Articles
Children of Promise
Reading: Genesis 16
Abram and Sarai had been living in Canaan for 10 years, and despite God’s promises and reassurances, they still did not have a child in their old age. So Sarai came up with a plan: she gave Abram her maidservant Hagar as another wife with whom they could have a child. No one in this situation handles the matter well. Sarai promoted polygamy, Abram went along with it, and Hagar expressed contempt on Sarai once she bore Abram a son. When humans try to “help God” with His plans and purposes by their own efforts and understanding, we only end up hurting ourselves and others—potentially with eternal consequences.
The Holy Spirit reveals in Scripture that these two women serve as an allegory for the old covenant of Mosaic Law and the new covenant of grace through faith in Jesus. Paul writes in Galatians 4 that there are those who are children of the slave woman according to the flesh (Hagar), and there are children of the free woman according to divine promise (Sarai). Left to our own efforts and wisdom, we can never “get good” enough to be right with God or earn God’s promises of salvation and blessings. On the contrary, it is by God’s sure promises and our faithful trust and obedience to those promises that we experience the good things He desires for us. Let us not put confidence in righteousness by our own works, but in righteousness by active faith in Jesus Christ.
