After all the revelation, words and encounters with God in chapter 15 you might have thought that Abraham was now sorted out and would march effortlessly on to the fulfilment of God's purpose for his life. Nothing could be further from the truth, for Abraham and Sarah are about to make one massive mistake. Indeed one which ahs had consequences ever since.
Despite God's promises Sarah and Abraham still had no children, so Sarah came up with a plan for fulfilling the word. Abraham would sleep with the servant girl, called Hagar. Now we do need to remember that social structures were rather different then than they are now, and this wasn't quite such an outlandish idea that we would imagine it to be today. Moreover, it would seem to fulfil the word of God, for God has said Abraham would have a son from his own body, and this is indeed what would happen if the plan worked, for the child would be biologically from Abraham. By the way this is warning against intricate analysis of bits of God's word, particularly prophecy. The spirit of what God says, and the character of God are equally important guides to interpretation and understanding as the minutiae of the word itself, especially if one tries to argue from what God did not say.
All this was ten years after they had been in Canaan. The action they took was so understandable, though so wrong as well.
Abraham agreed and did what Sarah had suggested. Sarah even gave the servant girl to Abraham. Abraham slept with her and she became pregnant. So the plan has worked.
The next issue of EastEnders will come tomorrow! (For non-UK readers, EastEnders is a soap opera. I don't watch soap operas, but the the Bible oftem comes up with much better story lines!).
Despite God's promises Sarah and Abraham still had no children, so Sarah came up with a plan for fulfilling the word. Abraham would sleep with the servant girl, called Hagar. Now we do need to remember that social structures were rather different then than they are now, and this wasn't quite such an outlandish idea that we would imagine it to be today. Moreover, it would seem to fulfil the word of God, for God has said Abraham would have a son from his own body, and this is indeed what would happen if the plan worked, for the child would be biologically from Abraham. By the way this is warning against intricate analysis of bits of God's word, particularly prophecy. The spirit of what God says, and the character of God are equally important guides to interpretation and understanding as the minutiae of the word itself, especially if one tries to argue from what God did not say.
All this was ten years after they had been in Canaan. The action they took was so understandable, though so wrong as well.
Abraham agreed and did what Sarah had suggested. Sarah even gave the servant girl to Abraham. Abraham slept with her and she became pregnant. So the plan has worked.
The next issue of EastEnders will come tomorrow! (For non-UK readers, EastEnders is a soap opera. I don't watch soap operas, but the the Bible oftem comes up with much better story lines!).
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