The Messes We Make

Have you ever prayed for something or someone so long that you think, “My prayers will never be answered?” I imagine that’s how Abraham’s wife, Sarah, felt. God promised Abraham in Genesis 15 that He would bless him with children, but when Sarah still could not conceive, she took matters into her own hands and gave Hagar to Abraham. So, as a result of Sarah’s mistake, we ended up with Ishmael. Although later she believed when she hears God tell Abraham that she will conceive in her old age.

Then we have Rebekah encouraging Jacob to deceive his father into giving him the blessing that she thought would be given to Esau. Although God had already told her that the elder should serve the younger (Genesis 25:23), she panicked. Because of her doubts in the midst of knowing that Isaac was going to bless the firstborn, she talks Jacob into deceiving his father and stealing the blessing. Because of this, we end up with an angry and revenge filled Esau. Then in Genesis 36, you have these two tribes (Ishmael and Esau) joining together through marriage, and eventually, they become enemies to Israel.

My eyes opened to the fact of how we can make a royal mess when we try to push God’s promises to fulfillment instead of having faith and trusting in Him to be faithful. I believe that had Sarah waited, she could have saved a lot of heartaches. I also think that if Rebekah had trusted in what God had already told her, instead of in the heat of the moment not trusting, Isaac would have given the same blessing to Jacob without Jacob having to use trickery to steal it from Esau. Because according to what God had told Rebekah, it was never Esau’s. A lot of things could have been diverted had all involved trusted God to be faithful. But we can’t pass judgment too quickly on these because how many times have we done the same thing? What would our lives look like had we trusted God to be faithful in every circumstance? I know my life would look very different. But as we learned in the story of Joseph in Genesis 50, what Satan means for harm God will use for good if we will let him.

This year my prayer is that I will stand firm on God’s promises and that I will remember all the times that He has been faithful. I pray that I will trust Him more this year than in the past years. That’s my prayer for you too. May we learn by the examples that He has given us in His Word. That we will make up our mind to trust Him more, and when those heat of the moments come, we will be able to stand firm because we have already determined in our hearts that no matter what, we will trust Him and His Word to be faithful.