March 21, 2021 NOTES NOT EDITED
The Law of Holes
Genesis 16
SIS-When you find yourself in a
hole in life throw away four common shovels that only make things worse.
In general, I really like Tom Hanks
as an actor. His portrayal of the goofy, misfit Forrest Gump memorialized
Forrest Gump as an American icon. There are very few people who do not know why
“Life is like a box of chocolates.” My
favorite Tom Hanks movie is Cast Away.
Hanks plays a Fed Ex employee, Chuck Noland, who survives an airplane
crash and is marooned on a deserted island for four years. Chuck Noland’s only
companion for those four years was a Wilson brand volleyball he named
appropriately and affectionately, Wilson.
The volleyball floated ashore with other assorted wreckage and Fed Ex
packages. As a matter of survival Hank’s character tries to start a fire with
two sticks. In this process, he punctures his hand and begins bleeding. In anger he picks up the Wilson volleyball
nearby and slams it against a tree. His bloody handprint and fingers make what
appears to be a face with spiked hair making the volleyball look like a
head. Hanks fashions a face in the blood
with his finger and his new friend, Wilson, is born. Wilson should have received
an Oscar for best
supporting volleyball in a major motion picture as Chuck Noland’s
constant friend and confidant.
Throughout the movie Hank’s character speaks to, and sort of with, Wilson. He seeks help
and advice from Wilson. Yet, not once in
this entire movie does Hank’s character ever pray to God or seek to communicate
with God—just Wilson, the volleyball. I don’t think I am the only person
enjoying that movie that asks, “Why did Chuck Noland have more faith in a
volleyball than God?” But
isn’t that the basic perennial problem of humankind? When we face
challenges, we talk to others, or even practice “self-talk” instead of
listening for God’s instructions made abundantly clear through His
communication to us, particularly the Bible?
This is exactly what Abram and Sarai did, and what we all do—we trust in
our “self-help” and make matters worse.
I call this, “The Law of
Holes.” When we find ourselves
deep in a hole of challenge, instead of throwing away the shovel and seeking
God’s help, we just keep digging making matters worse.
Let’s read about the Law of Holes
in the Bible. Gen. 16:1-4.
There
are four foolish
shovels we should throw away, that only make matters worse.
#1: We let DESPERATION drown out God’s
INSPIRATION
|
► |
V1a: 1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife had borne
him no children.
It is easy for us separated in time by over
two millennia to read this passage and think: “OK. That’s sad but it is not the
end of the world.” The inability to
conceive IS a big deal, and if it is not the end of the world, couples
experiencing this trouble often feel it is the end of the world. In Abram and
Sarai’s day, childlessness was even more of a “hole in life” than it is today.
It was a matter of utter desperation. Barrenness was viewed as a “curse” and in
some cases it actually was a curse (Hos. 9:11,14). The Covenant with Noah
focused on bearing children: “God blessed Noah and his sons and
said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen. 9:1).
Nothing in this sermon intends to minimize the tragedies of life that we often
find ourselves oppressed by. Abram’s and Sarai’s desperation was deep, and it
was real. But, they only made it worse
by letting their DESPERATION drown out God’s INSPIRATION.
|
► |
V1b: Now Sarai, Abram’s wife had borne him no children,
and she had an Egyptian
maid whose name was Hagar.
Polygamy was a common practice in the ancient
Near East. Abram, the great patriarch of
the faith, practiced it, even though God never commanded it, never supported it
because it clearly, without equivocation violates the eternal principle of
marriage between one man and one woman for a lifetime (Gen. 2:24). The Bible, however, presents the history of
man as it is, and not as God designed it to be.
The Bible makes no attempt to rehabilitate the heroes of faith but presents
them, warts and all. Sarai instigated
the idea of using Hagar as a legal surrogate and Abram went along. Remember, they were desperate.
But, they let their DESPERATION drown out the voice of God’s INSPIRATION. God
had promised Abram that he would have an heir with Sarai. Only a few years before, less than 10, God
renewed for a second time His promise to Abram about an heir. The Bible
mentions Abram’s response in Gen. 15:6, “Then he (Abram) believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as
righteousness.
