THE FAILED SHORTCUT
I don’t know about you, but I hate wasting time! I hate waiting in traffic. I hate having to do things manually, like cutting pages one at a time when a bigger paper cutter could cut them ten at a time. I hate assembling something I bought from a box store, getting to the last piece, finding out I did it wrong, and having to re-do the whole thing.
The same feeling of wasting time comes over me when I’m driving and see that the route from point A to point B appears to go in a big loop. Surely there has to be a shortcut! Why would I waste all the time to go much further than I would if I found a more direct route? One time that got me into a bit of a pickle.
One July evening shortly after the derecho hit Iowa, I took my youth group to Ledges State Park to swim. It didn’t cross my mind that downed trees might affect where we could drive in the park. When we got there, the road to the river was closed to cars, and we were told that in order to swim we would have to walk along the road from the parking lot to the river. But that was a long and twisty road! According to the map in the parking lot, if we cut through the woods we could shave a ton of distance.
Since I didn’t want to waste time following the road, I took a dozen kids on what became the muddiest, murkiest hike any of us had ever encountered. One girl stepped into mud up to her knee! With help, she finally pulled her foot out – without her shoe! She had to hike the remaining half mile with one shoe and one bare foot.
My shortcut was a massive miss, and the kids weren’t very happy with me; but I, a savvy youth pastor, knew how make amends. We ended the night at Sonic – my treat!
I tell you this story because I think many of you can relate. God tells us how to live our lives. He promises to be with us, care for us, provide for us, and work all things together for our good even when we feel like we are stuck in a pit. All we need to do is follow His instructions and simply walk on the road down to the river. He tells us all those promises are for us. He will get us to our destination.
Just as I thought I could find a better way than taking the road, we try to figure out our lives on our own. We don’t like to wait for God. We don’t like to feel dependent on Him to provide for us. And so we try to make our own way. We decide to blaze our own trail. We decide to kick in the door God so clearly keeps trying to close on us. Do you know what is usually the result? A muddy, murky mess that leaves you exhausted and wearing only one shoe.
Abraham, the Father of Many Nations
Continuing our series on Flawed Heroes of the Bible, today we look at Abraham, the father of God’s special nation. Just like all of us, Abraham once tried to help God out and create his own path forward.
Abraham first appears on the scene pretty early in the Bible in Genesis 12, and his birth name was Abram. It’s important to recognize that before his encounter with God we see nothing special or heroic about Abram. Yet God, in His favor, chooses this man to receive His incredible promise. The first encounter between God and Abram appears rather abruptly in Genesis.
Genesis 12:1-4 – The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.
Abram is the man God chooses to be the first of His special people. Abram is the father of the Israelites, those people whose entire story is told through the pages of the Old Testament. He is more important to Jewish people than George Washington is to Americans. He is THE key figure of Jewish heritage.
There is, however, a bit of a problem. While God promises that Abram will be made into a great nation, Abram has no descendants. Even worse, he is already 75 years old with a 65-year-old wife. It seems as though the window to have children has closed for Abram and his wife, Sarai.
Yet, it appears Abram trusts God, because “he went.” He obeyed God’s command to leave his father’s home country. In chapters 13 and 14 of Genesis you can read of Abram and his nephew, Lot, and their large families traveling to the land God intends to give to Abram’s descendents. Over several years Abram and Lot have a few adventures and a few missteps, but ultimately they end up in the land of Canaan, the land God will promise to the Israelites forever.
By this time, when Abram is probably 80 years old or more, God shows up to him again.
Genesis 15:1-6 – After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”
2 But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
4 Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
Here we see doubt beginning to creep into Abram’s thinking. He has done his part; he left the land of his father and traveled to where God wanted him to be. It’s clear, though, that he’s wondering what good any of this is if his servant is going to receive his inheritance. And notice where Abram is pointing the finger of blame: “You have given me no children.”
God doesn’t scold Abram for his doubt. Instead, He reiterates His promise. This time He tells Abram about the vast number of descendants he will be given. They will be more numerous than the stars in the sky. And again we see that “Abram believed the Lord.” As a result, God “credited it to him as righteousness.” One key attribute we keep seeing in Abram’s life is his belief in God even when things seem far-fetched – like having a child at 80 years old.
Abram Takes a Shortcut
Unfortunately, Abram and Sarai’s trust in God does not prevail. By the time we get to Genesis 16, several more years have passed. Abram is now 85 years old; Sarai is 75. It appears that God is never going to fulfill His promise. So Sarai decides that perhaps they need to be more proactive in bringing the promise to fruition.
Genesis 16:1-4 – Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”
Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.
