Today’s reading: Genesis 16:1-15; 18:1-15; 21:1-7
Pragmatic – relating to matters of fact or practical affairs often to the exclusion of intellectual or artistic matters; practical as opposed to idealistic (Miriam Webster).
As I was updating my resume a couple years ago, I was looking for ten key words that described me and how I approach my work. One of my friends suggested the word pragmatic. While it wasn’t on my original list, I decided it describes me pretty well. I am a practical, figure out a way to get stuff done, kind of person.
My friend Amy called me last week. She had been asked to lead a big project and wanted my advice on how to approach it. So, we went to lunch on Friday to discuss it. My reaction after listening to the assignment she’d be given was, “well they’ve asked you to boil the ocean, but here is how I’d approach it”. It didn’t take long for us to come up with a plan for how she could clarify/prioritize objectives with her sponsors, then gather/analyze current state data to figure out the problem areas to solve first. A practical approach to start getting stuff done.
The Biblical person we are studying today is Sarah, Abraham’s wife. I think pragmatic is a good way to describe her.
God had promised Abraham and Sarah a child of their own. They had faith, and trusted God would do what he promised. Then they waited, and waited, and waited. By the time she was in her mid-eighties, Sarah’s pragmatism took over. Perhaps Sarah was tired of waiting or, what seems more likely to me, she decided God needed her help to make progress. At around 85 or 86, she decided to come up with a practical approach to start making things happen.
Since Sarah couldn’t have children of her own, her plan was for Abraham to conceive a child with her servant Hagar. This type of surrogate arrangement was not uncommon at this point in history. Married women who could not have children were shamed by their peers and often gave their servants to their husbands in order to produce heirs. Children born to the servant in this type of an arrangement were considered children of the wife. Ah ha, this plan would work for Abraham and Sarah’s situation. Good thing God had Sarah to help him along, right?
Wrong. Sarah’s plan initially worked. Abraham slept with Hagar and she became pregnant with a son. But because this wasn’t God’s plan, things started to unravel. Sarah became frustrated with Abraham and began taking her frustrations out by mistreating Hagar. Eventually, Hagar ran away from Sarah. An angel of the Lord intercepted her and turned her around to return to Sarah. Hagar eventually gave birth to Ishmael who, as the angel foretold, was wild and lived at odds with everyone. Hmm, maybe helping God’s plan along didn’t turn out so well after all.
Fourteen years after Ishmael was born, Isaac was born to Abraham and Sarah. Sarah was 90 or 91 years old when she gave birth to the child God had promised many years earlier. I could go on about the remaining 36 years of Sarah’s life, but I am going to stop here and draw your attention to two key lessons from Sarah’s life that spoke to me this week.
#1 – God keeps his promises even when we mess things up.
Sarah took matters into her own hands and created a mess. It strained her relationship with Abraham, ruined her relationship with Hagar, and produced a wild child that wreaked all kinds of havoc. But, God still followed through on his promise. Take a look at the first two verses of Genesis 21.
Then the Lord did exactly what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant, and she gave a son to Abraham in his old age. It all happened at the time God said it would (Genesis 21:1-2).
#2 – God is not bound by earthly limitations, he is capable of making unbelievable things happen.
As a woman in her early nineties, Sarah was way beyond child bearing years. Giving birth to a healthy child was not physically possible…without the miraculous work of God. Nothing is beyond the realm of possibility with him.
My challenge for us today is this – what areas of your life are you selling God short? Have you messed things up so bad that you no longer think he’ll work in your life? Are there things you think he can’t make happen? After studying the life of Sarah today, do you want to reconsider? Do you need to get on your knees, confess your lack of faith and recommit to fully trusting God?
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen (Ephesians 3:20-21).