August 5, 2026

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Abram slept with Hagar (as his wife demanded), and she conceived. When Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, ‘You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.’” (Genesis 16.4-5)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

This is almost like that age-old question I have already alluded to in a recent post, “Which came first the chicken or the egg?” Of course, the answer is easy…. the thought of both the chicken and the egg! Unless, that is, one subscribes to the kind of “creation out of nothing” which most evolutionists want to promote, the design of creation is with the end in mind. That means God was thinking about the future; so He considered both the chicken/hen and the egg and, by default, the rooster. God was not simply about starting something and then let it run a “whatever” course. Each thing that God created was for a purpose that served the whole of creation itself: in replication, in duplication, in proliferation, in holiness and in glory. Without the egg, the chicken would be the only chicken ever made. This is obvious because God created no less than two of everything. There had to be a balance. Sin is when the balance is lost. Either one rules at the expense of the other or the mission and purpose is abandoned which is, to me, simply an expansion of the first.

So, I would draw your attention to this question building upon the first: “Which came first- the error or the blame?” Following what was proposed before, the answer is obviously “the error.” However, further consideration would suggest “the thought of both.” That is a question many people propose in a desire to “blame God” for all the wrong in the world. Was God wrong for creating the choice of right and wrong? Was God evil for creating both good and evil? Was God mindless in thinking trouble wouldn’t happen? Was God ruthless in thinking everything would be happy without knowing there was anything apart from itself? And therein lies the problem for me in their intention of blaming God. They are in error to say that God is not love nor loving. They would rather declare God capricious and worthy of being rebelled against. Worse they would prefer to say that “God is dead” or even more than that “God never existed at all.” Perhaps it is easier to say that so that there is no blame for what is happening in the world down through the ages, up to and proceeding into the years to come as if they are infinite in number in the finite world. There is no blame because there is no error- things are just the way things are; for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health till death us do part. The breakdown of the family, the skewed understanding of marriage and marital relationships and even so far as to the lack of understanding of life and gender can all be traced back to the simple application of “there is no blame because there is no error.” Am I saying that God was wrong? Is that what it meant in the Word when it declared God relenting and repenting from ever creating humankind and thus decided on the “flood” as the execution of justice? You will not find me saying that at all. I do believe God was greatly saddened and wondered if it all was truly worth it at the time of His statement to give creation that sense of freewill and choice. Who among us have not been through a time like that when we watched the world we live in and then look at the children we brought into it? Still, let’s stop and think of that for a moment. Instead of blame and remorse, should we not consider opportunity and choice? Whose responsibility is it to make things better? Who among us is free from sin and guilt and shame (do not even think that denial frees anyone from this burden!)?

It is with that necessary background information that I step into the dialogue between Abram and Sarai. What is the choice? What is the opportunity? What is the error? What is the blame? We have seen the presentation of error and blame since the 8th Day when Adam blamed God for Eve for his failure (he didn’t do anything to stop Eve or the Serpent or even pray for divine intervention.) And what of Eve who blamed the serpent instead of accepting her own accountability and blame? She could have as easily blamed it on Adam or God with equal finesse. The purpose was to absolve one of guilt and shame even if it was to cover up the reality which each knew very well. Keep in mind who we didn’t hear from: God and the Serpent. The Serpent sought to slither away. He was already guilty long before the Garden; what more could be said? And as for God? God took on the accountability and made the sacrifice to help His children find a different and better way to deal with things as they should not have been. How should they have done it? Return to the source of their creation: Eve to Adam and Adam to God. We sort of here that proposition from Sarai who said, “May the Lord judge between you and me!”

Let’s talk about that tomorrow, shall we?

TODAY’S PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness endeavor, but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.