Abram’s
faith was real and it was deep. Yet, as often happens, DESPERATION drowns out
God’s INSPIRATION and we keeping digging our hole making matters worse. Throw that shovel away.
#2: We listen to BAD ADVICE from fleshly
people
|
► |
vv2-4: 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Now
behold, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Please go in to my
maid; perhaps I will obtain children through her.” And Abram listened to the
voice of Sarai. 3 After Abram had lived ten years in
the land of Canaan, Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and
gave her to her husband Abram as his wife. 4 He went in to Hagar, and she
conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised
in her sight.
By
all human metrics, the plan of Abram and Sarai was a “success.” The house was
filled with the laughter of a precious new life. All life is precious because
all life is part of God’s plan. Success!
Sarai’s scorn was removed and Abram had an heir. The problem, however,
quickly becomes evident. Success is a matter
of how one defines it. What appears to
success in the flesh brings ultimate failure.
The euphoria in the Abram, Sarai household was short-lived. Heartache quickly substituted for short-term
happiness. Sarai scorn was NOT removed
but simply transferred to her handmaid, Hagar.
Verse 4 says, “[Sarai] was
despised in [Hagar’s] sight.”
Sarai, according to legal customs described in writings discovered during
this period, had the right to reduce Hagar to the position of a slave, which
Sarai obviously did. Hagar was no longer a concubine but again a common
slave—and Hagar was not pleased. There’s
an old saying that goes, “Hell knows no fury greater than a woman scorned.”
All
this trouble comes because Abram listened to the advice of someone acting in
the flesh, not in the spirit.
|
► |
v2c: . . . And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
Abram
was the spiritual leader of the home. He should have recognized that Sarai was
not a strong believer, and on top of that, Sarai was in a desperate place in
life—a deep hole. But, Abram was
desperate, too, so he was more than willing to take advice from someone who was
willing to tell him what he wanted to hear.
A wise pastor describes this all to common mistake we make as
believers: “It’s almost a proverb to
say that people in desperate situations seek advice from those who will tell
them what they want to hear, not what they need to hear. The surest way to make
an enemy is to tell someone intent on stepping outside of God’s will what the
Bible says.”
This
even happened to the Apostle Paul. Gal. 4:14-16 says, “14 but [at first] you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus
Himself. 15 Where then is that sense
of blessing you had? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have
plucked out your eyes and given them to me. 16 So have I become your enemy by telling you
the truth?”
There
is nothing wrong with seeking advice when you find yourself in a hole—but make
sure it is Godly advice from someone solid in the faith and wise according to
the Word of God. When you find yourself
in a hole, don’t keep digging by seeking bad advice from fleshly people. Throw that shovel away.
#3:
Take Responsibility for your own mistakes
|
► |
vv5-6: 5 And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done me be upon you. I gave
my maid into your arms, but when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised
in her sight. May the Lord judge between you and me.” 6 But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your maid
is in your power; do to her what is good in your sight.” So Sarai treated her
harshly, and she fled from her presence.
The
oldest game in the world is the “Blame Game.”
Remember the incident in the Garden of Eden? When caught in sin, Adam blamed Eve and Eve
blamed the serpent (Gen. 3:12-13).
Here,
both Abram and Sarai “shirk their responsibility” for the sin they committed.
#4: Don’t Over-react emotionally
|
► |
vv6b-8: 6 But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold,
your maid is in your power; do to her what is good in your sight.” So Sarai
treated her harshly, and she fled from her presence. 7 Now the angel of the Lord found her
by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. 8 He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from and
where are you going?”
At
first glance, it may seem Hagar was acting rationally and fleeing from an
abusive situation. She was returning to
her native Egypt. We often seek the “familiar” when we are faced with difficult
situations. Matthew Henry, the venerable Welch preacher and scholar points
out: “It were well if our afflictions
would make us think of our home, the better country. But Hagar was now out of
her place, and out of the way of her duty, and going further astray, when the
angel found her.”
God’s
response to Hagar in verses 7-9 show
us that Hagar was acting “emotionally,” not rationally and sin was leading her
in the wrong direction. While the
situation in the Abram, Sarai household might have been difficult, there is
more to Hagar’s action than meets the eye.
