In with Isaac out with Ishmael

It took God 25 years to fulfil the promise He made to Abraham and Sarah. 25 years they waited, but not very patiently. There were times they believed with their full heart and other times when they were filled with doubt or disbelief.

I find that is me. Oh, don't get me wrong, I never doubt or disbelieve the existence of God and His way is the only way. But there are time I doubt that the situations I am in. I doubt that there will be an end and that I (of course) need to do something fast to fix the situation. Or patience. Yea, isn't that a virtue or something? Oh come on, you cannot sit there and tell me you are always patient with God. Gods way is the slow and steady gets you where you want to go. Our way is to hurry up, hurry up, Now, Now, Now!

This is very similar to Abraham and Sarah. First they lie about her being his sister (even though she is 1/2 sis) then Abraham and Sarah decide to use Hagar as a surrogate to fulfill the promise, and now Abraham and Sarah lie once again about her being his sister to yet another King. Praise God that God came to Abimelech in a dream and told him not to take Sarah as his wife, to confront Abraham and to spare him.

And then there is poor Ishmael. First he and Hagar are thrown out when he is probably about 17 years old and still he's a mama's boy. He relies on his mom to go get the water, the shelter and the wife. Yet he is to be a leader of a nation. It is no wonder that Ishmael and his offspring, later on, have so much hostility against thier brothers.

Overall, this reading was a great look at the character of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar and Ishmael and myself. We need to realized that we need to wait on God. Not the other way around!