Wait for the Promise

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by: Pastor Joey Vazquez

06/14/2022

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Genesis 16:2 (NLT) So Sarai said to Abram, “The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.” And Abram agreed with Sarai’s proposal.

The Lord had given Abraham a promise. He promised that He would give him as many descendants as there were stars in the sky (Genesis 16:5). But after ten years of he and Sarah living as foreigners in the land of Canaan and still not having children, Sarah got impatient. So she thought of a way that she could speed the process of God's promise along. All she had to do was give her servant, Hagar, to Abraham so that he could lie with her and conceive and have a child on Sarah's behalf. That was a bad idea but amazingly, Abraham agreed with her proposal. They carried out their plan and wouldn't you know it, it led to great trouble. First, Hagar changed in attitude towards Sarah and began to treat her with contempt. This caused problems between Sarah and Abraham as she blamed her husband for her woes. Sarah then began to treat Hagar very harshly until the baby was finally born. Abraham named him Ishmael. Later on when Abraham had Isaac, the child that God had promised him with Sarah, more trouble ensued. Ishmael began to taunt Isaac, which led to Sarah complaining so much that Abraham wound up sending Hagar and Ishmael away. Ishmael later became the father of all the Arab nations, which have been in conflict with the descendants of Isaac (the nation of Israel) until this day.

All of this strife and trouble started with one little sentence: "And Abram agreed with Sarai's proposal." God had told Abraham that He was giving him a son. His wife was Sarah, not Hagar. God did not instruct Abraham to have sexual relations with Hagar so that His promise could be fulfilled. As a matter of fact, God didn't ask Abraham for any help, or any help from Sarai either, for that matter. He just told him that He, God Himself, would give him many descendants. Sarah had an idea outside of the counsel of God and Abraham should have known that the God who had been leading and providing for him all of this time did not need any human help to make things happen. Because he went along with something that God did not tell him to do, much trouble was born not only for his lifetime, but until the present day.

Whenever God promises you something, know that God does not need your help to fulfill His promise. He doesn't want your help either because then you might take credit for it. What miracle was it for Abraham to have a son with Hagar? Hagar was not barren. It was Sarah that was barren, and God intended to show His awesome power and sovereignty through the miracle of giving a son to Abraham and his barren wife. But they didn't wait, and they suffered for it. Let's learn from this huge error and wait for God to do what He is going to do in the way that He is going to do it. Don't be tempted to meddle in the process to make something happen for yourself because in the end, you will just be asking for trouble, while robbing God of the glory that He intended by giving you something miraculous and divine. Learn to wait for God's promises. He always fulfills them, and you will not have any regrets.

Pastor Joey Vazquez

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Genesis 16:2 (NLT) So Sarai said to Abram, “The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.” And Abram agreed with Sarai’s proposal.

The Lord had given Abraham a promise. He promised that He would give him as many descendants as there were stars in the sky (Genesis 16:5). But after ten years of he and Sarah living as foreigners in the land of Canaan and still not having children, Sarah got impatient. So she thought of a way that she could speed the process of God's promise along. All she had to do was give her servant, Hagar, to Abraham so that he could lie with her and conceive and have a child on Sarah's behalf. That was a bad idea but amazingly, Abraham agreed with her proposal. They carried out their plan and wouldn't you know it, it led to great trouble. First, Hagar changed in attitude towards Sarah and began to treat her with contempt. This caused problems between Sarah and Abraham as she blamed her husband for her woes. Sarah then began to treat Hagar very harshly until the baby was finally born. Abraham named him Ishmael. Later on when Abraham had Isaac, the child that God had promised him with Sarah, more trouble ensued. Ishmael began to taunt Isaac, which led to Sarah complaining so much that Abraham wound up sending Hagar and Ishmael away. Ishmael later became the father of all the Arab nations, which have been in conflict with the descendants of Isaac (the nation of Israel) until this day.

All of this strife and trouble started with one little sentence: "And Abram agreed with Sarai's proposal." God had told Abraham that He was giving him a son. His wife was Sarah, not Hagar. God did not instruct Abraham to have sexual relations with Hagar so that His promise could be fulfilled. As a matter of fact, God didn't ask Abraham for any help, or any help from Sarai either, for that matter. He just told him that He, God Himself, would give him many descendants. Sarah had an idea outside of the counsel of God and Abraham should have known that the God who had been leading and providing for him all of this time did not need any human help to make things happen. Because he went along with something that God did not tell him to do, much trouble was born not only for his lifetime, but until the present day.

Whenever God promises you something, know that God does not need your help to fulfill His promise. He doesn't want your help either because then you might take credit for it. What miracle was it for Abraham to have a son with Hagar? Hagar was not barren. It was Sarah that was barren, and God intended to show His awesome power and sovereignty through the miracle of giving a son to Abraham and his barren wife. But they didn't wait, and they suffered for it. Let's learn from this huge error and wait for God to do what He is going to do in the way that He is going to do it. Don't be tempted to meddle in the process to make something happen for yourself because in the end, you will just be asking for trouble, while robbing God of the glory that He intended by giving you something miraculous and divine. Learn to wait for God's promises. He always fulfills them, and you will not have any regrets.

Pastor Joey Vazquez

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