Tuesday, October 3, 2006, Part 2

"Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar" (Genesis 16:1).

IDEA: Be careful what you ask for: God may give it to you and you'll be sorry.

PURPOSE: To help listeners recognize the danger of taking God's work into their own hands.

Have you ever prayed for something and even as you prayed, figured out how God could work it out?

Have you ever prayed for something and figured out how you could work it out?

I. Sarah, Abraham's wife, knew the promise given to her husband as well as Abraham did.

How do you think Sarah felt about that promise when she continued to be barren?

She must have been humiliated.

She thought of ways in which the promise could be fulfilled without anything special from God.

One way childless couples could meet their need for an heir was by adoption, and Abraham had apparently adopted Eliezer when he passed through Damascus (Genesis 15:2-3).

A second way, spelled out in the Code of Hammurabi, was to use a slave girl as a surrogate mother, with the child born to her becoming the rightful child of the rightful wife.

That was a socially acceptable.

Sarah suggested the latter plan to Abraham, using Hagar, her Egyptian slave.

She got what she bargained for, a son, Ishmael, and she was miserable.  Why?

II. Abraham and Sarah ran ahead of God and conflict followed in the family, that continues to this day in his posterity.

Hagar made life miserable for Sarah and Sarah made life miserable for Hagar.

Ishmael and later Isaac not only created great tension in the family but have done so throughout history.

III. We need to be careful when we do God's work in our own way.