So what’s our third great lesson in faith from Abram? It’s Genesis 16: the classic story of how not to do things, if we want to be people of faith…
It’s grim. Abram and Sarai don’t quite trust God’s promise to give them a son. So Abram gives up waiting, takes matters into his own hands, uses his maidservant Hagar – gets her pregnant – then abandons her. Faith? It’s a hideous case of someone seeking to bring about something genuinely good by manipulative, dodgy, ungodly means: exactly what living by faith isn’t. Learning faith means learning not to do things our way but to trust God to sort things out in His good time. (Might I fall into the same failure? Well, just when I’d drafted this the Lord made me see it was annoyingly relevant to a minor mistake I’d just made; no, let’s call it by its right name, a sin.)
And think about it: Hagar’s story is a faith story too. She runs away from her mistress’ abuse; `the angel of the Lord` (which often means Jesus?) comes Himself to find her (she matters that much!); but what He says is, Go back to that tough situation (16:9). Don’t grab at your liberation; the time will come for that. Which it does, after Ishmael is born, in Genesis 21, because God won’t forget her; but meanwhile God’s challenge to Hagar is, don’t grab at your liberation, trust Me and wait. (God’s revelation of Himself as `the God who sees me` is the strengthening she needs for this. `I’m grateful to know that He watches`, one of you said wisely to me recently.)
But then it’s fascinating just how the Bible works. After Abram descends to these dodgy means, God doesn’t speak to him for 13 years. (Moses did the same in Exodus 2 and didn’t hear from God again for 40 years. Lord, I don’t want that to happen to me…) But then in chapter 17 `God Almighty` returns, Abram falls on his face, God renews His covenant with Abram and his descendants; and He makes their circumcision its sign. Why that?
It’s about exactly the same issue. Circumcision was a highly intimate reminder of God’s promise: Israel were above all to be a people trusting God’s promise, not putting their confidence in their own actions or the good works of their flesh. Look at Philippians 3: `We are the circumcision, who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and` – here it comes – `who put no confidence in the flesh`: because our whole trust is in God and what He does. Galatians 4 makes clear that the whole Hagar story is about this: not seeking to be saved by putting confidence in our own good works, since that can only lead to slavery and fear (we’ll never know if we’ve done enough); but being saved through faith in God’s grace alone. And Gal 3:3 makes clear that the exact same principle marks our entire spiritual life: we will actually never attain our goals by putting our confidence in what our flesh can achieve: trying to get right things, bring about what God has promised, by our own dubious efforts…
So here’s the next powerful lesson in faith. Lord, please help me hear You warning me when I’m doing things my way, not Yours: or when in my lack of faith I’m acting like the ends justify the dodgy means I use…
PS These Genesis stories operate on two levels. On one level Hagar `may be interpreted allegorically` (Gal 4:24 ESV), representing a seriously wrong way of seeking to relate to God. But then again Hagar and Ishmael are also real, mistreated people, loved and rescued and `surely blessed` by God, and with a destiny to become a `great nation` (17:20). We’ll see a similar pairing with both Isaac and Joseph.
