So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba.
The Repudiation of Hagar
Steen, Jan Havicksz. (1626-1679). Painter
Around 1655/57
Dresden Gallery, Old Masters, Germany
When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said: “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept.
And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hands, for I will make a great nation of him.”
Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink. Genesis 21:14-19 NRSV
The story of Hagar and Ishmael can be found in Genesis 15-21, with a brief interruption for the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in parts of chapters 18 and 19.
The first time she leaves Abraham’s and Sarah’s tents, pregnant Hagar felt compelled to flee. She left without permission or notice, an act forbidden by law. The angel of God found her, and in the act of justice sent her back to be submissive to a bitter and jealous mistress. God does send a soothing promise for her wounded spirit. Ishmael might not be the Child of Promise as Isaac will be, yet he would be the child of a promise made to her. She names the well Beth-laharoi: the well of Him that lives and sees me.
For fourteen years Hagar and her son live with all the tension and bitterness Sarah’s impatience brought about. Then after Isaac’s birth Hagar and Ishmael begin to manifest their jealousy. When Ishmael begins to maltreat Isaac, Sarah has Abraham ostracize, repudiate, and expel Hagar and her son to certain death in a barren wilderness with only as much water and bread as she could carry. Hagar’s extremity becomes God’s opportunity. Abraham gave her a bottle, God gives her a well.
adapted from “Hagar” in All the Women of the Bible
by Herbert Lockyer.
The life and experiences of Hagar teach us:
·The temptations incidental to a new position;
·The foolishness of hasty action in times of trial and difficulty;
·The care exercised over the lonely by the all-seeing God;
·The Divine purpose in the life of everyone not matter how obscure or friendless;
·How God works out His gracious purposes by seemingly harsh, but just, methods;
·And the strength, comfort, and encouragement that accompanies the hardest experiences of His children.
adapted from “Hagar and Ishmael” in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
byDr. James Chrichton.
Recall a time in your life when you felt invisible to the world. Abandoned. Alone. Isolated.
In the comment section below, share what happened that caused you to know you had not escaped God’s notice.
Tell how God saw you – right where you were.
How did you experience God’s freedom and grace, instead of the justice you deserved?
Wesley's Rules for Band-Societies (Home Churches or Covenant
Groups)
Drawn up December 25, 1738.
The design of our meeting is, to obey that command of God,
"Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may
be healed.”
To this end, we intend:
1. To meet once a week, at the least.
2. To come punctually at the hour appointed, without some
extraordinary reason.
3. To begin (those of us who are present) exactly at the hour,
with singing or prayer.
The King's Favor
ShilohBraham1
Uploaded on Dec 19, 2010
A meditation regarding Psalms chapter 41. Be steadfast in the
King of Kings. Work hard for Him and delight in it. Show true love for one
another as the King has done for all creation. Do the appointed work.
The adversary will attempt to stop the children of God as God
blesses them. Do not give in but maintain righteousness and work diligently for
the Almighty King of Kings. It is blessed work and a blessed bond with Him for
His Light shines within those who truly love and seek Him. It is pleasing to
Him that His children do His will as He has apportioned out accordingly.
Contemplate His Love and know no limitation but endless
righteousness, and peace, and all things Holy. This is the gift of His
Excellency, it is His Love. The King's favor cannot be interrupted or prevented
by anyone or anything, He Is the King and there is no other like Him. Seek Him
in Truth and Love. Repent and submit to Him. We are one in Christ. God Is One.
4. To speak each of us in order, freely and plainly, the true
state of our souls, with the faults we have committed in thought, word, or
deed, and the temptations we have felt, since our last meeting.
5a. To desire some person among us to speak his own state first...
Psalms 41, 52, 44
Deuteronomy 11:13-19
2 Corinthians 5:11-6:2
Luke 17:1-10
Deuteronomy (the Second Law) is the last sermon of Moses.
Before his death, Moses is deeply concerned with persuading Israel what to do,
how to do it, and why it should be done -- even, and perhaps especially when
Moses is gone and the people have settled in the Land.
Even so, the book communicates differently to various
audiences: from the second generation of those who left Egypt, to those in
Josiah’s time, to the exiles, to the present. The fact that so much of what
follows in Scripture – not to mention our own lives – seems to follow
Deuteronomy’s standards show just how effective the book was and how important
it remains.
Moses repeats the call to heed God’s commands, to serve the
Lord with all your heart and soul, and to heed God’s Word by hiding it in one’s
heart, and teaching it to one’s children. Creating perfection by separating
oneself from idolatry and binding oneself to the Creator.
Moses reminds us our essential nature binds us in shared
responsibility for one another. Because
of our sins the entire community can become defeated and face dissolution. In
the face of disaster, the community’s only option is to ask God to bring us
back into relationship, to bring salvation.
According to John Wesley’s understanding of Christian
Perfection or “entire sanctification” remains a binding thread throughout
Scripture. Complete purity of heart does not entail a perfection of knowledge.
Even the entirely sanctified must continue to study.
Christian Perfection does not mean freedom from infirmities,
slowness of understanding, confusion or mistakes in judgment. There is no place
in Christian Perfection for one to experience freedom from sin or temptation.
There is no state of grace so lofty that one cannot fall from it and be lost.
A pure heart must continue to increase in love and grace,
and must increasingly grow in the love of God. This purity calls us to a
ministry of reconciliation. For only God can turn one’s weakness to wholeness
and integrity. God alone knows the secrets of the heart and can redeem us for
the sake of His steadfast love.
