Man, Genesis is completely chock-full of amazing narratives…
like, you aren’t quite sure if there will be destruction or love or both
somehow – and I’ve even read it before!
So, as I encounter new characters in these pages, I am asking myself
these questions: Why is this person introduced by God in His book? What can I learn from them? Should I seek to
follow their example or do the opposite?
I found two characters in mid-book that seem to teach me the
same thing: Lot & Hagar.
Lot’s story is found in Genesis 19 (take a peak). It’s twisted.
So, Lot lives in this wicked city called Sodom. And this city is so wicked that God is going
to destroy it, but Lot is righteous so God sends two angels to him to warn him
to take his family and flee the city before God destroys it. As these men are in Lot’s house, some men of
the city come and ask to see these men so that they can do harm to them. Lot (so righteous) offers the wicked men his
virgin daughters instead so that the men from God are not violated. This is a rabbit trail to the point I’m
trying to make though…
Verse 15 ff: Morning comes and the angels tell Lot to take
his family and get out. And here it is: “But
he lingered…” It’s like Lot doesn’t
believe them. Then it says, “So the men seized
him by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him
out and set him outside the city.” Again, the angels told them to flee and not
look back – head for the hills (literally) and Lot disagrees AGAIN! Lot says, “Thanks
for saving me, but I can’t live in the hills!”
And then there is Hagar – the maid of Sarah, Abraham’s
wife. Now Sarah wasn’t giving any
children to Abraham even though God said that Abraham would be the father to a
great nation… so Sarah gives her servant, Hagar, to Abraham to bear his
child. (Truly, there is nothing new
under the sun, eh?) Again, not the point
(just the crazy back story)…
In Genesis 21, Abraham sends Hagar and her son Ishmael away
at the request of Sarah (women!). He gives her a skin full of water and she
heads out to wander in the wilderness.
She just wandered. And she and
her son drank the water. Pretty
aimless. When the water was all gone,
Hagar pretty much assumed that she was doomed.
So, she put her son under some bushes and then left him… going a ways
away so that she wouldn’t have to watch him die. (I’m serious, this is all in the text – go read
Genesis 21: 14-21.) She’s given up on
life… for herself and for her son… because… well, there is no more water.
Then God steps in, in the midst of her lack of faith, just
like he stepped in for Lot even though Lot didn’t believe the men He had
sent. God hears the little boy crying
and goes to Hagar. He promises her that
he will make her son into a great nation.
When she opened her eyes, she saw a well. There is provision. There is hope again.
Both Lot and Hagar show me that God is sovereign over all
things, even my choice to believe or not.
He’s going to protect Lot if He wants to. He’s going to provide for
Hagar if He wants to. And He’s going to
do these things in the midst of their unbelief… because He is God. It got me thinking about my own life and what
God might be doing even while I’m not believing Him. Is He doing something in
yours?
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