On one hand, it seems Abraham took a step of faith and
listened to his wife Sarah's suggestion of sleeping with her slave (Genesis
16:2). In other words, Abe may have thought that this was the means by which
God would keep His promise to Abraham (Genesis 12:2; further elaboration in
22:17).
On the other hand, In Acts 16:7, Paul and his companions
tried to go a certain way, but "the Spirit of Jesus would not allow
them" to go that way.. See also Acts 27 where the ship would not go the
way they wanted it to.
So, on the first passage, it might seem that Abraham may have
taken a step of faith with no divine intervention and the second set of passages,
Paul took a step of faith and God intervened.
Does this mean that there is a contradiction in faith or
something like that? Does it mean that there is a contradiction in the Bible?
Before we get too anxious about this, let’s take a minute to analyze the
situation.
In Genesis 2:18 where God reasoned (for our sake) that it was
not good for man to be alone, in the SAME sentence, He states that He will make
a helper suitable for him. In other words, God provided the need (woman) for
the need that He created in man (the desire for a woman). On the Seventh Day,
God saw that it was good. He saw that what He created was complete and
flawless. Anything more than that or less than that would be “not good.”
With all of this in mind, we can now understand that in
Abraham’s case, he was out of the will of God by sleeping with his wife’s
servant. In other words, Abraham (like any human) built up in his mind an idea
and ran with it. He had a case of what I call, “green light fever.” Green
light fever is when you're sitting at a stoplight and all of the sudden you
see the green arrow for the left lane turning on but you are not in that lane
and you slam on the gas pedal because you know you saw green, somewhere at
least, and then you realize you're sitting in the middle of the intersection
because you are now trying to correct your mistake because you realize that you
jumped the gun, so to speak. The pseudo-green-light for Abraham was that he saw
a way for God to fulfill His promise; it made perfect sense to him at the time,
and he didn’t seem to feel the need to question it.
Now we all know the affect this had on Abraham’s family unit:
“He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began
to despise her mistress. Then Sarai [Sarah] said to Abram, “You are responsible
for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she
knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”
“Your servant is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think [is]
best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her” (NIV Genesis 16:4-6).
As the above scripture reveals, there was serious emotional pain and stress
between Sarah and Abraham because of
this event. There is obvious mistreatment between Sarah and Hagar and not so
obvious mistreatment between Sarah and Abraham. In any event, it is clear that
the event caused emotional stress on their marriage... something that was
clearly not considered before the act of adultery. Though it might not have
been called that at the time, that is exactly what it was. God provided for
Abraham’s need (as a man not being left alone) and at the same time, kept His
promise (to make his descendents as numerous as the sand).
The instance of Paul in Acts 16 and 27 did not involve sin;
therefore God’s hand was close to Paul, and guided Him in the direction of the
Lord’s will. This is the difference between a person’s will and God’s will. If
we allow God to do His work in us, and not have green light fever, we will be more at peace, we will be more
comfortable, and we will be more effective in our daily walk of life.
Recognize times when you are confronted with a decision to
sin or not to sin. Be prepared for these times. God chooses not to stop us from
sinning. This is where mankind has power. We decide this kind of stuff. Should
I sin or not sin? This is where our will and the will of God differ. Our will
in the flesh is to please the flesh, but God’s will for us is to please Him.
God cannot look at sin (Habakkuk 1:13) because of His holiness, therefore He
would not stop us from sinning. Consider the temptation to sin an opportunity to please Him. Recognize the
temptation to sin and put a stop to it immediately. 1 Corinthians 10:13 tells
us that God provides a way to escape sin. Look for those ways to escape sin,
allow Him to guide you and strengthen your relationship with Jesus.
Written by Nace Howell through the grace of the Lord Jesus
© Nace Howell, 2022
Awesome article Nace.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I always wondered is since that prior to Abraham, God had yet to reveal any scripture to man, so how did Abraham know it was truly the spirit of God when God spoke to him. Too often today people think that God told them to do something, when it was actually a demon, so it is important to test all the spirits by seeing if it lines up with the Bible. I'm sure the God revealed himself to Abraham in a way that he had no excuse, but its just something that's always made me think.
This is Andy by the way. "Orlovsky" means "of the Eagle" in Russian.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Andy. I'm glad I could stir the mind a little bit.. I agree that we are to test all things, and hold fast to that which is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21). This definitely seems like an interesting topic that is not very often talked about.
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