Sunday, July 26

A Man Makes His Plans

As many of you know, Sara and I will be moving to Houston later this week. And if you didn’t know, “Surprise”.

The path that has lead us to this point has been on e that has taken more than two year. Ans since this is a good bye teaching, I will share it with you before we get into the study this morning, which I promise will all tie together.

Two years ago felt a calling on my life to serve the Lord in a greater degree...

A friend of ours who lives in Eagle Idaho has a gowing church, was looking for addtional staff, wanted us to come out and visit.

Took a trip, great time, but it did not feel right at the time.

Lots of praying, seeking God, searching His will.

Told to wait

A year goes by and no strong direction from the Lord - i.e., nothing that was definitevly pointing to going to Idaho.

Continue praying for another year, looking for opportunties to move to Idaho, and nothing

Offer to come on full time as executive Pastor and Director of Children’s ministries

Couldn’t make it work financially at the time.

Another year goes by. Many conversations with our frineds in Idaho, and then an opportunity arises to take ininterview with a ocmany out west.

Go to interview, goes great, followup interviews, then nothing - ghosted.

At the same time things are chaning at work, new owners, executives leaving.

One day I am asked, compeltely out of the blue by the new owners if I had interest in running the comnay (tell story).

Slow played the offer. Prayed, and all the while waiting to hear back from job out west.

Then one week, an avalanche of events took place. Interview from head of HR at current company. solidified offer from company, and a phone call that the job out west was not moving forward.

In one week, the Lord made it clear what His plans were for us.

And so this morning we will be in Chapter 16 of Genesis where we find Abraham and Sarah making their own plans. It’s a very applicable depiction of how taking things into our own hands as they pertain to God’s direction can result in heartbreak and difficulties that may have otherwise been avoidable.

Proverbs is full of warnings regarding making plans without paying consideration to the Lord’s will, and many passages speak of first and foremost acknowledging Him in all that we do. And while God can use even our mistakes, we’ll see here in chapter 16 that even when we have heard form the Lord His clear direction for us, seeking Him and trusting Him to fulfill those promises and not taking it upon ourselves to bring them to bear is the only way to ensure we avoid unnecessary difficulties.

Probably the most famous of all proverbs that pertain to this is Proverbs 16:9

Proverbs 16:9 “A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.”

This is just one of 15 proverbs that specifically teach man to lean not on his own understanding but to seek the Lord for direction.

The Moody Bible Commentary provides a succinct summary of the various proverbs that speak of planning and allowing the Lord to work.

Proverbs frequently encourages the wise to plan (cf. 11:14; 14:22; 15:22; 20:18; 21:5; 24:6, 27), but this cannot mitigate God’s sovereignty over all of one’s life. A man’s steps are from the LORD. Consequently no man can understand his way. “Man cannot fully plan or control the course of his life, for God is ultimately in control, and God’s plans are not transparent” (Fox, Proverbs 10–31, 674). Human action (cf. 16:1, 9) and wisdom are limited (cf. Ec 3:11; 8:17; 11:5), so the wise plan and act in humble submission to God’s will (cf. Pr 16:3).

We find this theme and similar counsel throughout the Old Testament, and one specifically jumps out as being very applicable to what we will see in chapter 16.

In Isaiah 55:8-9 it says:

Isaiah 55:8–9 ““For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

This is a wonderful reminder of God’s sovereignty in our lives and when taken in the context of the totality of scripture, that is to say when we understand what Proverbs teaches in support of this passage from Isaiah, we gain the understanding that while we should plan, the Lord has the final say. And to plan to hasten His promises to fit our timelines, we are out of the will of God.

Going back a couple of chapters, we saw Abram’s wonderful act of faithfulness in the last part of chapter 14 when he refused the gifts of the king of Sodom, paid homage and worship to Melchizedek, and that “after these things” he was met by the Word of the Lord in a vision.

We saw that he Lord, as He has done at each critical point of Abram’s journey thus far, meets Abram to encourage and edify him for the next phase of his journey.

This is in interesting contrast to Abram’s trip to Egypt, where hardship and fear were present as Abram took things into his own plans instead of trusting in teh Lord’s plans. He seemed not to grasp that God had promised him to make a great nation from him, and was so concerned with his life and impacts of the famine that he sacrificed the safety and purity of his wife to navigate the situation.

Abram once again had doubts following his military victories and interaction with Melchizedek, questioning God as to what He would give Abram as proof of God’s former promises. And this doubt occurred even though Abram had exercised such faith in the way he went into battle to rescue Lot and the people of the Dead Sea region along with his faithful interactions with Melchizedek, who we discovered was likely the first theophany of Christ in the Old Testament.

