[AI translation] Another twist in the story of Abraham's life. It is striking, even at first sight, how much turmoil, unrest and unpleasantness can arise even in the life of such a believer. For through this passage that I have just read, we get a glimpse into Abraham's family life. And there, indeed, we see little that is good or beautiful. The biggest problem is precisely that this family life has not two actors - the husband and the wife - but three. In addition to the first two, there is a third, a strange woman. How much bitterness, pain and suffering is involved in this sad situation! That is what this story is about. Let's take a closer look at each of the characters.Let's start with Abraham, whom we know best from what we have just read. We have just heard how Abraham was strengthened in his faith, renewed in fellowship and covenant with God. The Lord had again promised to make him a great nation, and we read the great statement, "And he believed the Lord, and was justified in his righteousness" (Genesis 15:6) And behold, after such a great spiritual experience, after such an outstanding event in the spiritual life in which he had been a part, how can there again come such a sad chapter in the life of a believer as we have read here? Well, is a man's faith so fickle? Does it waver so much that after the crest of a wave there can be such deep troughs? As soon as he is a little tested by having to wait for God's promises to be fulfilled, does he immediately give up the ministry? If Abraham had been really strong in his faith, he should have replied to his wife's offer: let us wait, God has promised us the birth of a child, let us trust Him, let us not be impatient, let us not try to get what God has promised us! But Abraham did not do this, but accepted his wife's offer, and in this act he bore witness to her offer. Of course, it was an unspoken testimony, something like this: it is true that God has promised the child and I believe Him, but the years go by, there is no prospect of the promise coming true, and the probability of it happening is getting less and less, so let us help ourselves in another way, let us think of something, let us help God to fulfil His promise! So, in short, Abraham did not dare to entrust himself, his wife, their family life, their future to God completely, without any residue, he was tempted to take the control of his destiny out of God's hands for a moment, and now, at this point, he should do it himself, according to his own discretion, skill, ability, imagination!
Such temptations come upon the believer especially when he has to wait for something for which he has long been begging. He has to wait for some blessing or promise of God which is still delayed, when his heart is longing for something which God has denied him. This is when Satan speaks into the heart of the believer: Wait no longer, do not delay, look, time is passing over you, help yourself! Do you want to die without seeing the fulfillment of your heart's innermost desire?! Well, look, if you can't get there by the straight road, the other road is not very crooked, many people take it, it's a common habit, you should take it, you'll reach your goal sooner! Do you recognize it as coming from Satan? Oh, if Abraham here had clearly recognized the tempter, and had stood firm against him as a believer ought and may, but much trouble would have been spared the whole house! Yes, one must know how to say no when the tempter comes, when he makes an offer, when he lures. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7) For if we give in to him, even at one point, much trouble will come upon us! Then we will not get away with it! Behold, Abraham and Sarah had achieved what they had so longed for: the blessing of a child - but there was no thanks. For when a human desire is fulfilled, not in an honourable way, according to God's will, as a gift from God, but in a violent, crooked way: it is no longer a joy, it is no longer a happiness, it is no longer a peace and suffering for man! Oh, how difficult it is to find one's way back from such a crooked path to the straight one! It is best not to start!
Sadder still in this story is the fact that the voice of Satan comes to the believer through his wife! "Therefore said Sarai to Abram: Behold, the Lord hath shut up my womb, that I should not bring forth: I pray thee, go in unto my handmaid, and peradventure by her I may be built; and Abram obeyed the voice of Sarai." (Genesis 16:2) This is not the voice of God! This is not the mind of God! And how sad that "Abram is obedient to the word of Sarai!" When they are only partners in the pleasures of the flesh, partners in bearing the cares of material things, partners in the struggles of life, partners in building a family home, partners in all kinds of good and beautiful things - but not partners in faith, not partners in prayer, not partners in helping each other to relate to God, to walk according to God's will! We have already seen that Abraham's weak point in faith was the question of childbearing, and behold, it is precisely at this weak point that he receives not strengthening and encouragement from his wife, but attack and weakening - because Sarai is not a true helpmate for Abraham. She may be a very good housewife, she may be a very loving wife, a selfless, self-sacrificing soul, but spiritually, in faith, she does not help her husband, but hinders him! "And Abram obeyed the word of Sarai" - this was wrong. It should not have been done, even to preserve family peace! True, if Sarai had been an obedient, believing child of the Lord, then yes, Abraham would have done well to heed the advice of his fellow believer - but not so! What would have been needed here is for both of them to have obeyed the Lord.
Yes, what is needed in such cases is that the stronger in faith should take the hand of the weaker in faith, draw it before the Lord, and in common prayer discuss with Him the painful question, the weakness of their lives, the desire of their hearts, ask Him for advice as to what they should do, and discuss their plans before Him. So here they made the mistake of "yielding to the word of Abram Sarai" instead of both of them yielding to the word of the Lord. But a lot of trouble, pain, and unrest could be avoided in marriage if instead of imposing our will on the other, we would both submit to the will and word of the Lord! Do you ask the word of the Lord together in spiritual fellowship, to obey Him?
