Genesis 16 -- The Unintended Consequences Of Sin

“The restlessness of sin is seen here,” my commentary said.  “Instead of waiting on God, Sari persuaded Abram to obtain a child by her maid, Hagar..”

I’ll bet that when Abram left Ur years before at God’s command to go to the Promised Land, he never dreamed that he would by this point have compromised God’s plan by lying to the Egyptians about his relationship with Sarai and that a slave girl most likely obtained there would cause strife in his marriage.

What Sarai basically says in verse 2 is:  “The Lord has not allowed me to have children, so sin!”  She somehow believes that Hagar can be just a surrogate mother and still everything will be fine with the household.  Exactly the opposite happened, and we can expect that when we try to rush ahead of God’s timing.

When animosity arose between Sarai and the now-expectant Hagar, Sarai blamed Abram:  “This is your fault … Let the Lord decide who is right – you or me.”  They were both wrong and neither knew or admitted it.

Sarai finally ran Hagar out of the house, but as she headed back to Egypt, the angel of the Lord stopped her and told her to return and submit to her mistress.  He promised her countless descendants as He had Abram.

The unintended consequences of Abram’s trip to Egypt are amazing to see even today, for Hagar’s son would go on to father the Arab race, and true to what the angel said in this chapter, “He will be against everyone, and everyone will be against him.  He will attack all his brothers.”  At the time, he was an only child, and this probably meant little to Hagar, but now???  Not just his Arab brothers, with the fighting and killing done between the Sunni and Shia branches of Islam, but also his half-brother’s family as well – the Israelites.

It’s so easy to convince ourselves that a sin we desire to commit will not impact anyone – that it is harmless – but sin never is, and Satan loves to hide the price tags until we’ve already bought into it, hook, line, and sinker.  Abram would never have believed that a few minutes of pleasure would lead to the events of 9-11 and wars and riots in virtually every Arab country today.  We need to learn to see sin from God’s viewpoint and know that the real cost might remain hidden for decades or even centuries. 

Father, wake us up to sin’s true cost – Your Son’s death on the cross being the largest expense.  Let us ask to see the price tag before we commit the sin, and help us to believe that the cost will be that terrible.  Rebellion against You is never cheap, Father.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford