Q3. God's Blessing through Much Pain

[Krissi]

I'm trying to put myself in Abraham's place. I can't imagine, really, how he'd feel after knowing he had born a child from a slave after being pressured by his wife to have sex with her, and then forced to deal with the consequences of that mistake. Too, there were other mistakes and pains in his life -- the Lot fiasco, leaving his homeland, the stupidity of calling his wife his sister, etc. I'm sure, at this moment, Abraham felt crushed by his own poor decisions as well as by circumstances.

Yet God comforted him by telling him that Ismael would be taken care of, that for all the wrong reasons, Sarah had spoken rightly by asking him to send Hagar and Ishmael away. 

Isaac wasn't blessed at the time of his half-brother's explusion, as he was just a toddler and unable to understand the machinations about him, however later in life he was blessed by not having to deal with his belligerent and out-of-control half-brother. As I wrote a few days ago, I believe Isaac would have been killed by Ismael -- fratricide -- had they remained in the same household. The trends were certainly going that way.

Where was God in all this?  Good question. God could have prevented Hagar's pregnancy and all the other cascading, additive sins that followed Abraham for the rest of his life, but He didn't do this. He didn't protect Abraham and Sarah from themselves, from their own poor decisions. Free will and choice are not unmitigated blessings. God does step in, at times, to prevent someone from making a very poor decision, but He doesn't seem to do this often.  In this case, He let events unfold. 

The fact that God doesn't engage in more preventive actions troubles me. He's always mopping up, rarely intervening to avert or forestall sin. I'm begging God, right now, to protect me as I enter a new situation -- after reading this, I wonder if that's how He operates or if he just lets me stumble and fall as did Abraham.

 

[Bianca]

God promised Abraham that Ishmael will be blessed. Ishmael is going to be the head of a nation. So Ishmael is not going to end up poor and without. Abraham and Issac have both been blessed because we do not know what might have happened between Ishmael and Issac. Maybe they would have got into it to a point of death. We don't know but it was what was best for all parties involved. God always know what he is doing.

 

Well I wasn't around my Father like I should have been when I was growing up because of the lifestyle he was leading. But God fixed that and restored that and I got to be around him all the time and do things with him. We are still having the relationship we were suppose to have. Praise God. So I am blessed to have My Heavenly Father and my Earthly Father. God is faithful to answer prayers.

 

God was involved in the whole situation with Abraham and Ishmael. He is always working behind the scenes working things out for good. Even if we don't see how.