In Genesis 15:4 God said to Abram in response to Abram’s doubt of a coming heir:

Genesis 15:4 “And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.””

God then takes Abram outside his tent and continues and says in v.5

Genesis 15:5 “Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.””

After which we read a key phrase in v.6 which says “And he [Abram] believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.”

The beautiful thing for us to apply to our understanding of God’s character and our walks in life is that God is gracious beyond measure. He sees Abram’s doubt but doesn't not call him on the carpet for it, instead encourages him. God does the same for us. We can take encouragement from this and know that when we stumble in faith and take things into our own hands, God will be gracious to encourage us.

This is where we can have confidence in making that statement, “God can use even our mistakes”.

HOWEVER, we humans are very good at falling back on phrases like this to justify our hasty tendencies. Humans are hasty creatures. We tend to jump to executing a solution before we understand the totality of a situation. We tend not to take time to fully process our situations and scenarios before jumping into action.

I run into this constantly in the business world. In fact there is an entire discipline called Kaizen that focuses on helping people to stop, observe, ask questions, then make a plan, and only then, execute.

And that’s what the Proverbs say, isn’t it. A wise person takes time to plan and speaks with many counselors, then, and only then finalizes a plan, but the whole time understanding that God is in control and His ways and outcomes may be 180 degrees counter to ours. Through prayerful consideration, a man makes his plans and trusts that the Lord will guide his steps.

The tough part though, even if we aren’t hasty or reactionary, is trusting and accepting the Lord’s plans. What He desires may be counter to what we desire, and we have to learn to be okay with that.

And this brings us to chapter 16 where we will study a great example of what it looks like to try and fulfill God’s plans in our own time and in our own power. As a preface, we find ourselves not too long after Abram’s interaction with the Lord in his vision in chapter 15. God’s promises would have been fresh in the mind of Abram.

The chapter opens in an interesting way.

Genesis 16:1aNKJV

1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children.

While it might seem that this first sentence is simply instructive of the setting or only fore descriptive purposes, there is some interesting use of the language.

The word “now” in Hebrew can be used in multiple ways, sometimes “now”, as in bringing the reader up to the point at which the story has progressed, but in some instances, the Hebrew form of now carries with it a sense of juxtaposition.

In our case, that is very fitting, because the context is important. The latter part of chapter 15 contains the reaffirmation of God’s promises to Abram, primarily the promise to give him a son and heir. Yet when we get to the beginning of chapter 16, it says “now” Sarai had borne him no children.

The juxtaposition is fitting in that God’s promise was given, yet Sarai is still barren and concerned that she will not give Abram a son. So the juxtaposition is that God promised something, confirmed the covenant by accepting Abrams sacrifice, yet Sarai does not comprehend how such a thing will be fulfilled, hence her scheme to give her maid as a concubine to Abram.

Simply put, it is setting up the reader to understand that God promised to bring about something (the inference being He decides how that will be done), yet the the human recipients of that promise will go about it a different way.

This is important because it overshadows the entire chapter with the sense that taking into ones own hands something that the Lord should be trusted with is in contrast to the Lord’s plan for His people.

Sarai’s name is also interesting. Many of you have probably learned its meaning in the past and that has probably been translated as “my princess” or “my lady”. Interestingly though, the name comes from two Hebrew words, “sar” and “ai”.

“Sar” means chief, leader, or captain. It is a masculine word. And “ai” means simply “my”.

Now there is much debate in the circles of scholars about this name, and the argument stems around the very popular assertion that Sarai means my princess and that Sarah means princess.

While the latter is rarely doubted (because it fits the language use and context) the former is hotly debated. The reason being is that the word “sar” is not used in a feminine way in other portions of scripture, in fact it is only used for prince or ruler in a masculine form.

Now, there are many theories and this becomes a discussion of linguistics and as a non salvation issue, it’s not one we have to agree on, however, I want to make a contextual point.

First, the name translates literally to “my ruler”.

Second, when God changes her name from Sarai to Sarah, He says in Gen 17:15

Genesis 17:15 “Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.”

The words “you shall not” in that verse are the same words used when God gives the commandments. They are an absolute command in the negative sense. However, when we look at how God instructs Abram about his new name, God says in Gen 17:5

Genesis 17:5 “No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.”

This instruction is very different from the negative imperative language used to instruct Abraham not to call Sarai by that name anymore.

