“God Helps Those Who Help Themselves”

Genesis 16:1-15

 

For many of us who are not fond of shopping and waiting in lines, this story is for you.

 

A husband named Ed was visiting a local department store with his wife, and they had just purchased a piece of luggage and a cooler. As Ed browsed in the shoe department waiting for his wife to finish the rest of her shopping, a clerk asked if he could be of assistance.

 

“No, thank you," Ed replied. “I’m just waiting for my wife."

 

At that point, a man behind him said, "I’m waiting for my wife, too, but I never thought to bring lunch and an overnight bag."

 

I want to say right off the bat that waiting is tiring, exhaustive work. We do not like to wait. But sometimes it’s very necessary. The last thing we ever want to do is run ahead of God.

 

For those who struggle with waiting, maybe you have heard the phrase “God helps those who help themselves!” Would you be surprised to hear that this famous quote is nowhere in Bible. Benjamin Franklin is the one who coined this phrase in Poor Richard’s Almanack. Truth is that there are times to act and times to wait; the challenge is to know the difference.

 

In Genesis chapter 16, we have Sarai who was in her mid-seventies and Abram who was in his mid-eighties. They are waiting on that promises of God to be fulfilled in Genesis 15:4 – “that out of his body would come an heir.” They are still waiting on God to do this. Not only that, but they have not heard from God since then. God is remaining silent toward Abram.

 

Abram and Sarai are tired of waiting. At this point, 11 years have passed between chapters 15 and 16 and the promise has not happened yet. So, they decide to take matters into their own hands. Sarai thought she would “help God out.” The heir has not arrived, so she decides to give her Egyptian maidservant named Hagar, who was much younger and able to bear children, to her husband.

 

Proverbs 13:12 says “Hope deferred makes the heart sick…” Unfortunately, when hope’s fulfillment is delayed and delayed some more, the conclusion is it makes the heart sick. Do you know what that means?

 

I think back to the time I met my wife, Mary. I was in a horrible relationship with a girl who was unfaithful. My heart was broken. One weekend I went back home and that night I went over to a friend’s house and there was Mary. I knew Mary before; she was a senior when I was a junior, but we only said five words to each other in high school. It was at our prom; Mary walked up to me and said, “You look nice” and I said “Thank you” …. That was it. But here at my friend’s house, Mary’s kindness made it possible to forget about that other girl.

 

I made it my goal to get to know Mary even though we lived three hours apart from each other at the time.  I remember this sickness that I felt because we were so far away. Thankfully, it only lasted about six months, then Mary moved to the same community where I was attending college. If I had settled for that first girl, my marriage to her would have ended in heartbreak. But waiting on the Lord for Mary made such a difference in my life.

 

Waiting on God is difficult but also necessary. Just as it’s important to wait on God, it is also equally important to respond promptly to the call that He places on our lives. Both are essential keys to each other.

 

In Sarai’s mind she thinks this is such a clever idea. She finally will have the child that she always wanted through Hagar. Again, it seemed like a great idea…until the end of verse 4 which tells us that after Hagar conceived, she, “looked with contempt on her mistress.” It’s always interesting to me that we tend to make things sound great on paper, until the act is done, and then shame comes. Regret comes. This was not an act of faith on Abraham & Sarai’s part. It is the same for us that when we sow to the flesh, we reap corruption.

 

The situation worsened because Sarai’s angry that she cannot bear child. Hagar despises Sarai because of what she was asked to do. Again, it reminds me of what Paul says in Galatians 3:3, “Having begun in the Spirit, are you now trying to be made perfect in the flesh?”

 

Here is the reality to all of this: if God is good at starting something, He is even better at finishing it. Paul tells the church at Philippi “That He who began a good work in you is going to complete it.” (Philippians 1:6). If God starts something, He always intends to finish it. He has always been good at starting and finishing things.

 

Then we ask the question, how do we keep ourselves from jumping ahead of God? Proverbs 3:5-6 reminds us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.”

 

Sarai and Abram are most certainly not doing that here. In fact, there was an old Jewish proverb that says. “It’s better to have asked which is the right road ten times, then to choose the wrong road once.”

 

Are there areas in your life where you are trying too hard that you find that you are moving ahead of God, rather than waiting on his timing? Is there something that you have forced that you need to repent of and ask God to start the process over again? What is it that God asking you to GROW before you can GO? Remember that if we have breath in our lungs, God will always receive those who repent.

Meet you next week at the P.E.W.

Pastor Joel