'Footprints in the Land of Canaan'
'Abraham a Friend of God'
Life can be really placid. One day can roll into the next totally uneventful. Loyal to family and friends, following a path that is seemingly endless. Along this path we place invisible boundaries that keep our lives from being corrupted. Boundaries that keep us safe and secure from the relentless warfare that can destroy our self-respect, our self-esteem, and our family's good graces.
The course of our lives can sometimes take us into unknown or forbidden territory. Areas that can be overwhelmingly dark yet at the same time invitingly enticing. It is in that area, somewhere between night and morning, where we loose sight of what is right and what is wrong. It is in that area where we forget what has happened in the past while forsaking a promised future. It is in that area where we forget all we have been taught to gain the knowledge of what has always been interpreted as off-limits.
It is in that area where we can find ourselves suddenly in the middle of something totally unplanned. Emotionally invoked into a position we thought we would never be in. Leading us into remote areas totally foreign. Spiraling us off course and leading us into bondage where there is no freedom. Plunging us into confusion and despair.
Abram's wife Sarai, being well past the age of bearing children, went to him and asked him to take Hagar her handmaid as his wife. Abram listened to what she said. Hagar was an Egyptian slave who had been given to Sarai by Pharaoh when he took her into his house believing she was Abram sister. After Abram's family had lived in Canaan ten years Sarai took Hagar and gave her to Abram. He betrothed Hagar and she became pregnant with his firstborn child.
When Hagar found that she had conceived she looked at Sarai with despise. Distressed, Sarai went to Abram and asked him what she should do. Abram told her to do what seemed right in her own heart since Hagar was her handmaid. When Sarai began treating her harshly Hagar fled from her presence into the wilderness between Kadesh and Bered. *Genesis 16:7-12, "Now the angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, 'Hagar, Sarai's maid, where have you come from and where are you going?' And she said, 'I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.' Then the angel of the LORD said to her, 'Return to your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority.' Moreover, the angel of the LORD said to her, 'I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they shall be too many to count.' The angel of the LORD said to her further, 'Behold, you are with child, and you shall bear a son; and you shall call his name Ishmael, because the LORD has given heed to your affliction. And he will be a wild donkey of a man, his hand will be against everyone, and everyone's hand will be against him; and he will live to the east of all his brothers'." Therefore the well is called Beer-lahai-roi.
Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born. At the age of ninety-nine God established His covenant with Abraham. One year later Sarah gave birth to her only son Isaac. When Isaac was weaned Sarah found Ishmael mocking him. She went to Abraham and asked him to send Hagar and Ishmael away. Distressed, Abraham sent them away because God had not given Ishmael an inheritance with Isaac.
Abram had been given a promise by the mouth of God. It was a promise of hope, of peace, of prosperity, and of heritage. God had called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldeans. He led him to the land of Canaan where he would remain for the rest of his life. He promised him a land as far as the eye could see to the east, the west, the north, and the south. He promised him descendants as many as the stars of the sky and the sand of the sea. The course of Abram's life changed when they moved into unknown or forbidden territory. It changed because they took the plan of God into their own hands.
Whenever the course of our life moves into an area that is unknown or forbidden the plan of God never changes. As mysterious as the road we travel seems, our destiny has been laid out before us. It is a well lighted path that was chosen for us to arrive at a place of rest. It is a course that was plotted and planned before we ever began our journey. Our lives are under the watchful eyes of a loving God Who never changes. No matter what area we stray into He is always right there saying, "This is the way, walk in it."
P What is it like to lay everything you have hoped for on a sacrificial altar? The one little treasure you have waited for all your life now in jeopardy of being taken away.
*March 4, 2006