Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Genesis 16 before reading the devotional below.
Have you ever tried to give God a little help in delivering what he has promised to you? I often like to remind myself that God is not advertising for a fourth member of the Trinity… As we’ve discussed, God invites us to participate with him in his plans. But we have to make sure we just do our part and don’t try to meddle with God’s part.
In today’s chapter, Sarai starts feeling badly that she’s in the way of God’s promise to Abram. Generally, I don’t recommend making decisions out of guilt. We see the result: she suggests to Abram that he have a child with her servant, Hagar. Abram punts on his responsibility (as did Adam in Genesis 3) and doesn’t bother thinking it through. No shock, Sarai is pretty upset when the whole thing actually goes down. Also no shock, God cares about the situation and defends the victim.
Here’s your freedom for today:
God is always on the side of the oppressed.
Lots of people struggle with understanding God. That’s good, because if you don’t struggle with understanding God, your “god” is too small. However, one thing is quite clear because we see it in the Bible over and over: God sides with victims. He had no real reason to care about Hagar. He was busy building a nation for himself through Abram and looking 400 years into the future. We know from later instructions that God forbids adultery. If he’s building a nation for himself, it’s not going to be that way. He sends Hagar back, but with a promise of her own: “I will give you more descendants than you can count.” Sound familiar? Yup, it’s the same exact thing he said to Abram. If you’ve been victimized, God sees you, he hears you, he cares, and he’s going to turn things around for you in the end. He’s on your side.