Wild Donkeys

 Read Genesis 16

Abram was 85 and had been living in the land God promised to his descendants for 10 years now.  The problem was that he has no descendants.

He had money, flocks, servants, and even a militia that was battle-tested, but he has no kids. It’s been a while—since the Garden of Eden—since a woman took the leading role in a story, but here we are.

Sarai told her husband that she thought they could start a family if Abram—her husband—would have sex with Hagar—Sarai’s servant.

We see deep deliberation on the part of Abram.  Actually, he just says, yeah, ok. It reminds me of the deliberation noted by Adam when Eve passed the forbidden fruit to him.  Eve had done the analysis.  Adam just did what his wife wanted.

We are told that Sarai gave Hagar to her husband to be his wife.  That sounds like plural marriage to me. I think the term today would be sister-wife. 

Hagar got pregnant but Sarai went off the deep end.  Hagar got a little attitude once she was carrying the child that would apparently be Abram’s heir.  She despised Sarai.

Sarai told Abram that this was all his fault.  This is why guys are always confused.  Sarai didn’t drive her husband into Hagar’s arms.  She did not neglect Abram’s needs.  She wasn’t a fountain of bitterness. She didn’t do any of a hundred other things that cause men to seek other women.

She brought Hagar to her husband’s bed and said:  Have fun and have a child.  This was Sarai’s idea but now it was Abram’s fault.

Having the pregnant mistress problem dumped completely in his lap, Abram told Sarai to do what she wanted with Hagar, so we are told that she mistreated her.  We don’t know exactly what that meant, but it was bad enough that Hagar ran away.

She didn’t get far before an angel of the Lord found her near a spring and asked her what she was doing.

The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

Don’t you just hate it when an angel of the Lord shows up and acts like he doesn’t know what’s going on.  Angels typically show up with messages but apparently like to practice their conversational skills as well.  This one told Hagar to return to her mistress and do what she says.

He went on to say that through her son, who would be called Ishmael, would come many descendants. The Lord has heard your misery.

Hagar returned.  We don’t know how the relationship between her and Sarai went, but we don’t read of any more contention between the two women. Apparently, Abram was off the hook, at least for now.

Hagar gave birth to a son.  He was named Ishmael.  Abram was 86 years old when his son was born.

We should know that this was not the son of God’s promise.  This is not the son that would come from barren Sarai.  This is not the son through whose line would come the seed that would save humankind.

We know the story.  Abram and Sarai were still living it moment-to-moment.

Ishmael was a son conceived of human desire.  This was Sarai doubting the promise of God and Abram who was credited with righteousness for his belief, going along with it.

God would take care of Hagar and Ishmael, but they would not preempt his promise to Abram.  Man’s will would not coopt God’s plan.  In fact, the line that would come from Ishmael would always be in conflict with those that would come from Isaac, who was still a few years down the road.

The angel’s term was that Ishmael would be a wild donkey of a man.  Now that is some imagery—a wild donkey of a man.  Controversy and hostility would be the trademarks of his offspring.

In these early days of humankind filling the world after the flood, some decisions of men had lasting consequences.  Hagar and Ishmael were not part of the story of a people whom God would choose to be known in the world and through whom would come a Savior for all men.

But this human decision by Abram and Sarai would set humankind on a course of controversy and hostility that prevails even today. 

Abram believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, but his actions and decisions sometimes belied his faith.  Sometimes, Abram caved into his own understanding.  It is a challenge and sometimes a fault that we all must negotiate.

Today, we believe but we don’t always act in accordance with our beliefs. Sometimes these actions bring about consequences that might have been avoided if we acted in faith.

Abram focused on the fact that he had no kids—no offspring—no heir.  God had told him that his servant would not be his heir and Abram believed, but at age 85, he was having doubts.

Abram focused on what he didn’t have forgetting how God had brought him out of Egypt with great wealth.  He somehow forgot how God gave Abram and his 318 warriors victory over 4 armies that up to that point had been undefeated.

Abram must have been so focused on not having a son that his memory of Melchizedek blessing him on behalf of God Most High had slipped away.

