Title: Faith Is Waiting/Genesis 16:1-14
Content Faith is waiting / Genesis 16:1-14
1. God's unfulfilled promise: verse 1
God came to the lives of Abraham and Sarah and promised them, “I will make you into a great nation and make you great, and I will make you a source of blessing.” Abraham and Sarah, who are living without any descendants, have a dream of becoming a great nation because of the promise God has given them. Likewise, when God comes into our lives, the life that we could not have dreamed of is transformed into the life of our dreams because of the promises God gives.
With the promise God had given to them, Abraham and Sarah moved to the land of Canaan that God was leading them with excited hearts. They lived a life of excitement every day, expecting that God would soon fulfill what he had promised them. In their own way, they must have expected what God would accomplish at some point. However, long after the time they had expected, nothing happened to the household. We keep anticipating that the promises and visions God has given us will come true, but each time our expectations are wrong. 10 years have passed since Abraham and Sarah lived with the promise God gave them (3). Sarah and Abraham wanted to put an end to a decade of anticipation and disappointment. I wondered if they were holding on to a false illusion in their minds, or maybe they were thinking foolishly.
We believe that this dream will come true soon because it is a promise from God. But God allows us to go through the process of waiting for the promise He has given us to be fulfilled. The waiting time is tedious, doubtful and painful. But God requires us to spend this tedious waiting time. To live by faith is to have the dream that God has promised us and expect that God will surely fulfill the uncertainties even though everything is still uncertain. A person of faith is a person who lives a life of waiting with the dream God has given to him.
2. Temptations that are easy to fall into while waiting: verses 2-3
There is a temptation that we are easily drawn into when there is no sign that God's promises will be fulfilled and the waiting time only increases. It is letting go of the faith that waits for what God will do, and chooses the human way that seems certain. Since there is nothing in sight right now and the waiting is painful, we are going to choose something a little more certain. As time passed and there was no sign of what God had promised, Abraham and Sarah also began to doubt whether God would fulfill His promise. Then I was tempted to give up waiting in faith that there is nothing in my hands right now, and choose a human way that seems certain.
Instead of waiting for God's promises to be fulfilled in faith, what Sarah caught on was to obtain descendants of Abraham through her servant Hagar. In this way, they were sure to have a baby and it seemed that their long-held dream would come true. Moreover, it was a common custom at that time to obtain children through slaves when those around them were unable to obtain their own children. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ; So there was no big problem, but I felt like someone was giving up before God. However, living all the time is not ideal, so I thought it was natural to compromise like this. Sarah's proposal to have children through Hagar was a renunciation of her faith in waiting.
We too are tempted to give up waiting in faith and choose what seems humanly certain. However, we must not give in to this temptation. To give in to this temptation is to give up our faith, and to throw us into a pit of fire.
3. The beginning and pain of conflict: verses 4-6
Abraham and Hagar both agreed to Sarah's proposal, ending the waiting period in faith and using a humane method. All three looked good. But from the moment I did that, I got caught up in a conflict I never expected. Hagar, who had conceived Abraham's child, began to take over Sarah's place (4). Sarah also could not bear the insults she received from Hagar, and she complained to her husband Abraham (5).
As a result, Abraham also fell into a conflict between the two women, Sarah and Hagar. Abraham also suffered the pain of driving Hagar and his child out of his wife Sarah's pain and hatred for Hagar. In the end, Hagar did not receive the warm love and encouragement of her husband and family, and was kicked out of her home and wandered through the desert. I did this because I thought I would do it the most certain way through the surest way, and the result was the most uncertain. Rather, everything was messed up.
4. Faith is waiting.
First, we should not try to shorten the time of the faith process of waiting through human methods. If we give up waiting in the time we have to wait in front of God and use human methods, everything seems to be going well, but everything will end up hurting. But Satan forces us to choose the human way to get better results sooner.
Second, when God requires us to wait, there is nothing in our hands and nothing we can see, but we must wait, believing what God will do. Even if all circumstances say that it can never happen, we must believe in the gift God will give us and wait patiently with patience, so that we can become those who receive His fulfillment.
application and sharing
◎ What is the promise of God that I am still waiting for?
◎ Have you ever been tired of waiting for God's promises to be fulfilled, and have you ever had doubts or other methods? In what human way did you try to compromise?
◎ What experiences have you gained from the method I chose instead of waiting for God to accomplish it? What did you learn from it?
◎ What do we need in a time of waiting? Believe that God is the one who will surely fulfill the promises he has given us, and let us pray that we will pass the time of waiting by holding on to the promises he has given us today.