Lilac Ministries

Bible Study Lessons

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Scripture: Genesis 16:1-6

Topic: Sarai's Decision

We pick up Sarai’s story about 10 years after God’s having told Abram that he would be the father of many nations. Ten years - and Sarai was already old to start with! Now she is well past childbearing years, and she is beginning to wonder something along the lines of “Maybe God has a different way to achieve this blessing.” Don’t we all think such things sometimes? Aren’t there petitions that we make day after day, hoping for an answer we feel sure the Lord intends for us, but seeing nothing? Sarai’s story doesn’t provide the answer for every one of our long-term prayers, but it does cause us to be reminded of God’s timing.

Sarai offers Hagar, her Egyptian maid, to be childbearer for Abram. Abram agrees and does have a son, Ishmael, by Hagar. As we reflected upon this part of Sarai’s life, we found we had empathy for her plight of childlessness in conjunction with God’s promise that Abram would have descendents too numerous to count. At the age of about 75, she probably felt (as would most of us) that “something needs to happen,” and she used the cultural norm of offering her handmaid as concubine/wife to Abram. Hagar’s child would be Sarai’s child. However, we see that others’ emotions are difficult to predict: Hagar now looks down upon Sarai. And friction becomes a daily part of the family.

One lesson we draw from Sarai’s experience is that family decisions can often have lasting impact. Sarai and Abram’s decision provides the origin of Muslim and Jewish nations, as well as our own Christian heritage. And Paul speaks of Sarai and Hagar as allegorical illustrations of the heavenly Jerusalem and the earthly Jerusalem.

Let us be wise in our family decisions. Let us also be patient in allowing God to work blessings in His perfect timing. These things are not easy to discern, but when we find ourselves taking issues into our own hands in order to fulfill what we believe is God’s will, we would do well to ask for the wisdom James tells us God is pleased to give us. Perhaps Sarai’s story, preserved for us in scripture, is intended to yield to us a portion of that wisdom.