Having Sex with Hagar

Now I should warn you, this post will be PG-13.  As the title suggests, I will be referring to sex – specifically the sex life of one of the most important men in the Bible, Abraham.

This post is not meant to offend (nor inspire really), but I found tremendous insight into understanding how God works and our role in implementing His plan for our lives by reading through the story of Abraham.  Here are a few important moments:

• God calls Abram to leave his family to go to the land of Canaan and promises him “‘I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you… and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’ So Abram went.” (Gen. 12:1-4).
• God promises Abram a large family, and Abram reminds God that he doesn’t have any children.  Sarai decides to help make God’s promises come true faster by giving Abram her servant Hagar with whom he could start a family.  So what does Abram do?  He says ok!  Abram has sex with Hagar.  She gets pregnant and gives birth to Ishmael.  Sarai mistreats Hagar and there is dissension and discord in the family (even up until this present time) of Abram (Gen. 15-16).
• God creates a covenant with Abram called circumcision and changes his name to Abraham and Sarai’s name to Sarah.  Every man in his tribe gets circumcised – a painful covenant to be sure (Gen. 17).

• God promises Abraham (100 years young) that he will have a child with his wife Sarah who is 90.  Laughter ensues.  Sarah gets pregnant and gives birth to Isaac the father of Esau and Jacob (later known as Israel).

• Hagar and Ishmael are sent away, but Hagar discovers from an angel that Ishmael will also be the father of a great nation (Gen. 21:17-18).

A lot of back story I know, but I’m not sure if this struck you the same way I did:  God promised Abraham a future with children.  He didn’t have any kids for awhile so he took matters into his own hands by agreeing to have sex with Hagar rather than waiting to have a child with his wife.

Ironically, waiting for God’s future meant a 100 year old man had sex with his 90 year old wife.  God promised them they would have a child, but they still had to have sex.

This reminded me of how Erwin describes the Character Matrix (see the book Uprising): there is a human side to divine change.  God changes us, and we have to make choices that are different than the ones we made before.

God calls us into a beautiful future which requires patience and action.

When it comes to our futures, are we more like Abram and Sarai taking matters into our own hands and trying to force a good future in a bad way, or are we more like Abraham and Sarah trusting God and actively participating in creating a good future in a good way?