If this is your first time hearing this story, you probably feel that this isn’t exactly what God had in mind when he made His promises to Abram! God had a planned path and a timeline, but Abram and Sarai saw a shortcut. They felt they needed to help God out. Essentially, they stopped trusting God to ever fulfill His promise.
And guess what the result was – a muddy, murky mess! In the verses that follow, we read about Ishmael’s birth, the constant tension between Sarai and Hagar, and God’s promise to Hagar that Ishmael would be a “wild donkey of a man” in constant conflict with his brothers. Muslims believe that Ishmael is the ancestor of Muhammad and the “founder of the Arabs.” Ishmael and the Arabs have been in conflict for millennia with his brothers, the Jews.
Our Shortcut
When I read this passage I can very much relate to what Abram did. Michelle and I once tried to force a situation that wasn’t right for us.
We were completely tired of the mess of fostering, but we wanted one more child in our nest. We started looking at kids who were already available for adoption – kids for whom we wouldn’t have to go through the process of visits and court hearings with mom and dad.
We found a 17-year-old boy named Billie, and he lived in a group home. How perfect! We already had the easily confused names Wilson and William for our two sons. Why not add a Billie and make things even more confusing?
We imagined that in two short years we could coach Billie to the point that he could live on his own and find success in life. We had a beautiful dream, and I don’t think we prayed about it much at all.
Guess what! It turned into a muddy, murky mess! In seven weeks time, Billie had a probation officer and had been suspended from school. He had run away from home overnight over something trivial, and a girl from my youth group called to tell me he sexually assaulted her friend in a car in the school parking lot.
Needless to say, our best-laid plans completely fell apart and we had to send him back to the group home. He wasn’t ready for the independence of living with a family. We were broken. We felt guilt and shame for trying to kick in a door that wasn’t meant to be opened. God had a longer plan in mind for us.
God Fulfills His Promise
Let’s get back to our story of Abram. Even after Abram made a mess of the whole situation, God remained faithful. When Abram was 99 years old – 24 years after God met him and promised to make him a great nation – God came to him once more.
In Genesis 17 God shows up and changes Abram’s name to Abraham, which means “father of many.” He changes Sarai’s name to Sarah. He gives the symbol of circumcision as the mark of the covenant between God and Abraham.
And yet, in spite of having heard these promises before, Abraham pleads with God:
Genesis 17:17 – “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”
Can you hear the desperation in Abraham’s voice – how he has lost all hope? He wants God to simply bless the shortcut he took years earlier when he had a child with his servant Hagar.
But that’s not God’s plan. It never was. God concludes this encounter by promising that within a year Sarah will give birth to a son. They are to name him Isaac. They are told that Isaac will be the father of twelve rulers – the twelve tribes of Israel.
And that’s exactly what takes place. A 90-year-old woman gives birth to a son. That son, Isaac, has twelve sons. Throughout the Old Testament we see God give the land He promised to Abram to the Israelites. Everything God promised Abram came true because God is a God who keeps His promises.
Promises We Fail to Trust God With
This is the truth we all seem to wrestle with.
- When the finances are tight, rather than trusting God to provide, do you feel the pressure to make things happen yourself?
- When your schedule is hectic and you seem to have more work to do than you can possibly finish, rather than trusting that God will meet your needs in six days, do you work all seven days of the week and feel constantly exhausted?
- When you feel constant guilt and shame for massive mistakes you have made in your life, rather than trusting that God has forgiven ALL you sins – even your most grievous – do you keep wrestling with that guilt and shame and allow Satan to leave you feeling unworthy of God’s love?
- If you received a cancer diagnosis and were looking at six months to live, rather than trusting God to be with you through it all (and believing that even if He doesn’t heal you He will usher you into His eternal home) would you instead become angry at God and terrified of death?
- When you feel forgotten and alone like nobody cares for you, rather than believing God created you in His image with incredible value and has given you direct access to talk with Him about your depression, do you sit alone wondering if anyone would notice if you weren’t here?
Conclusion
God has made thousands of promises to us in His word, but often we allow doubt to rob us of the peace that comes from trusting in these promises. Here’s a question for you: when life goes upside-down, do you lose trust? Do you panic like Abram did? Do you try to find a shortcut rather than trust God? Do you turn to your own self-reliance? If so, how is that working out for you?
For me, relying on myself has never worked out very well. I have learned what Romans 8:28 promises – that God is an expert at taking my pain and mess and working it out for the best. Michelle and I had a plan to coach a 17-year-old boy for two years to help him learn how to live independently. God knew He had put these skills and desires into us, but this wasn’t the right boy. God had a different one in store for us. When it comes to your life, whatever decisions you have to make or difficult situations you are facing, don’t try to make something happen from nothing. Pray. Trust. Follow. There’s no need to set out on your own path without God. Let Him guide you and provide for your needs.
0 Comments