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GENESIS 20–21; PSALM 15

Week 2, Day 4

The Bible is a wonderfully honest book. It portrays us as we are, even as it holds before us the ideal of what God wants us to be. Once again Abraham, the man of faith, conducts himself more like an artful manipulator. God respects the heart integrity of Abimelech (20:6) and—in what may seem almost irony—instructs the king to solicit prayer from Abraham. Because Abraham, whatever his occasional lapses, is a servant of God.

And now the promise is fulfilled and the child Isaac—Laughter—is born. Abraham is a hundred years old, and Sarah is ninety. Are these ages according to our length years? some will ask. Whatever the case, Genesis wants to make one point clear: Abraham and Sarah are far past childbearing age, and Isaac is a miracle, a gift.

But now the tension between the child of logic and the child of faith grows to the point of disaster, and Hagar and Ishmael are forced out. From the Bible’s point of view, Isaac is the issue of the story, because the witnessing line and the redemptive line will come through him and his descendants. Nevertheless, God watches over Hagar and her son. When she reconciles herself to death, an angel chides her: “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid” (21:17). Perhaps this is what theologians call common grace; for while Ishmael is not the key figure in the eternal drama, his life is nevertheless preserved and blessed.

PRAYER: Help me, Lord of all, to have room in my heart to see you at work in those who are different from me; in Christ. Amen.

Find some instances from your personal experience or from history where it seems that “common grace” (as in the story of Hagar and Ishmael) has preserved someone who doesn’t seem to be theologically correct.