Because look what the consequence of the lack of spiritual communion is: a third person appears in the marriage, a third person who does not belong, who spoils the lives of two people, who makes all three people suffer! Marriage is a sacred thing. It is the unity of two people in physical and spiritual communion created by God and therefore a sanctified reality. In the Song of Songs, the bride and groom, who have found each other, say to each other this meaningful phrase: "Seal me as a seal on your heart." (Song of Songs 8:6) This phrase expresses most succinctly the biblical, divine truth that marriage is wholly and exclusively a matter for two people, and that any third or fourth person is completely excluded. A seal on a letter or parcel means that it is sealed to all uninitiated and is to be opened by only one person: the one to whom it is addressed. "Seal me as a seal upon thy heart" - means that the heart and love, body and soul of the spouses are sealed as a sealed letter to the outside world, and that the seal has no right to be opened or opened by anyone else in the world except the other spouse alone. There is no place for a third, not even in thought! For it poisons the air! Because it upsets the peace!
Now, Abraham and Sarai were married by mutual agreement, according to the Eastern custom of the time, and Hagar was the third, yet she made the lives of all three men a living hell. Well, even when a third person is not put into the marriage of two people by mutual agreement - for such things are not usually done by mutual agreement, but by deceiving, tricking, or insulting one of the parties - what a hell it is in the lives of the people in such a family triangle!
Is not the Word right, as we have recently read in Proverbs: "I had little reputation for not having been immersed in all the wickedness of the church and the community" (Pro 5,14). And do you see where all this painful family tragedy came from? Because there was no real spiritual fellowship between the spouses! Yes, when Abraham and Sarai are not together in the Lord, Hagar very quickly and easily appears on the scene! That's the way it is! But there is a little family scene here that sounds very modern. When the family is already in the midst of a turmoil, Sarai, instead of repenting and trying to make amends for what he himself had started, attacks Abraham, reproaching him: 'Sarai said to Abram: I am offended because of thee. I have given my handmaid into thy bosom, and seeing that she is with child, I have no honour before her." (Genesis 16:5) This is the easiest thing: to put the blame on someone else, to blame someone else for my own mistakes. This is how we never find peace!
Who once in his life has so truly acknowledged with his heart how God has dealt with us in the trial we have had with Him, in the hurt we have caused Him, that you. He has taken upon Himself all the blame which we justly brought upon ourselves by our conduct, He has assumed it, and has made a scapegoat for us in His own divine person, He has even assumed the punishment of us in Jesus Christ; he who, I say, has ever heard this with his heart, has accepted it, can no longer so easily escape the responsibility as Sarai here would have us do. Of course, Abraham was guilty too, for in such a thing both are usually to blame, but that is no reason why Sarai should now blame him alone. Here, he should rather humble himself before God. When something is wrong in a family, the best thing to do - instead of blaming each other - is to humble yourselves before the Lord together. And if you are really not to blame for the warfare, you have all the more reason to go before the other in love. "Let the Lord judge between me and you!" says Sarai indignantly. Yes, yes, the Lord will judge. But it's not good to throw words around so recklessly! First confess your sin, first settle your own account! Surely, Sarai would do better, too, if he would humbly and quietly acknowledge that he had caused the storm. One never knows what a storm one is creating when one interferes in God's business by force and does not take the straight and narrow way to get there first.
And let us take another brief look at the greatest victim of the whole family affair: Hagar. "And Sarai pressed him, and he fled from her." (Genesis 16:6) - so we read in the record. It continues, "And the angel of the Lord found him by a spring in the wilderness, by the spring that is on the way to Shur. And he said, Hagar, servant of Sarai, whence comest thou, and whither goest thou? And he said, I flee from the presence of Sarai my wife." (Genesis 16:7-8) "Whence comest thou, and whither goest thou?" saith the angel of the Lord, as if to say, Say, then, is this thy place? Are you where you belong? For you have escaped from somewhere where you were humiliated. But is that reason enough for you to flee from your fate? And do you think it's better here in the wilderness? What do you want now, where are you going?
But many people have this desire to escape! To escape from the burdens, the pressures of a fate that seems unjust, the humiliation that they are part of. But the Lord could ask many people: where do you come from? Where are you going? What do you want now? What is going to happen to you? Do you really think you can find a place where no one will hurt you, where nothing can happen to you? "Then the angel of the Lord said to him, 'Return to your wife and humble yourself under her hands.'" (Genesis 16:9) Now it's not a question of whether the humiliation is just or unjust, whether Sarai is right or wrong - it's a question of if he humiliates you further, take the humiliation out of God's hand! Sarai could not do it if God would not let him.
Not one bit of bitterness can be mixed into the life of a child of God that has not been weighed out beforehand by a heavenly scale with a very careful fatherly love! To run away from humiliation is not the answer - but to take it on and accept it from God's hand. Let us not dictate to Him the means He should use in our education! Yes, if God humiliates us, we think, I would accept it. But God uses people to educate us! There is no other solution for Hagar than what God warns us in the Word: "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time." (1Pt 5,6) Whoever willingly humbles himself under the hand of God's nurturing hand will soon come to the point where he can give the Lord his just reward.
It is indeed as we sing:
"If you will humble your heart before the Lord,
He will not wait in vain, He will come in and bless you.
Pride of the flesh is death! But if thou repent thy sin,
His Holy Spirit will abound, And the heart will find salvation.
O Jesus, your poor soul is asking, waiting, longing, calling:
Thou preparest a home for this heart.
Come into my faithful heart. Though poor is this lodging,
But ever grateful, so blessed is Christ.
(Canticle 374, verse 3-4)
Amen
Date: 14 September 1952.