Impatient!

Impatient!

Do you get stronger or weaker when you have to wait?

Do you complain or give thanks?

God told Abram

he would give him a son,

but Sarai couldn’t wait any longer

and says to Abram,

 "The LORD has kept me

from having children.

Go, sleep with my maidservant;

perhaps I can build

a family through her."

Genesis 16:2 NIV

Our first impulse might be

quick to judge

Sarai and Abram.

But, let’s think about it first.

Sarai and Abram didn’t have the microwave

to fix their dinner in seconds.

They did it the old fashion way.

They went out and got it,

rubbed two sticks together

and sha zam two hours later – dinner!

They didn’t have email

or cell phones

for instant communication.

They counted on the old camel express.

And let’s not forget

Abram is 85 years old!

 I wonder if we can understand

the word patience.

But whatever the time frame,

we have to wait.

The word patience in the Bible means,

“the ability to endure without murmuring”

Sarai began to murmur

and that started a chain of events

that brought a lot of sorrow.

Sarai’s relationship

with her maid servant is destroyed…

Her satisfaction with Abram is effected…

And Abram’s son from Hagar,

(Ishmael)

grows up to be wild

and couldn’t get along with anyone.

Next time,

you are waiting in line

or waiting at the doctor’s office remember this:

Murmuring and complaining

are the seeds to terrible things!

Scripture Reading

Genesis 16 NIV

16:1 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children.

But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar;

2 so she said to Abram, "The LORD has kept me from having children.

Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her."

Abram agreed to what Sarai said.

3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years,

Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar

and gave her to her husband to be his wife.

4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.

When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.

5 Then Sarai said to Abram, "You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering.

I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me."

6 "Your servant is in your hands,"

Abram said. "Do with her whatever you think best."

Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.

7 The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert;

it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.

8 And he said, "Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from,

and where are you going?"

"I'm running away from my mistress Sarai," she answered.

9 Then the angel of the LORD told her,

"Go back to your mistress and submit to her."

10 The angel added, "I will so increase your descendants

that they will be too numerous to count."

11 The angel of the LORD also said to her:

"You are now with child and you will have a son.

You shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard of your misery.

12 He will be a wild donkey of a man;

his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him,

and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers."

13 She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her:

"You are the God who sees me," for she said, "I have now seen the One who sees me."

14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there,

between Kadesh and Bered.

15 So Hagar bore Abram a son,

and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.

16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.