Genesis 15:1-5 and 16:1-16
I want you to take note first of all, to
verse 3 of 16 - “So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years”!… Ten
years have past between chapter 15 and 16, since God told Abram he would have a
son…but the stork still had not arrived. Now, Abraham was not getting any
younger. He was 76 when God called him, and if you go ahead to 16:16 you will
find that now he was 86! It’s
interesting that, if you go back to verses 2 and 3 of 15 - Abraham is concerned
that Eliezer - who was his chief servant - would inherit all that was
Abraham’s. How-ever, God had told him that his heir would come from his own
body. But, ten years is a long time, and Sarah did what most of us have a
tendency to do when we get tired of waiting for God, she decided to figure out
a way to help God along with his promise. Remember, she didn’t think it was
possible to begin with and laughed at the thought of having a child when she
was 80!…Little did she know that she would actually be 90!
So, the story tells us that at age 86, ten
years after the promise, after ten years of waiting, Sarah has an Egyp-tian
maidservant named Hagar, and she suggests to Abraham the idea of starting a
family through her maid-servant. Abraham agrees, and Hagar gives birth to
Ishmael. Little did Abraham or Sarah
know the problems that this cute little baby would cause…and even create for
generations to come. One of Ishmael’s descendants was Mohammed, who started the religion of Islam. From that baby came a whole race of people who are still fighting to this day with the Jewish people in the Middle-East. Because we have the hindsight of this Biblical story, it may be easy to think, “How could Abraham be so foolish”… But, you see, whenever we get tired of waiting for God to answer our prayers, and we get impatient, we also do stupid things and we can also give birth to an “Ishmael”. We get ahead of God, and often create more headaches than we can handle.
Waiting can be frustrating. It seems like you can be waiting for some-thing, you look at your watch and it’s 1:30…an hour later you look at your watch and it’s 1:35!! There are some things revealed in this story that are common to all of us at one time or another that reveals our impatience:
Trying to help God. This is what Sarah and Abraham did. God had promised them a son. And, Abraham probably thought, “Well that only takes nine months”. So, he got out his calendar and started marking off the days. But, Sarah wasn’t showing. 6 months, nine months, two years, ten years….and, finally they decided that God must need a little help. We always get into trouble when we try to help God out.
A fellow was trying to get a washing machine through the door of his house, and a neighbor thought that he would help him out. So, he went over and grabbed one end of the washer. After about 15 minutes of struggling, the neighbor said; “I don’t think we are going to get this washer in the house through this door”… To which the man replied, “What do you mean ‘in’ I’m trying to get it out!” …. Most of the time when we think we are trying to help God in some way, we find oursel-ves struggling against Him. Abraham and Sarah did not wait for God’s timing, and they gave birth to Ishmael.
The second thing we do when we are tired of waiting is to over step our bounds. By that I mean we go beyond what we are instructed to do. A good example of this is found in 1 Samuel 10:8 where Samuel told Saul to go to Gilgal and wait seven days until he arrived, when Samuel would then sacrifice an offering to the Lord. In chapter 13 we find the Philistines assembled to attack Israel… And, in verse 7 it says; “Saul and all the troops were “quaking with fear”. How often does something come against us in life, and we too are quick to fear rather than trust? Saul waited the seven days, but on the seventh day his men began to scatter, and Samuel didn’t seem to be coming, So Saul decides to over step his bounds, to go beyond what he was told, and make an offering himself. And, of course, just as he does, Samuel arrives.
The rest of the story tells us that Saul gave birth to an Ishmael by over stepping his bounds. He grew impatient and he lost his family, he lost his kingdom, and most of all, he lost the Holy Spirit’s presence in his life. How often in our own lives as well as in the church, we expect God to “fax” us the answer, and it seems like He is still using the pony express!
Here is what I have experienced in my own life when it comes to patience or waiting upon God; God doesn’t want us to wait upon him and his timing because he likes to see us squirm…He has good reasons for us to wait. Satan, on the other hand, always puts his best offer up front, so those who want instant gratification don’t have to wait. However, I have come to know that God’s timing is always best.
First of all, I have found that I may not be ready for what God has planned. And, if we are not ready, we may not appreciate it as much… or we may even destroy it. Let me give you an example; When a kid is 14 years old and wants to drive…the car might be ready for the kid, but the kid is not ready for the car! Throw the keys to a 14 year old, and you may be asking for disaster! There is a reason for driver training, and a written exam, and a drivers test, and so on…Do you see the application? (What about Training? Examination? Testing? Preparation?) Sometimes, even when they are 16 and think they may be ready, we are reluctant to throw them the keys.
God may still be in the process of preparing “behind the scenes” so to speak, things that we are not aware of like; the right people, the right events, the right programs, the right timing may not be in place, and we need to wait upon the Lord to bring these things together.
Third, God may be desiring to develop the very thing we lack, and that’s patience. Patience is letting your motor idle when you want to strip the gears! ( A teacher had just finished putting the boots on all of her first graders…32 in all. After she had the boots on the last little girl, the girl said; “Teacher, did you know these are not my boots?”…The teacher patiently removed the boots from the little girls feet, when she continued; “Their my sister’s and she let me wear them”… Someone once said that “When it comes to patience, it’s the little things that annoy us; we can sit on a mountain top forever, but we can only sit on a tack for an instant! God may be trying to develop the very virtue we need the most.
Fourth, Sometimes God desires to something greater. If Jesus had arrived in Bethany two days earlier than Mary or Martha thought he should, he would have probably healed Lazarus rather than raise him from the dead!
So, the question then becomes “How do I wait? How do I develop this discipline of waiting upon the Lord?” For that we turn to Psalm 37;
Verse 1 says; “Don’t fret or be envious”. Do you know that the greatest motivator of impatience is envy?…Wanting what everyone else has rather than what God has for our lives! Verse 3 says “Trust in the Lord and do something good”. Just trust in the Lord and keep yourself busy doing good things. Verse 4 says “Delight your self in the Lord”. “Delight” means to find pleasure in…Have you ever noticed how time flies when your having fun?” Delight yourself…find some fun in your Christian walk…and “he will give you the desires of your heart.” Verse 5 - “Commit your way to the Lord”…Be willing to put your life, your plans, your past, your present and your future into God’s hands. Verse 7 - “Be still before the Lord”… “Hyper” is the word that we use for those who have to be doing something or always moving, fidgeting, and can’t sit still. There are times when we just need to “sit still” and not always be doing something.
Finally, verse 8 says - “refrain from anger”. When we get angry, we do some rash things. Anger will cause us to sin if we let it get out of control and in control of our lives. We don’t have time to go through the whole Psalm, you can read it for yourself. It is filled with wise “how to’s” concerning patience.
Abraham and Sarah did finally live to see their promised son born from Sarah’s womb. His name was Isaac. Sarah was 90 and Abraham was 100. Twenty five years had past since God made the promise to Abraham. How long are you willing to wait for God to answer your prayers?
Go with these thoughts about our message today; Remember, circumstances don’t matter to God; Time doesn’t matter to God; Abilities or disabilities or impossibilities don’t matter to God; He is able to do all things! “Greater is He that is in me”, and He does not change! God is working some things out in your life right now… God is working some things out in my life right now… Let’s not jump the gun and give birth to an Ishmael… Wait for Isaac! “They that wait upon the Lord shall re-new their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not get weary, they shall walk and not faint, teach me Lord, teach me Lord, to wait”!
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