Genesis Session 24

Tonight, we are going to talk about the trouble with… rushing.

Specifically, we are going to talk about the consequences we might end up facing when we attempt to rush a process or a season or a whatever.

Stop and think about it:

For the bakers in the house, what can happen when you try to rush the completion time of baking a cake by turning up the heat of the oven?

For those on the road, what can happen when you decide to go faster than the speed posted on the sign in order to cut time off the drive?

You might get a ticket

You might cause an accident

For those in a hurry to get your coffee in the morning, what happens when you cut in line at the convenience store to make your wait as small as possible?

For those promised by God to have children, what happens when the wife who cannot conceive tells her husband to sleep with her maidservant so that they might have a child through her?

What does that last example have to do with rushing? It has everything to do with rushing God!

God had spoken a promise to Abram and Sarai, and in her impatience, Sarai comes up with a plan that seems to fit God’s promise… the problem is God had nothing to do with Sarai’s plan.

Genesis 16:1–4 NIV

1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.

God had spoken a promise… but this plan… this plan was strictly the plan of Sarai. She became impatient with the Lord and began to look for a way to manufacture the family God had promised her.

Now, it was customary in Abram’s day for the people of Mesopotamia to do something like this if having children was not a possibility.

The wife could offer her maidservant to her husband to bear his children. The children would belong to the wife.

Although the culture looked upon this practice as acceptable, it was NOT the way God intended for His promise to come to fruition.

God’s way is the way of faith.

This plan was birthed out of fear and worry - Sarai could not see another way.

The pregnancy that resulted was one of human effort.

That sounds a bit odd right? Aren’t all pregnancies a result of human effort?

This particular pregnancy was received or attained in the ordinary way.

What had been promised was a son that would be born by the power of the Spirit - Galatians 4:29.

Sarai rushed God! She found a physical way to accomplish what she thought God was trying to accomplish… but in doing so… SHE COMPLETELY MISSED OUT ON THE MIRACLE OF THE PROMISE!

The Bible teaches in both the OT and the NT that the only way to see God’s purpose come to fruition in our lives is to do things HIS WAY in HIS TIME.

God’s promises are yes and amen… and His timing is perfect. Not only will God do exactly what He says He will do, but He will do it at such a time that maximizes His glory!

For instance, in our story… The nurse that told my wife that kids were no longer a possibility for us was the same nurse that… two days later… confirmed through medical tests that Kristy was pregnant with Sam. It was at that time we decided that the doctors would no longer be a part of our family building process and God gave my wife the 4 children she had dreamed of for decades.

What we need to realize is when we try to substitute human effort for God’s supernatural power… we are attempting to manufacture a move of the Lord.

Yes… we are capable of doing a lot of different things… but if those “things” do not line up with the promise and plan of God, then we are operating in the flesh and not by His Spirit and power.

Trying to rush God is a BAD idea.

Why? Because it puts our ideas and agendas in front of God’s plan and power. It’s telling God, “I’ve got this” when in reality, we’ve got nothing without God!

Think about it… who was it that gave Sarai the hope of having children in her old age? It was God through His promise!

Her impatience turned God’s word of hope into a word of hostility. Look again at how she addressed the issue - GOD HAS KEPT ME FROM HAVING CHILDREN.

So this evening, as we look at the rest of this chapter… I want us to see just how bad of an idea it is to try to rush God.

Bad things tend to happen EVEN when we try to rush God according to His promise.

Sarai Begins to Feel the Weight of Her Decision.

Genesis 16:4–6 NIV

4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.” 6 “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.

Uh oh… are we detecting a bit of jealousy coming from the one who put this plan together?

Hagar did something that Sarai was unable to do. And… the results that came about were the exact results Sarai was hoping for - Hagar was carrying the child of Abram. Conception had taken place, a baby was on the way.

But something wasn’t right… something didn’t feel right. For some reason, Sarai wasn’t experiencing the emotions she thought she would experience.

Her husband agreed to the plan - a plan that was acceptable in the eyes of the culture - and he did what Sarai asked him to do.

