Promise = Patience

We are starting a new 4 week series this morning tilted Waiting on God- Patience while waiting for the promise.

Waiting on God to act or trusting His promises can be challenging. Sometimes we feel the need to take matters into our own hands, but the Bible shows us this doesn’t work out well. During this series we will be looking at four times when people took matters into their own hands rather than waiting on God—and the fallout from those decisions.

This morning we will be in Genesis 16:1-16. If you have your bibles go head a turn there. If not you can follow along on the screen in a few minutes. We will be looking at the story of Abraham and Sarah and way they took matters into their own hands.

Before we do I have a question for you. So think for a moment.

Do you put trust into a promise someone gives you?

Sometimes we do. Sometimes we do not. It really depends on the person that is promising and what that person say they will do. While Nikki and I were in the state I got to watch some College football. Which here in Canada it hard to find unless you want to play 150 a month for cable. This made me think.

The quarterback and the receiver have to have a lot of trust in one another without being able to see the other in most case. In most case the ball is out of the hand of the quarterback will before the receiver finishes the route he is running. If any one of these two guys doubt the run or the timing of the throw it will end in a busted play. Either falling incomplete or the worst an interception. Ultimately, the quarterback calls the play, and the receiver needs to trust it and run their route.

God calls us to trust him, and when we decide to go our own way, the results are rarely what we were hoping for. This is what happened to

Abraham and Sarah

A little back story before we read the passage.

God frist came onto the sene with Abraham by calling him in Genesis 12. God told Abraham at this time he would be the father of a son but by the time we get to chapter 16 eleven years had passed since that first promise. Eleven years that Abraham and Sarah remained childless. Could you imagine waiting eleven years for God’s promise to come to pass. That is the situation Abraham and Sarah find themselves in.

Genesis 16:1–16 CSB

1 Abram’s wife, Sarai, had not borne any children for him, but she owned an Egyptian slave named Hagar. 2 Sarai said to Abram, “Since the Lord has prevented me from bearing children, go to my slave; perhaps through her I can build a family.” And Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So Abram’s wife, Sarai, took Hagar, her Egyptian slave, and gave her to her husband, Abram, as a wife for him. This happened after Abram had lived in the land of Canaan ten years. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When she saw that she was pregnant, her mistress became contemptible to her. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for my suffering! I put my slave in your arms, and when she saw that she was pregnant, I became contemptible to her. May the Lord judge between me and you.” 6 Abram replied to Sarai, “Here, your slave is in your power; do whatever you want with her.” Then Sarai mistreated her so much that she ran away from her. 7 The angel of the Lord found her by a spring in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8 He said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She replied, “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai.” 9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her authority.” 10 The angel of the Lord said to her, “I will greatly multiply your offspring, and they will be too many to count.” 11 The angel of the Lord said to her, “You have conceived and will have a son. You will name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard your cry of affliction. 12 This man will be like a wild donkey. His hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand will be against him; he will settle near all his relatives.” 13 So she named the Lord who spoke to her: “You are El-roi,” for she said, “In this place, have I actually seen the one who sees me?” 14 That is why the well is called Beer-lahai-roi. It is between Kadesh and Bered. 15 So Hagar gave birth to Abram’s son, and Abram named his son (whom Hagar bore) Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.

Sarah’s plan

This story has a lot of sad parts but the worst is that Sarah believed she was not worthy to be included into God’s promise of a child. She thought that God was keeping from have a child. So she and Abraham took matter into their own hands. This story portray this plans has being all Sarah’s idea, obviously Abraham was a willing participant!

The plan has we read was for Abraham to have a child through Sarah’s servant Hager. Since Hagar belongs to them, the child would also belong to them. This is how they can obtain the promise. The result is that Abraham and Hagar have a son (v. 4).

The plan fall apart

When they took matter into their own hands instead of waiting on God to fully is promise. Things started to fall apart. In verse 5 Sarah became jealous of Hagar because she was able to give brith to a son. Sarah felt that Hagar was taking her place. She said I became hated by her. This got to a point that Sarah was suffering for what had happened. The long-term result is trial and tribulation. Sarah regrets her decision and is angry at Abraham and Hagar (v. 5). Abraham gives Sarah full reign to do as she pleases, and she treats Hagar so harshly that Hagar flees (v. 6).

God mercy doesn’t disappear when we take matter into our own hands

In fact God can and will still use the mistake that we make. He does just forget about what happened or say will I can’t use them now. Because of what Abraham and Sarah did God gave a blessing to Hagar and her Son. This blessing was for a man that will be against everyone and everyone against him.

He also fulfills his promise to Abraham and gives a son to Abraham through Sarah (Genesis 21:1–7).

Has God made a promise to you?

Throughout this series, two things will become clear: when we take matters into our own hands, things do not go well. Simultaneously, we cannot mess things up so much that God abandons his plans or breaks his promises.

How well do you handle waiting on God to act?

God’s timing requires our patience.