God's business

Nothing good happens when people try to control or manipulate things that are God’s business. I think that often as I read scripture, and I thought it again reading Genesis 19 and 20.

Chapter 20 clearly establishes God’s authority over the womb. That chapter tells of the time Abraham fooled Abimelek into thinking Sarah was his sister, not his wife. God acted to fix the mess Abraham got himself and Sarah into, and at the end we read this, in verses 17-18: 17-18:

 “Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelek, his wife and his female slaves so they could have children again, for the Lord had kept all the women in Abimelek’s household from conceiving because of Abraham’s wife Sarah.”

The point  is impossible to miss: God decides when a new life starts. He decided when Abraham and Sarah would have their own baby, and he decided when the women in Abimelek’s family wouldn’t have theirs. 

Abram and Sarai tried to control their own situation by using Hagar as a surrogate. The result was Ishmael, who would father a people, the Ishmaelites, who would be enemies of Israel.

In Genesis 19, there’s another story of two young women who needed to fix their own problem of childlessness: they got Dad drunk and snuck into his bed. Here’s the end of the story, in verses 36-38: “So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab; he is the father of the Moabites of today. The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites of today.”

Here's where I always remind myself: keep those three nations, the Ishmaelites, the Moabites, and the Ammonites, in your memory. I know I’ll see them again as thorns in the sides of God’s people, especially in Judges. 

Nothing good happens when people try to control or manipulate things that are God’s business. I need to remember that, because I get impatient waiting for God. I relate to Abraham and Sarai when they feel like they have to do it themselves. I not only want to control the timing, I have my preferred outcomes. It takes a lot of trust to wait on the Lord.

But trust comes from being trustworthy, and God has been completely trustworthy. He has never failed me once. There isn’t a more sure thing than trusting in him.