We must be transparent and open to scrutiny when we share
the Good News of the life death and resurrection of Christ. For it is in our
living and our dying to self, that we become a part of the ministry of God who, through Christ, is reconciling the world to himself.
God’s mission becomes our mission when we forgive. “We
cannot keep this Good News to ourselves,” says John Wesley, “but must become ambassadors for Christ to
the whole world. God making his appeal through us.” We must live transparently
in good times and bad that others might accept the grace of God. We are transparent when we recognize our own sins and ask
others for forgiveness so the message of reconciliation can be visible even
more than heard.
Paul and Luke both admonish us to avoid causing others to
stumble. Luke encourages us to avoid offending and off-ending one another in
ways that could damage other’s faith. We must be on guard for other’s faith.
At the same time, we should be on guard for our own faith by
forgiving those who sin but truly and openly repent. No matter how many times
someone sins against us, if they repent we must forgive. We must remember that
God forgives us daily,
In the Lord’s Prayer as written in Luke 11, we are to ask
God to daily “forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everything indebted
to us.” John Wesley notes that we all need forgiveness – “not once, but
continually.”
Wesley was convinced living truthfully is a mark of God’s
grace in our lives. God is actively moving in and through the messiness of
things, illuminating our lives and prompting our desire to see what is really
going on.
Because we are created in God’s image and our destiny is to
be restored through Christ to the fullness of that image, we must discern our
responsibility in refusing and failing to live to God’s good purposes. God’s
prevenient (preventing) grace insists that we be honest with God, others, and
ourselves.
5b. and then to ask the rest, in order, as many and as searching questions as may be, concerning their state, sins, and temptations.
How do you go about hiding God’s Word your heart? To whom and how did you teach God's Word this past week?
"A pure heart must continue to increase in love and grace, and must increasingly grow in the love of God." How have you worked toward "Christian Perfection" this past week?
Who have you forgiven this week? How have you acted as an "ambassador for Christ?"
Of whom have you asked for forgiveness this week? Of whom have you asked for reconciliation?
6. To end every meeting with prayer suited to the state of each
person present.
Heavenly Father, whose son suffered denial and
betrayal of trust from those who shared his bread, raise us up and prevent us
in the time of trial from falling away from you.
Faithful God, full of mercy, nourish your people
in a world of violence; through prayer and the scriptures give us the
life-giving water of truth and the rich goodness of your presence.
Arise, O Lord, and behold the suffering of your
people. Reveal your power, that being made like Christ in his death, we may
attain to renewed relationship with you and with one another.
Lord, we pray for our brothers and sisters in Turkey. I ask you to pray for me as I struggle with infirmity and pain as an excuse for not living relationally and for not continuing to strive toward Christian Perfection. Pray that I could live more transparently. How can we pray for you? (Leave a note in the comments below or email me at jorja.davis@gmail.com)
From the beginning, God the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit are relational. God’s requirement for reinstatement of His favor is
recognition of His life-giving, harmonious relationship. He shows us the
meaning of relationship through His attributes: steadfast love, faithfulness,
righteousness and peace.
God speaks peace and salvation. The result is justification
through Christ and sanctification through the Holy Spirit. Christ redeems from
the ultimate outcome of sin. Through the Holy Spirit, God renews the image of
Himself in those whom He created.
God calls the faithful to turn aside, take off their
sandals, to stand on holy ground. God is profoundly relational and desires a
dynamic relationship with each of us. God interacts not to intimidate, but to
prepare.
Faith requires action on our part. Believing is necessary,
but from faith must come action. Even Jesus’s words and works were ultimately
the Father’s, and after Jesus’s departure, He continues to do His work through
His disciples when we call on Him to do so..
I am standing in line for my miracle. I watch for burning
bushes. I keep my sandals loosely fastened. I walk slowly, too slowly most
days. For me, it must be enough.
I am as I am. God’s requirement for restoration has nothing
to do with my body or even with my pain. It has to do with my desire to learn
and believe. It has to do with my willingness to accept and trust in HIS
steadfast love, faithfulness, righteousness, and peace.
God is profoundly relational. He deserves vital
relationships with His people. A dynamic relationship does not require running
or jumping or leaping. Yesterday it had to do with making the most-purple
one-piece pajamas I have ever made. Not because of the hospital socks on the
bottom of the footies. Not because of the 14” white zipper hidden inside a
placket so we could use what we had.
No, it was an intensely relational time. A day spent with
Meredith helping me pin the seams when she was not playing with the cat, or
helping Papa make pie crusts, or all the other things that can distract a
six-year-old.
A day spent with a daughter who worries if my feet have been
down too long. Who does not look at the pattern instructions, not because she
could not understand them, but because she knows I will not follow them and she does not
like there to be any tension between us.
A day with a husband who feels free to learn to do all the
things I used to do. Who is willing to figure out how to make a pie crust. Who
sends a six-year-old agent to keep us posted, so we would know the pie was
created, cooked, cooled and ready to slice.
A day spent with the people in whom I see true love, faithfulness, righteousness and peace. Something tells me I just may have felt God’s favor.
I heard
Him speak a miracle through the hugs and kisses of a little purple clad body. I
saw Him speak a miracle through the extra hands and feet of a daughter. An
engineer who chose not to be distracted by reading the directions I was not
following. A daughter who made sure she equipped me to finish purple pajamas to
be worn to bed last night. I tasted Him speak a miracle in a warm piece of
home-made cherry pie.
I think that is the truest miracle. If there were no pain,
if I could go in circles around everyone in the house as I used to, I would not
be able to understand the importance of my relationship to the God who equips
me to live relationally.
