August 11, 2026

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Then the angel of the Lord told her, ‘Go back to your mistress and submit to her.^‘  The angel added, ‘I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.’” (Genesis 16.9-10)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

One spiritual truth was overt and obvious. That meant it was something that Hagar had to do. It is obvious to us as we read of her plight because the Angel of the Lord told her to go back to Sarai and submit to her. What would it mean for Hagar to submit? It would mean not to despise Sarai. Just as Sarai blamed Abram now for the embarrassment of being unable to bear children, and thus she was left to wonder what was her true place in the community as an incapable and barren women (some would have seen it as a curse from God for some unspoken sin), she also blamed Hagar for being able to bear Abram a child. Did Hagar’s despising Sarai speak to the fact that Sarai could not bear children? Was there something in her non-verbal communication or in the tone of her voice which was intended to cause Sarai embarrassment and bitterness? Was Hagar trying to drive a wedge between Sarai and Abram so that she could have Abram all to herself with her son? In some way was Sarai being treated as a scape goat? If so, then why wasn’t she driven into the wilderness and the burden which weighed down the community be driven out with her? Instead, it was Hagar who was driven out as if it was a curse that she could bear Abram a son. She was to blame for the misery in the community because Sarai was unable to justify the situation which she herself created by commanding Abram and Hagar to be intimate for the purpose of bearing a child that would then be hers, by law. Except Ishmael was never really hers. He was Abram’s son. Her claim was by a foreign tradition not given by God. It was a law of compensation for the sole purpose of creating an heir which would otherwise be impossible. Ishmael would be the heir of Abram by a premise not a promise.

That leads me to the second spiritual truth which is read in these verses. It was the spiritual truth of living by the promise of God. If God was, is and will always be nothing but true to His word, He would very much be God. The Word of God was His bond. It knitted together the elements of creation which existed in chaos. In that state in which they were found, there was only a possibility of something wonderful and alive. We can nearly fear the vast void that seemed empty in the dark. It was not empty at all. The truth of the matter could not be seen except by God who could see it all. How that void so filled with possibility existed alongside of God, I cannot answer. Was it another part of the whole expanse yet unexplored, untouched and uncalled by God? If so, are there other places as where we are now that are as we were? Has the creativeness of God to bring light out of dark, order out of chaos, life out of lifelessness not reached everywhere and everything. Is there more still for God to do? I have no idea. In truth, it does not matter. What does matter is that we live according to the very “promise” of God to live, to exist, to flourish, to thrive. With God, the future is promising. Each day is filled with an opportunity to experience the “something wonderful” of God’s Word in action. Without God, then we know that nothing is possible. In that place of impossibility there is darkness, chaos and no hope. The chance of an accidental creation is so beyond astronomical that even the thought of it would escape us before it could ever happen. If not for God….. then where would we be?

If not for God, where would Hagar be? She would be abandoned in the wilderness to forage as an animal. She would be a single mother, if the child would have survived being born. What life would they be able to live? How would she survive? Would she find herself accepted in another tribe by another people not her own? Would they have accepted her and her child fathered by Abram? Would she dare tell them of her child’s identity, lineage and legacy? What sacrifice would she have to make in order to “make a way.” We know what she didn’t, that there was “a way, a truth and a life.” That truth was the promise of God to provide, preserve and prosper those who called upon His name. It was in that encounter, as God sought her out in the wilderness, Hagar gave God a name of promise. He was “The God who sees me, is the God I have seen.” He was the God of His word. Where Sarai and Abram had created chaos by entering into an agreement not sanctioned nor commanded by God, God would abide by His promise to bring a legacy of descendants from Abram too numerous to count. Some things, however, cannot be changed except by the will of the individual to change. The descendants of Abram through Hagar, who existed by “the Law” and not the promise (that vital spiritual truth) would exist in hostility against “his brother.” His brother, or brothers, did not yet exist. And the legacy of Ishmael was not simply a bloodline but an attitude, an outlook and a decision of how to live. It would be the same for those who were descendants of Abram through Sarai. The difference would be the attitude, outlook and decision to live by faith not bound by blood. That faith was a spiritual decision to trust in the Lord God for their identity, their future and their prosperity day by day.

Mighty ones of God, if not for God of promise where would we be today?

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.