Footsteps #63

Those among us who share modern sensitivities may become concerned with Paul’s illustration involving Hagar because it apparently blames her and Ishmael by typing them as the example of legalistic religion. What fairness can there be in castigating the powerless slave woman who had no choice about whether or not to bear her wealthy slave owner’s offspring? Making things worse, Paul elevates Abraham’s and Sarah’s relationship (the people who caused the problem) as the example of genuine righteousness! Paul’s purpose here is neither to vilify the forsaken Hagar nor enshrine the conspiring Sarah. Their regrettable household situation merely illustrates two phases of Abraham’s spiritual journey—the do-it-yourself religion phase and the later completely-trust-God phase.  

Unfortunately, Abraham’s poor choices irrevocably damaged his relation­ship with his firstborn and introduced unnecessary tensions into his house­hold. Certainly, we should remember that it was the relationship that pro­duced Ishmael—not Ishmael himself—that symbolized self-righteousness. It was Abraham’s self-dependence imposed upon the powerless Hagar that epitomizes self-righteousness. Hagar and Ishmael were merely victims of Abraham’s experiment with do-it-yourself religion. I have often wondered if God didn’t choose circumcision as a perpetual reminder of what actually caused the problem! 

On Mount Moriah, (the same place where Jesus would eventually die) Abraham surrendered his son for sacrifice, essentially surrendering himself, regardless of the apparent conse­quences for his cherished dreams. Completely surrendered, Abraham was now positioned to experience God’s extravagant grace. God’s Son, prefigured by the entrapped ram, would fulfil the promise, sub­stituting Himself for Isaac and all humanity. Renewing power belongs to Christ, not to humans.  

There are symbolic Abrahams today: believers who sincerely regret their sinful behaviours, but who recognize that righteousness can never be achieved through human effort to overcome tempta­tion but only through moment-by-moment submission to God’s leading and absolute confidence in Christ’s sacrifice. This church is any group of believers who have replaced old covenant, self-confident obedience with new covenant, fully trusting obedi­ence. Obedience is never in doubt: we will serve somebody—either self-concocted notions of righteousness or Christ as revealed throughout Scripture.  Ask yourself – what can you learn from Abraham’s transformation from self-dependent, make-it-happen religion to divine dependency?