The Lord Be With You Today!
Genesis 16:4a
He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.
(The best "Isaac" Abram and Sarai could produce on their own
was an "Ishmael," far from what the Lord had intended.
Although, once again, the Lord causes even our foolish choices
to work together for our good, what they created
has caused consequences that still resonate for us today.
Hagar, her name meaning stranger, was an Egyptian
and pressed into service by human command.
Rather than waiting on the Lord Who Himself
had pressed Abram and Sarai both into His service,
this couple depended on their own human influence and power
to press Hagar into their own service themselves.
By their action, they tried to arrogate the sovereignty of the Lord
and fulfill God's purposes in their own way.
Hagar's name can also refer to one who fears
and one who is dragged away and is in flight.
The Lord's promise to Abram was not to be carried out
through a stranger to His Word.
It was not to be realized through a human command
that would be associated with fear if the command was not obeyed.
It was not to come about by forcing Hagar
into God's service with no regard for her own will,
but rather by joyfully and freely embracing relationship
with the One Who spoke the promise and Who Himself would fulfill it.
Representing people under the law,
as opposed to God's people who are free in Him,
Hagar serves as an allegorical reminder
that when we cooperate with ideas that contradict the Lord's promises
or that try to add to His promises, we are placing ourselves
as strangers to Him, as being pressed into service against our will,
as being fearfully dragged away into places where we do not belong.
Without the right relationship with the Lord and His promise,
we, like Abraham and Sarah, become one
who seizes and arrogates God's timing and means,
and, like Hagar, become one who flees from Him in fear
because we are not centered in His will.)
May the Lord richly bless you this day!
In Christ's love,
Blessings!
Sally
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