To understand it, you have to know something of the geography where
Hagar ended up. She was on a route
called the “Way of Shur” through the “wilderness.” This is the northern part of
the Sinai Peninsula. This can be a bleak and treacherous area to traverse. The Israelites entered this area at the time
of the Exodus about six centuries after the time of Hagar. Moses described this “wilderness” saying, (Deu. 8:15):
|
► |
15 “He led you through the great and
terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground
where there was no water; He brought water for you out of the rock of flint.
This
was no place for a pregnant woman to be.
One preacher points out, “This was not a trip Hagar would likely
survive on her own without companions, animals, or supplies.” This was a harsh stretch of desert. Hagar reacted with her heart instead of her
head. Hagar let her emotions get the
best of her and she ended up in a dangerous place. Reacting emotionally to challenging
situations is a shovel that only puts us into a deeper hole. God finds Hagar
exhausted by a spring. The Lord gently and
graciously guides Hagar to think about her emotional reaction and remedy it by
humbly returning to her home with Abram and Sarai.
|
► |
vv7-9:
7 Now the angel of the Lord found her
by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. 8 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.” 9 Then the angel of the Lord said to
her, “Return [Think: Turnaround; Repent”] to your mistress, and submit
yourself to her authority.”
|
► |
Verse 9
gives us a very important
principle in life that we neglect to our own hurt. Circle that word, “submit.”
There
is no authority in our life that God has not directly assigned or permitted.
Christians must do our very best to follow all the legitimate authority in our
lives. We may at times need to be “radicals,” but we should never seek to be
“rebels.” Any authority in our lives that does not coerce us to disobey the
Laws of Nature and Nature’s God, we should obey. Ultimately, submitting to natural authorities
is submission to God. God sees whatever
state we might find ourselves and He moves to bless us therein.
This
story ends when Hagar throws away her shovel of disobedience and returns to her
household. In short, Hagar stops
digging. In vs 13 she comes
to realize something we all need to realize when we are in a desperate,
challenging situation.
|
► |
Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her,
“You are a God who sees” [El-roi].
When
you find yourself in a hole, stop digging and start trusting God. He is El Roi, the God Who Sees. Don’t make matters worse by allowing
DESPERATION to drown out God’s INSPIRATION.
Throw that shovel away. Don’t
make matters worse by taking BAD ADVICE by flesh-driven people. Throw that shovel away. Don’t make matters worse by BLAMING others
instead of taking responsibility for your own bad choices. Finally, don’t make matters worse by REACTING
EMOTIONALLY instead of RESPONDING RATIONALLY.
Throw that shovel away.
If,
when you find yourself in some challenging hole in life, you throw the shovel
of rebellion away and trust God, what God promised to Hagar He promises to you:
|
► |
v10:
Moreover, the angel of the Lord
said to her, “I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too
many to count.”
Say,
“multiply.” Circle that word. Yahweh is a “multiplier.” Trusting God instead or our own “self-help”
plan always leads to “multiplied blessings.”
[CLOSE] So, my question to you today is this: when you find yourself in a deep hole in
life—and I say when, not if, because you most certainly are, or
will be in such a hole at some point—are you going to throw away the shovel and
listen to God, or keep digging with your “self-help shovels,” and make matters
worse?
Abram and Sarah kept digging and dug a hole that the world, particularly the
Middle East, still finds itself in.
Self-help helps no one. It makes matters worse. What we need as individuals, as families, as
churches, as communities, and indeed as the entire world, is not “self-help”
but God’s help. We don’t need a better
shovel of human ingenuity—we need the tall ladder of God’s grace.
What we need today to get out of the deep holes we find
ourselves in is to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ—that is, listen to
the Word of God and put it into practice.
It's hard to play beautiful music when you find yourself in a deep hole. But, if you SUBMIT to the instructions of Our Heavenly Conductor, He will keep your life in perfect rhythm according to His perfect timing and guide you into perfect peace.
When you find yourself in a hole, throw away the shovel and trust God.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.