Abram’s wife is my companion this damp grey afternoon. Ros Clarke speaks to Sarai’s infertility, to her use of Hagar, to her mistreatment of Hagar. How easy it is for us to take matters into our own hands. Even when the initial vision, promise is from God and His word that He will bring something about. God works on a different time scale to us and it is all to easy to jump the gun even when trying to see His promises fulfilled because it feels like time is running out.
God has brought me back time and again recently in different conversations to the Garden of Eden and how God provided clothing for Adam and Eve that was more than the fig leaves they had rustled together. They still experienced pain, hard toil, death, family devastation out of the garden but that did not mean God sent them out with nothing.
In Sarai’s story there is much pain and brokenness that need never have happened to herself or to Hagar. We cannot escape that and yet in time Isaac was born to Sarai and Abram. God did not forget His promise. He did not hold a grudge. He did not hold back a son. He did not forget Hagar.
We may try to jump the gun, sort things out ourselves. We can tie ourselves in theological knots over whether to do something or wait? We go round in circles asking what is the right answer, do we get proactive or do we wait? I know that if I have sensed a vision, a calling of God, I want to make it happen. I want to get from A to B as quickly as possible. The reality is more often then not that is not God’s way with me. I have found myself like Sarai wanting to take matters into my own hands.
When we see brokenness and pain we wonder why God allows it to happen. Why doesn’t He stop it, prevent it. What Sarai teaches us is that God does see, He does care, He cares for all involved and He does not cancel His promise to us because of the fall out from our actions. He will not cancel His promise to us who believe.
With Eve, though she had eaten the fruit, the consequences were not fully felt till they left the garden and yet God provided for them before they left, before the pain hit. With Sarai, the fall out has happened, the pain has rippled out across lives and then God provides. God is faithful to provide.
Father God, thank You for providing for us with no restrictions, no limits. Thank You for doing more for us when we ask for daily bread than we can imagine. In Jesus name we pray.
https://www.eden.co.uk/lent-books-for-individuals/forty-women/
Joshua's Tree Rooted 