Abraham waits...

Hi, All.

May the mumbling commence!

Abram had to wait.  Wait for an heir.  In the meantime, Abram and his wife Sarai thought they would help God fulfill his promise.  They tried to use the way of the world at their time.  If a wife could not produce offspring, then a handmaid was given to the husband to produce offspring for the wife.  And, so, we get the Egyptian slave Hagar and her son Ishmael.  Abram was 86-years-old, and Sarai was probably about 76 when Ishmael was born.  It was time to do something, wasn’t it?

No.  Nothing is too hard for the Lord.  God changed Abram’s name (meaning exalted father in Hebrew) to Abraham (meaning father of many) and changed Sarai’s name to Sarah.  She would be the mother of nations and kings of peoples would come from her.

And Abraham laughed.  Couldn’t Ishmael receive the blessing?  And Sarah laughed.  Would she receive the pleasure of motherhood when she was dried up and old?

Somehow, I think that God was laughing as well.  The Lord needs no help from humanity to fulfill his purposes.  Yet, God chooses to use Abraham and Sarah to create a people of faith.  A people not born of this world, but a people born of faith.  The child to be born of Abraham and Sarah would be called Isaac (which means he laughs in Hebrew).  I give thanks for being included in this immense family of faith.

And, let’s admit it.  When we try to help God, we only get ourselves in trouble.  We destroy relationships with God and with people.  Look at the problems that the Hagar solution created just in Genesis 16.  Jealousy and pride and separation sprouted up.  Separation happened with the possibility of death for a pregnant woman.  God had to intervene and make things right.  He told Hagar to return to an abusive household.  Abraham and Sarah would have to live with the consequences.  And the consequences of this choice still affect us today…

I must admit, I thought about my journey through Job as I read the interaction between Abraham and the Lord about Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18:20-33.  Abraham, of course, knew that Lot and his family lived just outside of Sodom.  At the risk of being chastised, Abraham asked if the Righteous One would punish the righteous along with the wicked so that they would suffer the same fate.  Then, Abraham asked about 50 righteous people.  Would God save the cities for 50?  Yes.  Eventually, Abraham whittled the number down to 10.  Perhaps, he thought that there were surely 10 righteous people in Lot’s household. And God said, “Yes, for the sake of 10, I will not destroy it.”

Perhaps, God’s love for righteous people is what helps the wicked to prosper.  It makes me think of the parable of the wheat and tares that Jesus told.  The tares could not be torn out without damage to the wheat, so the farmer let the two grow side-by-side.  Our welfare is tied together, righteous and wicked!  Only at harvest would the wheat and tares be separated.

But, still, it is a tough pill to swallow when good people have bad things happen to them…

And, though I’ve never wondered this before, I wonder about it today.  What if Abraham and his family went to Sodom to visit Lot?  Would that have provided enough righteous people to spare the cities?  Would God count visiting righteous people..?

You know, second guessing our actions or lack thereof.  I do it all the time – especially with actions left undone.  Today, I will give myself a break, the benefit of a doubt.  As the serenity prayer goes, God give me the strength to change the things I can and have the wisdom to know the difference between what I can and cannot change.

When it comes down to it, we are all in the capable hands of the Lord.  Let us rest in the peace that God presence brings.

Enough mumbling for today…

Peace Out