Abram and Sarai take matters into their own hands, giving up on God’s fulfilling His promise to Abram. Admittedly, they had waited ten years for God to fulfill the promise of offspring; that’s a long time to wait, especially with Sarai’s biological clock doubtlessly ticking like a time bomb and then chiming a death knell. But God…!
What parallels to the account of Adam and Eve’s sin do you notice in Genesis 16? What lessons can they teach you or remind you about your own weaknesses and how they impact your marriage? (Are these two accounts too few to note a pattern in women getting so carried away by their feelings that they badger their husbands into doing something their husbands wouldn’t otherwise do? And to see a pattern in husbands giving up their roles as leaders and giving in to their wives contrary to God’s word?) Women might be wise to use Eve and Sarai as warnings, that we may have a tendency to lack self-control over our feelings, may tend to badger our husbands, driving them to take regrettable action. Examine yourself, Girls! Men might be wise to take warning from Adam’s and Abram’s examples of failing in their leadership roles and caving under pressure from their wives. Perhaps this is why God established the hierarchy in marriage that He did, that “wives (be) subject to their husbands”, so that this pattern doesn’t repeat.
What lessons can you learn or reminders can you note about taking control in matters that are for God to work out? Is there something in your life that you need to choose to wait on God to work out? Make that choice now!
Chapter 17 is an important continuation of the establishment of the covenant between God and Abram. God tells Abram the conditions He places on the promises He has made to Abram. Note what the conditions are (to walk before God and be blameless, and circumcision) and what God promises (Abram will become the father of a multitude of nations, and the land of Canaan will everlastingly belong to Abram’s descendants). The promise is so firm that God changes Abram’s name to Abraham, meaning “father of a multitude,” and Sarai’s name to Sarah, meaning “princess.” The name change is significant because in that culture names were closely linked to a person’s character. One’s name is a vital part of one’s identity.
Note in today’s reading that God is identified by two different names: to Hagar He was “the God who sees.” He introduced Himself to Abram as “God Almighty.” Consider what His names, and the fact that He has numerous names, mean. He is so big, so much, that He is not confined to one name. To Hagar and Abram, He was what they needed.
Abraham laughed at God’s promise to give him a son through Sarah, which any of us should be able to understand because by now he was 99 years old, and Sarah was 89, and they had waited 25 years for God to fulfill His promise of a son! But Abraham was, after all, talking to God Almighty.
Abraham may have laughed, which seems out of character for one whose faith in God had earlier been credited to him as righteousness. But don’t look down on him too far, because he did immediately submit to circumcision himself and go circumcise his household, instituting it for his household thereafter.
How are you doing in your reading? If you have been doing so faithfully, you are well on your way toward having a habit established. If you haven’t been so faithful, there is time to work on it – keep working at it! I am praying for you to succeed.