So here is my interpretation within the context of this passage.

Sarai, translated literally as my ruler, in the context of the chapter keeping in mind that the word preceding her name is used to juxtapose the two connected scenarios, infers that she is taking the lead in decision making in the marriage relationship. Sedondarily, it infers that she is taking the lead in making plans without aknowledging the Lord.

Let’s read on to gain a full understanding of the coming verses which will help to support my view of this.

Genesis 16:2 “So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai.”

The word for “heeded” here is “sama” in Hebrew and it means to hear and obey. This points toward Abram not only agreeing with Sarai but that her request was not given in pleading manner. It had a degree of inferred command.

In Gen 3:17, we see the exact same word used. Let’s read that together.

Genesis 3:17 “Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.”

Remember, the Lord makes it clear in the rest of chapter 3 that womankind would want to rule over their husbands but that hey would be required to subordinate themselves to their leadership.

To bring it full circle, what we have here is a situation in which God has promised to provide Abram with a child. Abram, a man whose faith was attributed to him as righteousness has been instructed by the Lord and has the responsibly to then instruct his family. However, he allows himself to be persuaded by his wife (whose name translated my ruler) to attempt to fulfill God’s promise through human means.

The parallels between this and Genesis 3 are strong and in fact Moody’s Bible College scholars draw distinct parallels between Adam and Eve (specifically Eve’s roll in Adam’s sin) which I encourage you to study on.

What’s this pointing to in our lives?

Going back to the beginning of our study: It is good to plan. If God has spoken to you in His word (as he did at the end of Chapter 15 to Abram) it is okay to then make plans towards that vision.

In the case here, it would have been perfectly in line with scripture for Abram and Sarai to make plans pertaining to having a baby. I dare say they should have been coming together in every attempt to conceive a child knowing that the promise was from God.

Buy the crib, paint the room, get the diapers.

Most importantly, be in prayer continually seeking, asking, and knocking for the things in which the Lord has spoken to you, always asking, but being humbly ready for His will to be done.

Be prepared for the result not to be what you expect. In faith, hold on tightly to the promises of God, and in the specific case He has spoken to you and you have made your plans accordingly, know that He will fulfill His promises.

However, you need to be prepared to 1) wait longer than you expected, 2) for His results to be different than those that you expect, 3) that if you are sold out to Him fully, He may want to use you or your situation for something far greater than what you expect.

In a marriage, the husband makes the final call - he is to be the leader of the family. First spiritually, and secondly as the protector and provider. This is two fold.

First, husbands, if we want to exercise the honor of leading our families and instructing our wives, we have to be in the Word receiving counsel from the Lord. You cannot be a good leader unless the Good leader has mentored you in the Way.

Second, if you want the trust and respect of your wife in making decisions and expecting her to be subordinate in the decision, you have to do so in love.

There are many studies on “love” and many more on how husbands should treat their wives, but simply put in the context of this study, love here is a verb and not an emotion.

Yes, it’s obvious that one must have both romantic and emotional love for his wife, but more so he should have sacrificial love for his wife. However, both of which need to be filtered through our God given minds, which according to 2 Timothy 1:7 are lead by a spirit of power, love and soundness (to understand and to bring thoughts and emotions captive so that we can make good decisions within God’s teachings).

It’s plausible that Abram, wanting to console and comfort his wife, tended towards agreeing to her plans of surrogacy. However, Abram was the leader of that household and while polygymy was not outlawed, it was not what God intended and Abram should have understood that from what God set in Eden (a man and a woman shall be one flesh).

In love, we as men have to look at the totality of the situation, and through God’s world view, decide the next steps keeping in mind the impacts of those on our families and especially our wives. In love, what is the best decision to be made? Sometimes that means our wives might be disappointed in the near term, but in the long term there will be joy.

Why have I detoured here to discuss the marital relationship… becuase there will be times when the plans you make with your wife may be detoured by the Lord and in those times a strong and Godly man will need to have the love, courage, and care to steer the family in the direction the Lord is pointing, even when it is counter to the desires his spouse may have.

Let’s read on for an example of this.

Genesis 16:3–5 “Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. Then Sarai said to Abram, “My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord judge between you and me.””

Taking these verses in their totality it is easy to see what the immediate repercussions of Abram’s decision were.

First, there is immediate strife between Hagar and Sarai (verse 4), and second, there is immediate strife between Sarai and Abram (verse 5).

When we attempt to force outcomes, we are striving, and striving results in strife. It’s no coincidence that the two words come from the same French root “estriver”.

