June
25 Genesis21:8-21Sibling rivalry 3rd Sunday after Pentecost
Abraham
begat the sons who still fight as Jews and Muslims.
Psalter reading Psalm
86:1-10
“1 ¶ «A Prayer of
David» Bow down Your ear, O LORD, hear me; For I am poor and needy. 2
Preserve my life, for I am holy; You are my God; Save Your servant who
trusts in You! 3 Be merciful to me, O Lord, For I cry to You all day
long. 4 Rejoice the soul of Your servant, For to You, O Lord, I lift up
my soul. 5 For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And
abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You. 6 Give ear, O LORD, to
my prayer; And attend to the voice of my supplications. 7 In the day of
my trouble I will call upon You, For You will answer me. 8 ¶ Among the
gods there is none like You, O Lord; Nor are there any works like
Your works. 9 All nations whom You have made Shall come and worship
before You, O Lord, And shall glorify Your name. 10 For You are
great, and do wondrous things; You alone are God.” (Psalm 86:1-10 NKJV)
“8 So the child grew
and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was
weaned. 9 ¶ And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had
borne to Abraham, scoffing. 10 Therefore she said to Abraham, "Cast
out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir
with my son, namely with Isaac." 11 And the matter was very
displeasing in Abraham’s sight because of his son. 12 But God said to
Abraham, "Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or
because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice;
for in Isaac your seed shall be called. 13 "Yet I will also make a
nation of the son of the bondwoman, because he is your seed." 14
¶ So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water; and
putting it on her shoulder, he gave it and the boy to Hagar, and
sent her away. Then she departed and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba. 15
And the water in the skin was used up, and she placed the boy under one of the
shrubs. 16 Then she went and sat down across from him at a
distance of about a bowshot; for she said to herself, "Let me not see the
death of the boy." So she sat opposite him, and lifted her voice
and wept. 17 And God heard the voice of the lad. Then the angel of God
called to Hagar out of heaven, and said to her, "What ails you, Hagar?
Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. 18
"Arise, lift up the lad and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a
great nation." 19 Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of
water. And she went and filled the skin with water, and gave the lad a drink. 20
So God was with the lad; and he grew and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an
archer. 21 He dwelt in the Wilderness of Paran; and his mother took a
wife for him from the land of Egypt.” (Genesis 21:8-21 NKJV)
We are a fast food
people. We are not good at waiting. Sarah was like that and pushed Abraham to
“help” God.
Many of us think Sarah was
making a rational decision that if what God said didn’t work when we wanted we
must find a way to make it work. The
problem is the unintended consequences.
The child born because of
trying to hurry God would become the people who currently are fighting the son
of Sarah! The wars in the Middle East
are really just sibling rivalry.
This can be seen in that
both Jews and Muslims claim their authority as coming from being a child of
Abraham! Both see their child of Abraham
as being offered in sacrifice to God!
Just as fast food often
causing gut problems the fast work of Sarah caused centuries of burning, death
and despair. One decision has brought about religious warfare and division of
people claiming to be people of the Book, the Bible.
As
well as Sibling Rivalry this could be called unintended consequences. Wait on the Lord and you will pass good
things on to those who follow and not consequences that destroy!
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