair.
-A Christian man, tired of an unsuccessful search for a Christian mate, gives in and marries e a nonbeliever with real questionable morals.
-A Christian teenager, exasperated by the apparent inconsistencies of his parents and the establishment, rebels against authority and gets into drugs or sexual encounters.
You see... the world around us considers these as acceptable ways of coping when we are desperate... Are they?
There are just a lot of people who consider themselves Christians... Whose behavior is no different than those who don't know God. We see them making the same poor choices again and again... Messing up their lives... And the lives of those around them, sometimes to points beyond repair. For instance... The divorce rate is about the same in the church, as it is in the world. For too many of us... our behavior and morals on Monday through Saturday are really no different than those of the world... RIGHT?
What I want to do this morning is to examine some choices that Abraham and Sarah made when... they felt that they were at the end of their rope. When they were desperate.
From the context we learn the problem... God has promised Abraham a son... To be the father of a great nation. However, life is moving on. Abraham and Sarah are both getting old and still there is no son. They are running out of options... Hope is beginning to disappear. Because of Sarah’s advancing age, they decide to try to help God fulfill His promise by Abraham taking Sarah’s housemaid Hagar as his sexual partner and having a son by her. Now... to properly understand Abraham and Sarah, we must feel their pain... Perhaps for us it is:
Childlessness...
An unhappy marriage...
The loss of a loved one...
Disappointment in our children...
Betrayal by a close friend...
The loss of a job...
Or a financial collapse...
One or more of these things or others have brought us to the end of our rope... To the limits of our emotional stability. Sarah's inability to have children was a very real pain that she had lived with for a long time. She is 75 years old... All hope of conception is gone.
Having said that, I also want us to know that some of the schemes we cook up as desperate remedies for our problems can be worse than the problems we face. We're about to see that illustrated here in some DESPERATE MISTAKES that work to mess up our lives.
Let’s see what we can learn from Abraham & Sarah about desperate mistakes
First... We Must Not Allow Fleshly Desires To Overrule God’s Will.
What Sarah proposed was that Abraham take a second wife. This may sound strange to us... But in their day, it was accepted in the culture of Canaan for a barren woman to have children through what we call a surrogate mother. Of course they had none of the technology we have to make such an act impersonal. The woman would actually have to become Abraham's wife.
That’s made clear in verse 3... And, Abraham's wife, Sarah, took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to her husband Abraham as his wife.
Polygamy was not pleasing to God... It was clearly against the teaching of Genesis 2.24... But it was accepted and practiced among the other nations of Canaan. The things Abraham and Sarah were plotting here would not have raised a single eyebrow among their neighbors. But I want you to know that Abraham and Sarah were abandoning their faith in God... and His promise to Abraham... A promise that had been reiterated several times.
Paul made clear in Galatians 4.23... That Abraham & Sarah had given in to Satan. They had given into the flesh rather than faith. Any time we give up on a promise of God... and resort to our own means, we are doing exactly what they did... we’re letting fleshly desire overrule good sense. To overrule what we know as God’s will.
When we think we are desperate... It's amazing what we’re willing to do. And the world around us cheers us on... Because they don’t know the will of God... And neither do they care. But church, listen to Paul’s advice for such desperate thinking... “Do not be deceived... God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life."
In our desperation, we may say to ourselves...
-Surely God will understand my frustration and not hold me accountable.
-Or, perhaps we say... Well, I don't care what God thinks, I'm going to do it anyway.
-Or, I don't care if I go to hell... it's hell to live in this condition anyway.
No matter how we do it... If we go against God's principles, it will come back and bite us. Giving in to fleshly desires brought disaster into the lives of Abraham and Sarah and it will to us also... you can count on it... Whatever we sow... We will reap.
Secondly... Don’t Listen to Those Who Are Unfamiliar with the Word of God.
Note verses two and four... Go sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.... Abraham listened and agreed to what Sarah said. So Abraham took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar... He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.
OK... They did it... Their house would soon be filled with the sound of children.
What could possibly be wrong with that?
Didn't they deserve to be happy?
Didn’t God want them to be happy?
Didn’t He promise them this happiness?
But... Their euphoria was short-lived.
Their troubles started even before the child was born. The tension that resulted in their house from that day onward was so thick you could cut it with a knife. What was intended to produce happiness... Ended up producing mistrust, misunderstandings and sorrow in areas they had never expected.
Scripture says... And Abraham listened to the voice of Sarah. Is there something wrong with man listening to his wife? No... No.. Unless his wife doesn’t' understand the will of God.
God had appeared to Abraham... Not Sarah.
He appeared to him in the land of Ur.
Again when they left Haran.
And again in chapter 15... Just before our reading this morning. Each time the promise was made of a great land... and a great nation from Abraham.
So... Who knows the will of God clearly... And who doesn't?
Abraham knows... Sarah knows far less... RIGHT?
Yes... There are times that we... As God’s people... Spiritual folk... need advice.
But church... We need to seek out mature believers who know God's Word firsthand.
All too often... all too frequently we are found asking spiritual advice from those who will tell us what we want to hear, not what we need to hear from His Word.