Striving, in the english language means to exert bodily powers with earnestness, or to contend. When we push God’s plans outside of the realm of His will we are contending with His will. And when you contend with God’s will you will ultimately find strife.

Strife in the english language means to exert oneself to contend for superiority. You are struggling for victory in the circumstance.

So when you strive with God you can expect to see strife with the people and circumstances in your life.

In this case, as soon as Hagar conceived, Sarai became despised in her eyes. Now don’t mistake this word for hatred. In our language it means to abhor someone (which means hate extremely), but the word in Hebrew is “qalal”, which means to be trivial. So Hagar didn’t necessarily hate her mistress, she simply saw here as a trivial figure in her life.

Culturally, this type of disrespect might as well have been hatred, but the context here and the face value of the passage doesn’t say that. Hagar no longer respects her lady and was probably acting disrespectfully.

It’s no surprise then that Sarai confronts Abram and states

Genesis 16:5 “5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord judge between you and me.””

Sarai probably never expected this to be the outcome. In her flesh she probably thought “Hagar will bear me a child and as she has been my subordinate maidservant all these years she will continue on in that fashion”.

But that’s the problem with intentions verse outcomes. Humans rarely consider all the possible outcomes when they are convinced the intentions of their actions or plans are good.

We have to remember what Jesus said, there is only One who is Good, and it is only His intentions that will result in good outcomes.

We’ll wrap up with one last thing and close.

Sarai says to Abram, “My wrong be upon you!… [and] The LORD judge between you and me.”

In a sense, Sarai is not wrong to make this accusation. Abram, as we discussed, was the head of the household and responsible for the spiritual leadership of the family. This wrong was on his head for he allowed it. We’ve covered this but here we see the result of a man making a decision outside of God’s will for his family.

When Sarai says “The LORD judge between me and you” she is saying that she wants vindication. The word judge here doesn't mean to decide who’s right or wrong but to decide who’s right, pass final judgement, and then execute that judgment. She wants retribution.

This is yet another example of the consequences of striving to bring about the results of Lord’s plans in our own way and through our flesh.

When things don’t go to plan as we expected we love to cast blame. Many times, as in this study, it can be on a person, but many other times we will cast the blame on our circumstances so not as to appear to be finger pointing. Either way, humans love to look for reasons that they couldn’t be at fault for the consequences of their decisions.

So to close, I want to look at some key takeaways:

God’s promises will come about by His hand and through His methods. We have to understand that in both heart and mind. When we think we can, in our own power and ability, bring about the results of God’s promises we are wading into troubled waters. It is good to plan, and the scriptures endorse wise people who do so. But we must understand that God will direct our paths.

Proverbs 16:9 “A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.”

When we plan, we must do so prayerfully and with many counselors.

Proverbs 15:22 “Without counsel, plans go awry, But in the multitude of counselors they are established.”

When we plan we must do so by filtering those plans through the Word.

Psalm 37:5 “Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.”

We need to remember that what the Lord has promised will come to pass but that it may come to pass in ways we don’t expect and that it may be disappointing in the short term. As well, the journey may be compeltely different from what we would have liked as it pertains to our plans.

If we were to read on in chapter 17 it tells us that it was 11 years later that Issac would be conceived and born to Sarah and Abraham. The promise was ultimately fulfilled but it took a decade to get there. That would have been a decade of disappointment. But we have to hold fast to promises and not to our emotions or our understanding of God’s timing. We have no understanding of the infinite in these finite minds.

When we strive we can expect strife. Remember it this way, to strive to bring about God’s plans in our timing, or to strive to bring about our plans without a regard for God’s will, we are ultimately contending with God for superiority in our lives.

We have to let the Master have His way all the while remembering that He is love and has a future and a hope for our lives. Be content, and be patient - He is Faithful. Whatever path He has for you will be better for you than what you can think or imagine.

These are all hard lessons to learn. It’s hard to balance our responsibility to move forward in life while giving God His rightful latitude to do what he wishes with us. No one wants to be accused of standing still and doing nothing because they are unsure of how God will work, and that’s where planning can be a big benefit.

We just have to lean on God and not on our own understanding, being fully committed to His will for our lives and searching the scriptures for His guidance. Make plans, but make them through God’s counsel.

Confused? Search the scriptures for your next steps and then take them in faith. God has given instruction on every facet of life and if we apply His precepts to our decisions, and we align our intentions with His, we are sure to see His promises come to fruition in our life without the need to strive.