ABRAHAM’S FEARS AND FAILURES

And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son's name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael – Genesis 16:15

His (Abraham’s) third failure stemmed from craven fear and involved the repetition of his former failure in Egypt. “I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place, and they will slay me for her sake” (v.11), was Abraham’s extenuating excuse. Once again he stooped to deceit and falsehood to protect himself at the cost of possible dishonour and suffering to his wife. Did we not know the intricacy of our own hearts, we might have thought that his previous experience of God’s gracious intervention would have taught him a life-long lesson. But no. It is a fact of experience that former sins do not always lie down and die. The sins of youth tend to reassert themselves more subtly in middle age…Abraham’s failure on this occasion not only involved his wife, but imperilled the very king on his throne (v.7). Once again God exercised mercy and Abraham came to know Him as the God of the second chance.

The last failure…arose from the protracted delay in God’s fulfilment of Hid promise of a son. All Abraham’s hopes had centered in the promised child who would fulfil not only the craving of his own heart for an heir, but also the revealed will of God. The years had crawled by on leaden feet. All natural hopes had long since faded, and still there was no response from God. At Sarah’s instigation he took matters into his own hands, and her servant Hagar became the mother of Ishmael (Gen.16:15). God had moved too slowly for him, so he tried to force God’s hand to fulfil His promise. It is always a dangerous procedure to take things into our own hands; to adopt carnal means to achieve spiritual ends. God will not be hurried. He jealously keeps in His hands the time factor in his dealings with men. Abraham must master the difficult lesson of waiting for God and he learned it the hard way.

…The comforting fact is that God judged him, not on his isolated failures, but on the general tenor of his life, which had been true faith in God. Nor did his failures preclude his inclusion in the divine roll of honour in Hebrews eleven. In grace God forgave his failures and sin, reinstated him to his place of privilege and reiterated and actually enlarged the promises He had made. The heart of the Eternal is indeed most wonderfully kind.