I think we can blame Abraham as much as we can Sarah here. Abraham knew right and did wrong... He took the wrong advice in spite of his knowledge of truth... James tells us that such behavior is a sin. David wrote... Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly... but delights in the law of the LORD... and meditates in it day and night.
May God help us to not seek advice of those who do not know God... but walk in what we know to be right.
Number three... Don’t Blame Others For Things We Bring Upon Ourselves
You would think that... when trouble started, that Abraham and Sarah recognized their fault and owned up to it... Right?... Wrong! Suddenly... Hagar's mistress Sarah, is no longer honored as before. Perhaps she believes she has supplanted Sarah in Abraham's heart.
Now... from Sarah's vantage, that wasn't the way this was supposed to work out! But, of course when we resort to trusting schemes of the flesh rather than the promises of God, it never turns out like we expected. So Sarah blamed Abraham!... “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.” Nothing new here... Eve blamed Satan... Adam blamed Eve and God for his own behavior.
Church... Listen to me... A sure sign of spiritual immaturity is blaming others when we are at fault... when we are not responsible. When will we start taking responsibility for our own behavior.
-If we come to worship and don’t like the songs or song leader... Whose fault is that?
-When we don’t get anything from the Bible class or preaching lesson... Whose fault is it?
-When we are distracted by crying babies or sleeping old folk... who must ultimately take responsibility for our attitude?
When will be grow up spiritually and say... I am guilty and I will stop blaming others?
Jesus said something about this in Matthew 7.5... Didn’t He?... First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.
Then There Are Times We Shirk Responsibility For The Sake Of Keeping Peace
Read verse six with me... Your servant is in your hands, Abraham said... Do with her whatever you think best... Then Sarah ill-treated Hagar; so she fled from her.
Doesn't it seem to you that it was about time for Abraham to take charge of this situation and begin to administer the word of God to his bickering family? After all... He is the patriarch!
Abraham should have said: Listen ladies, this whole thing started because I let it happen. I didn't have to consent to this fleshly scheme, but I did and I was wrong. I need you to forgive me for my foolishness. Now with that done, Sarah, you must realize that this was your suggestion in the beginning. You brought it on yourself, so it's time for you to stop pointing fingers of blame. You should have considered how Hagar would take this sudden elevation of position. And you, Hagar, you need to get off your high horse and remember that you are still a servant in this house and you must treat Sarah with proper respect.
Church...
-There are times when Christian fathers must take responsibility for what goes on in
his household.
-There are times when mothers must say... You will mind me because I am you mother.
-There are times when Elders must take the initiative and... Point out sin in the lives
of the flock... There are times they must say... NO to unruly and divisive members.
-There are times when preachers must stop preaching what is easy... what people
want to hear... And preach what is needed for the growth of the church family.
Abraham didn’t want to rock the boat... Do whatever you think is right, dear. When we know what is right for our families and for the church, we are under a God-given obligation to see that it is done.
We Must Understand That Our Choices & Behavior Will Impact Others
I want you to know that Abraham... Sarah... and Hagar must take responsibility for what is happening today in the Middle East. Hagar... like Sarah... would have many descendants, too... Note beginning with verse 12...
-Ishmael, the son she was carrying in her womb, would be a wild man.
-He would be against everyone, and everyone would be against him.
You see... Ishmael became the ancestor of the Arabs... who are hostile to the Jews and to the rest of the world to this day.
Men and their behavior like... Yassar Arafat... Sadaam Hussiam... Mummar Kahdifi... Bin Laden... Cannot muster enough hate... revenge...and violence in one generation to amount to what we have today... They were impacted by years of others before them. Abraham and these two ladies must understand that their disobedience still impacts our world today. In the early part of this century... a young man was seeking a job as a telegraph operator. When he arrived, it was a large, busy, noisy room. In the background he could hear the chatter of a telegraph key. A sign instructed applicants to take a seat and wait until they were called for their interview. Eight candidates had gotten there ahead of him.
After about two or three minutes the young man stood up, stepped over to the door and walked in. Within about three minutes the manager came to the door saying... You gentlemen may go now. The position has been filled. They were indignant... “He was the last to come in. We never even got a chance to be interviewed, and he got the job. That's not fair.” The manager said... “All the time you've been sitting here the telegraph key has been ticking out a message. It said, 'If you understand this message, come right in. The job is yours.’ None of you heard it. He did. He got the job.”
Church... Are we listening?... Are we listening?
Paul said... These things were written for our learning... As a school master to bring us into the image of Jesus. To help us become the people and person that God wants us to be.
So... When we are desperate... Don’t make the mistakes that Abraham made....
-Don't let fleshly desire overrule the Word of God.
-Don't take counsel from those who don't know the Word.
-Don't blame others for things we bring on ourselves.
-Don't shirk responsibility that God has given us.
-Remember our choices... Our behavior will impact future generations.
We all have a choice to make this morning... Right now!!!
We can give into the flesh and not become a child of God by faith, repentance, and genuine New Testament baptism. We can continue to blame others for our behavior and never confess our own faults... Thus never receiving God’s gracious forgiveness.
We can continue to shirk our responsibilities to family & church. Or we can take our place in both and go to work becoming what God wants us to be.
The invitation is yours as we stand and sing together. Will you come?
