08 March 2010 Devotion for Today "It's All Your Fault" Genesis 16:1-16

Monday, March 08, 2010

10:11 AM

Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, "See now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her." And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. 3 Then Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. 4 So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes.

^{5 Then Sarai said to Abram, "My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The LORD judge between you and me."}

^{6 So Abram said to Sarai, "Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please." And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence.}

^{7 Now the Angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. 8 And He said, "Hagar, Sarai's maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?"}

She said, "I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai."

^{9 The Angel of the LORD said to her, "Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand." 10 Then the Angel of the LORD said to her, "I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude." 11 And the Angel of the LORD said to her:}

      " Behold, you are with child,

      And you shall bear a son.

      You shall call his name Ishmael,

      Because the LORD has heard your affliction.

 12 He shall be a wild man;

      His hand shall be against every man,

      And every man's hand against him.

      And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren."

^{13 Then she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, "Have I also here seen Him who sees me?" 14 Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi;[a] observe, it is between Kadesh and Bered.}

^{15 So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.}

 
 

Comedian Anna Russell once wrote:

 
 

I went to my psychiatrist to be psychoanalyzed

To find out why I killed the cat and blacked my husband's eyes.

He laid me on a downy couch to see what he could find

And here's what he dredged up from my subconscious mind.

When I was one my mommy hid my dolly in a trunk

And so it follows naturally that I am always drunk.

And when I was two I saw my father kiss the maid one day

And that is why I suffer now from kleptomaniae.

At three I had the feeling of ambivalence toward my brothers

And so it follows naturally I poison all my lovers.

But I am happy now I've learned a lesson this has taught

That everything I do that's wrong is someone else's fault.

 
 

We see our society in these lines so much, especially when it comes to abdicating personal responsibility. We have gotten to the point that we honestly believe that "everything we do that's wrong is someone else's fault."

However, all we need to do is to read Genesis 16 to realize that this displacement of personal responsibility is not a modern symptom- it is as old as man himself. In fact, what played out in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve were tempted is a case in point. Eve blamed the serpent for giving her the forbidden fruit. And Adam blamed God for the fact that He created Adam's wife who caused her to tempt him. In the present chapter, Sarai was overcome with anxiety for not yet having a child, so she insisted that her husband sleep with her servant Hagar- the Egyptian. We wonder first of al if Sarai had secured her services when they lived in Egypt. Egypt is a symbol of worldliness- a problem which Abram and Sarai battled since they were expelled from there. Abram did not seem to protest too much about the arrangement, but he did tell her that Hagar was Sarai's property- she could do what she wanted with her. Then Hagar got pregnant, and diminished her respect for her mistress. The situation precipitated an atmosphere of excessive competition between the two women that Sarai decided to turn Hagar into the wilderness.

 
 

At first, Sarai blamed God for not having any children. Then she blamed Abram for the fact that Hagar got pregnant- which is, after all, what she desired to happen in the first place. Abram was clearly in a no-win situation for having listened to his wife. However, Sarai does not own any of the responsibility for the result which was clearly neither in the will of God nor was it in anyone's best interest. Sarai's way of dealing with the consequences and the guilt she felt was to blame everyone else for the fact that her maid Hagar getting pregnant. She blamed Hagar and treated her spitefully. She blamed Abram for being so eager to listen to Sarai's idea. Sarai blamed God for the fact that she was childless.

 
 

The problem with finger-pointing and assigning blame is that it eventually produces a vicious backlash. From the offspring of Abram and Hagar was produced in Ishmael the greatest enemy the Hebrews, and then the Jews, would ever have. Ishmael grew to be the father of the Edomites and the Palestinian-Arab people. Our own backlash, when we refuse to own responsibility for our bad decisions, or our sins, is when the consequences come back to haunt us. Relationships are broken, trust is destroyed, and families and marriages are weakened. We still have the tendency to blame others. When a whole nation has that mentality, it produces governments such as our own that is so divided it cannot effectively cope with our problems or make any progress.

 
 

But when we take responsibility for our own problems, everyone is then free to work on their own problems. Our own pride is our own worst enemy, but we can be free to confront it as long as we trust God enough to know how best to help us deal with it. Resist the tendency this week all of us have to assign blame when things don't work out the way that they should. Instead of asking "What's wrong with these people?", ask "How did I allow this to happen?" Remember, when one finger points at another, there are three other fingers pointing back at you.

 
 

Prayer: "Dear God, I admit today that I am responsible for many bad decisions. When I see others make them, and when they affect me, I get angry. But that is only because I am angry mostly at myself. Help me to do what is right and to bring the most right to the situations in which I am involved this week. Help me also not to accept the blame for someone else's problem's, either, God. This is just as wrong as abdicating my own responsibility. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen.

 
 

Have a blessed day.