July 28: Nobody's handmaiden

In the Book of Genesis, we read the story of Abraham, his wife, Sarah, and Sarah's handmaiden, Hagar. 

God had promised Abraham that he would have children, that his descendants would be like the stars in the sky. But Sarah, for so many years, was barren. They were getting old. Really old. Like in their 70s. Sarah didn't want to wait on God anymore so she told her handmaiden, Hagar, to sleep with her husband so she could have a child.

Well that was thousands of years ago, but human nature doesn't change all that much. Hagar conceived. Had a son named Ishmael. Sarah hated it. She hated that her husband and Hagar now had an unbreakable bond. Oh yes, there was a whole lot of hostility in the camp. Probably not a happy place to be.

God, that ageless worker of miracles, allowed Sarah to conceive when most women her age would be shopping for retirement homes or denture paste. Ishmael was about 14 when Sarah's son, Isaac, was born. Sarah didn't want her handmaiden in the camp anymore. So she banished her and Ishmael into the desert, probably expecting them to die.

Hagar had her freedom. No longer was she someone's handmaiden, but she was also staring death in the face. She and her boy were all alone. If the heat didn't get them, the thirst or the wild animals would have. But God intervened. Told Hagar not to despair. He had great things in mind for Ishmael and Isaac too.

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I have lost track of how many times I've used this blog to confess that I don't know how to solve the problem of God's sovereignty and man's free will. God had promised children to Abraham and Sarah, so the right thing to do, one would assume, is wait on God's timing. Sarah and Abraham elected not to do that, they tried to fast track the will of the Lord.

Yet somehow, their disobedience played into God's hands. I like that, actually, because I've done plenty of rotten things in my life. I've seen firsthand how God can turn that into good. Maybe, in the afterlife, I can hang out with Ishmael and Hagar et al and compare notes.



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