Yielding to What?

And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. (Genesis 16:2)

I was thinking about the motivation behind Sarah’s request and interestingly had a dream, a very interesting one.

In it I saw the couple being visited by a prophetess who had come to help them to identify the source of their barrenness.

She then performed some tricks that from my vantage point I could clearly see were magic tricks.

And the tricks pointed at Abraham being the cause, twice.

You see, I had been imagining the reasons that made Sarah think of convincing her husband to take the servant girl.

I want to make it very clear before I continue that nothing of this is recorded in the scriptures. Treat them as my imagination, bearing no clear relationship with the scriptures for the purposes of our instruction.

Is it possible that Sarah suspected that her husband was the problem? Is it possible that she baited him with Hagar for the simple reason of proving that Abraham was impotent? Could it be that she suspected that Abraham’s spirituality was all a farce to cover up that simple fact?

You see, by the time they were finally responding to the call to leave, they had been waiting for the promise for fifty years. And after that they had waited for another ten years.

I have explained elsewhere how I come to that number fifty and so will not go back there. Just take it as that for the purpose of this message.

Apart from our lost generation, a child was expected, almost demanded, immediately after the marriage was consummated. That was why someone was given a year’s leave after getting married from everything in the scriptures.

You can’t explain the fact that Abraham could have waited so long, and be able to convince his people as much, that he did not need a plan B concerning children without using the argument that God had promised him a child through Sarah.

But a call is personal, clear only to the person who has received it.

Sarah was therefore not party to the conversations between her husband and God.

If it is so hard for some of us to explain our call to our families, some who are even in ministry, how easy do you think it was for Abraham to explain his call to heathens? How easy do you think it was for Sarah to understand a promise she was not privy to?

Again, in my surmisings, I suspect that she thought that the reason Abraham demanded she says she is his sister was for the purposes of allowing her to be impregnated by another, especially a king.

It is possible that she was convinced (or someone convinced her) that Abraham was the reason for her lack of children.

Hagar was therefore the trap she laid to confirm her suspicions.

I suspect that it was the argument she used to break his resolve to wait for God’s promise.

You are not a man. You only fire blanks. You are only hiding under a non-existent promise so that people do not know the truth of your impotence. You ran away from your people because you were unable to face that impotence.

Of course I am imagining things. But then, do you know what happened?

What we know is that Abraham finally yielded.

And that is why she became very bitter when her ruse backfired on her. And why Abraham threw it straight back at her.

You created the problem. Deal with it yourself.

Another reason that may have prompted Sarah to push Abraham to siring a child with Hagar was confirming Abraham’s calling.

As is the case with most people, that call is doubted by almost everybody. Or do you not remember that even Jesus was doubted by His earthly family?

How sure can I be that Abraham is not just covering up for my barrenness? She might have been thinking.

So Hagar was the confirmation that Abraham was okey and that he probably had heard what he was saying he had heard.

Prove to me that you are a man, may have been the final straw for Abraham.

But that proving was not right since we are reeling with the consequences of that single decision.

What is my point? I know someone is wondering after following my imagination this far.

The call is a personal experience, known and experienced only by the one who has been called.

You see, even Jesus’ disciples severally doubted Him though they experienced everything He was about.

Until Pentecost when they each had their own experience. Then nothing could stop them.

It is very important for each individual to come to a personal relationship with God.

I am of course not talking about the personal saviour error our generation proudly trumpets.

Just like we can’t have a personal father unless we are an only child, we should jealously guard against the error of personalising Jesus.

But I must relate with Him personally for the relationship to grow.

That is the way it is with families.

Though he is not my personal father or mother, he relates with me at the personal level.

I must fit in the grand plan in my personal relationship.

It is at the lordship when the personal relationship is most visible and where the lack of the same is most disastrous.

I cannot follow someone else’s command because by doing it I will have neglected my own.

Sarah’s error was in using community standards to judge her husband’s call and seek to align him with them. She sought to deal with the lack of a child using prevailing logic instead of seeking it from the One Abraham was proclaiming to be following.

Incidentally it happens in ministry all the time.

I have endured insults and a lot of mistreatments when God’s call for me went against the norms, especially in the ecclesiastical circles.

Many people do not understand my turning down an invitation to pastor a church just because God has not given me the go ahead. Many cannot understand my refusal to go for a fully funded mission because I do not have release from God. Many openly scoff at the fact that God has forbidden me from selling my books or the services involved in the books ministry He has given me. Many refuse to comprehend the reason I do not wear suits and ties as I minister like the rest.

But I must walk in my calling. And I must be focused on that to avoid being sidetracked as Abraham was even by very well-meaning friends and partners.

I will repeat. There is no wholesale call. There is no wholesale obedience.

You may remember that Moses was forbidden from crossing because he obeyed using a previous order that worked instead of the new one.

We will not be able to obey unless our relationship with God is always current. Meaning that we will be receiving fresh orders every time to avoid Moses’ error.

How current is your relationship with God?

How current are your orders?

How obedient are you to them?

God bless you