Sarah's Scheming (Gen. 16:1b-4a)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 07-18-2006

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Scheming

Bible Reading & Meditation                              Reference:  Genesis 16:1b-4a

            Message of the verse:  “She had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar.

2 So Sarai said to Abram, ‘Now behold, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go in to my maid; perhaps I will obtain children through her.’ And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.  3 After Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife.  4 He went in to Hagar, and she conceived.”

Waiting is probably one of the hardest things that God will ask a person to do, and this is probably even truer in our microwave generation that lives in this world of today, but there are times when a believer does not want to wait upon the Lord, and this was true of Sarah in these verses.  In yesterdays SD it was learned that there are four steps to being a faithful believer, and in the verses today it is seen that Abraham and Sarah failed in all four of these steps.

When a person gets tired waiting on the Lord they begin to scheme, and this is what Sarah and Abraham did, by having Hagar, who was Sarah’s handmaid, have sexual relations with Abraham in order for them to have a child.  Dr. Wiersbe quotes a Scottish novelist in his commentary on this section by stating “In whatever man does without God, he must fail miserably, or succeed more miserably,” and this is exactly what Sarah and Abraham did in this instance.  One more point to bring up and that is Sarah surely got Hagar when she and Abraham went down to Egypt in order to flee from the famine that was in the land, and this in of itself was sin, so one sin leads to another.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I believe that the trouble with our investments with Andrew Lech could have been over if a certain lady and her husband from Canada would have been more patient and waited instead of began to scheme and get a lawyer in order to speed things up, for she surely has succeed more miserably as quoted above.

As stated before it is difficult to wait, and if it were not the Lord given me grace as He has in our investment problems then I to would be scheming. 

The Word of God was very challenging to my heart as I read and studied it this morning.

My Steps of Faith Today:  Wait on the Lord for all that is going on in our lives, and trust in the Lord with all of my heart, and lean not upon my own understanding, in all of my ways acknowledge Him for He has promised to direct my path.