We shouldn’t beat up on Abram too much.  We do the exact same thing.  We become blind to the many blessings in our lives and find the one thing that God has not done for us.

In Abram’s case, God had not done this one thing for Abram, yet.  Isaac would come in God’s time and the child could only be the gift of God, but Abram couldn’t see that even though he believed that God fulfilled his promises.

We know that God created everything and we know that he created everything good.  We know that God delivered his people time and again.  Crossing the Red Sea and the Jordan River on dry ground are landmarks in our understanding of what God can and does do.

Sending his Son into the world as a gift to us, having his blood become the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and raising him from the dead are things that we study and celebrate and know so well.

Is there anything too hard for God?

God meets all of our needs.

We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us; yet we still have those moments and times of doubt and uncertainty.

Sometimes we rely on our own understanding.  Sometimes we are still that work in progress instead of the finished production that God has already made us to be.

We believe in God the Father.

We believe in Jesus who died and took away our sins and the Holy Sprit that lives within us.

We believe that God raised Jesus from the dead.

We believe and sing that I have decided to follow Jesus.

We want to be known as followers of Jesus by our love.

And sometimes, we have a Hagar moment and it produces a wild donkey of a man.  I’m not talking about having a kid with your side chick.  I’m talking about anything and everything outside of God’s will.

Do you remember God’s way and everything else.  I’m talking about living in the everything else, even if it’s just here and there or for a moment.  The offspring of living in the everything else are wild donkeys.

Abram would become the Father of Many Nations.  Through him would come the line that God chose as his own people.  Through his line would come the Savior of the world.

Abram was going to have some more very human mistakes but eventually, we see faith so great it is hard to comprehend.  We will get there in a few weeks and it comes on the way to and on top of Mount Moriah.

But for now, we see a very human, very flawed man that God has already credited with righteousness.  Our righteousness does not come from our resume.  It comes from God.

So do we just keep on sinning because God has already made us right with him?

No, but we don’t throw in the towel even when we go into the everything else and produce a wild donkey or two.

We confess.  We come home.  We trust in God’s good plans for us.

God credited Abram with righteousness but Abram still made many mistakes.  Abram’s decisions seem to demonstrate doubt not faith, but God still used Abram for his purpose.  God still fulfilled all of his promises to Abram.

We are made right with God when we profess Jesus is Lord and we believe that God raised him from the dead.  We have already passed from death to life; yet we get to live this life and make our decisions and sometimes those decisions land us in the everything else.

But God still has good plans for us.  We must trust him and not let the Evil One deceive us that we have gone too far this time.  There may be severe consequences for our actions—wild donkey consequences—but we must always come home to the One who put us in right standing with God.

Our actions may not always demonstrate our faith but God is always faithful.  He never gives up on us.

For those who have read the full story of Abram, you know that his faith will be manifest in his actions.  Most know the story. We have read it.

But we have a story to live as well.  It is full of our faith and our mistakes.  It deals with our doubts and our victories.  It is full of moments and challenges that we overcame and would love to have someone tell our grandkids.  It also has some hold my beer moments.

But God has good plans for us and even in our worst moments, he will take whatever we live through and use it for good.  That’s what he does.  Only God can do that.

God keeps his promises and he has promised good to you. So even in our trials—some of them of our own making, our own wild donkey moments—trust in the Lord to bring you out of them stronger than you went in.

There is going to be controversy, hostility, adversity, and trouble in the world, but we who know Christ are challenged to take courage for Jesus has overcome the world.

Learn from your mistakes, but don’t be anchored to them.

Do your best to hit the target God has set before you, but when you miss, confess and get back in your race of faith. Take aim again!

God already factored in our brilliance and our stupidity when he called us to his purpose.  We are blessed to grow in his grace.

The whole Hagar and Ishmael story was part of Abram’s life but it did not define his life.  God’s purpose defined Abram’s life.

Our mistakes do not define us.  We should learn from them but it is God’s purpose for us that defines us.  Let us celebrate our victories and move beyond our defeats as we live for his purpose.

Amen.