Waiting on God

November 16, 2015

Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, "Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her." And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

Genesis 16:1-2

Abraham and Sarah had been waiting for a child. God had promised a child but month after month, year after year came and went and there was still no child.

Perhaps Abraham and Sarah thought they would get pregnant immediately and nine months later have their baby. But it didn't happen that way. Now it had been ten years. Ten years! And still no child.

Sarah is tired of waiting. She takes matters into her own hands. She rationalizes and convinces herself that God plans to give them a child through her servant Hagar.

Now, this was the legal custom of the ancient Near East. A barren wife could give her personal servant to her husband.

However, though this practice was acceptable in the world's eyes, it was

not

acceptable in God's eyes.

Abraham, like Adam before him, listens to the voice of his wife rather than to the voice of his God. He resorts to self-reliant manipulations and sleeps with Hagar.

They have a son, Ishmael, but the whole scheme backfires, leaving a trail of anger, jealousy, pride, abandonment and hurt. (The scheme continues to echo with pain in the Jewish-Arab conflict of today.)

Waiting is hard. No one likes to wait. But waiting is part of God's plan for us. Waiting is one of the principal ways that God teaches us. Through waiting God teaches us faith and dependence and prayer and desperateness and gratitude.

Imagine if we never waited. Imagine if we got things as soon as we wanted, as soon as we asked for them. Would we learn dependence? Would we learn faith? Would we learn desperate prayer? Would we be as grateful? Would we not begin to think of God as a genie at our disposal rather than the sovereign Lord for us to obey?

What have

you

been waiting for? A job? A marriage? A breakthrough in your marriage? A child? A healing? A loved one coming to Christ? Something else?

Waiting is difficult, and at times, excruciating. But God uses waiting. He uses waiting in ways we don't understand.

So keep waiting. Don't despair. Don't give up. Don't take matters into your own hands and resort to ungodly manipulation. Don't rationalize a compromise. For example, if you are waiting to be married don't rationalize that it is OK for you, a Christian, to marry a non-Christian.

Wait. God had not forgotten Abraham and Sarah and he has not forgotten you.

will take care of you. Just wait. Just you wait.