Her mistress became the vessel that would produce a child for her. Notice that neither Abram or Sarai refer to her by name. Notice she is taken and given - none of what took place came about by her free will.

Sarai begins to mistreat Hagar because she claims Hagar despises her. It is speculated that Sarai imagined the mistreatment OR Hagar was holding the pregnancy over Sarai’s head as something she could do for Abram that Sarai could not do.

So all in all, a child was in fact conceived, but instead of God’s promise being made true… everything started to fall apart.

This was NOT going the way Sarai had pictured it going!

When we rush God… we will face the weight of our decision to do so. And I say this with absolute certainty.

How can I be so confident in this? Because the moment we rush God is the moment we walk out from under His blessing and take control for ourselves.

We try to make happen what God said HE WOULD DO. This is an act of force, not faith. And we will bear the full weight of whatever may come for our decision to act according to our self.

When God says He will do something, we need to trust Him with the details.

In doing so, we never risk taking what was meant to be a blessing and turning it into a burden.

Hagar Begins to Feel the Weight of Her Circumstance.

Genesis 16:7–16 NIV

7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered. 9 Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” 11 The angel of the Lord also said to her: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. 12 He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.” 13 She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered. 15 So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

Hagar had been mistreated by both Abram and Sarai. None of what had taken place up to this point was her fault. yet here she was, on her own, pregnant, with nowhere to go, no one to turn to, and no future to hope for.

When things did not go as planned, Sarai, with Abram’s blessing, began to mistreat Hagar to the point that Hagar ran away from the abuse.

For Sarai, perhaps she felt relieved as the “problem” had just disappeared on its own. I do find it interesting that there is no mention of Abram or Sarai pursing the missing maidservant.

For Hagar, there was no running away from her current circumstance. She was pregnant. A baby was on the way. Yes, in this moment she was out from underneath the mistreatment… but what was to come of her and the child she now carried?

As isolated as she may have felt, God never lost sight of her.

The Lord sends an angel to speak to her regarding her circumstance. In doing so the angel delivers to her:

Instruction for her immediate future.

Promises regarding her distant future.

Hagar may have felt like Abram and Sarai only viewed her as a tool or a means to accomplish what they wanted, but Hagar knew that God saw her as something… as someone different.

Hagar gives an interesting name to the Lord that spoke with her - the God who sees me. Perhaps for the first time in this entire situation, Hagar feels like something more than something used.

And notice something important here… when the angel addresses Hagar, he calls her by name.

Remember, Abram and Sarai only refer to her as slave, maidservant, etc. The angel calls her by name. He sees her for who she is.

The angel also refers to Hagar’s position in Sarai’s family… and I believe he does this to assure Hagar that he is familiar with the circumstance she was trying to escape from.

Even though Abram and Sarai had made a mess of the promise God had given them, God, in His grace, rolled in and began to straighten things out.

As Hagar was feeling the weight of her circumstance, God came in and begin to bring relief to her. She was not just a means to an end. She was more than a slave or a maidservant. God was with her and He guided her through this difficult situation.

The Point to Take Home

This story in Genesis is a messy one. It shows something we are all familiar with. It reminds us of what kind of trouble we can create when we get ahead of God and try to rush His plan.

What had been done could not be undone and Abram, Sarai, and Hagar would have to live with all that would result from this one bad decision.

When God makes a promise, we can be assured that He will keep that promise according to His way and timing.

We get ourselves into trouble and make a mess of things when we attempt to rush God through our own limited understanding.

Church… sometimes we need to learn to take our foot off the accelerator. We need to allow God to work in and through our lives as His timing is perfect in all things.

Rushing God is not a matter of faith… it is a matter or impatience and control.

These are things God has a difficult time moving though… because it places self in the driver’s seat.

So my prayer this evening is this: when we feel tempted to rush God’s timing regarding His promises, I pray we would reject that temptation and fully trust in the timing of the Lord.

As the promise came from God, the fulfillment of said promise can only come from God. God never asked us to take control. All He asked us to do was place our faith and trust in Him.

Let’s pray and ask God to help us to never rush what He is trying to do!