Issue 238
The Roads Best Travelled – Series Introduction
Our lives and work are often described as a journey. In this series we are going to look at a number of biblical journeys taken on specific roads. Each journey we examine will help us think about our own career paths, life journeys and the steps that we take. If you have a suggestion for a road in the bible, about which you would liketo read in a WakeUpCall piece , do feel free to make suggestions. This series is planned to last for 25 weeks.
Based on Genesis 16:1-15
Sometimes things just get very messy. We may dress smartly, carry our computers in cases and speak in cultured tones, but work can be a very messy business. Some jobs involve dirt, dust and sweat, and look messy, but it is the interaction between people that generates the real mess.
For starters, there is poor decision making. This can be borne out of lack of information and resources, or mishandling of information and resources. It may involve a temptation to take a shortcut to a perceived solution inspired by frustration or impatience.
Such was Abram’s decision when he decided to take up his wife’s suggestion to try and have a child with their cleaning lady, Hagar. Even given the cultural context of polygamy, this was an unwise action.
Then there is pride and jealousy. One party perceives themselves to be endowed with some gift, asset, position or role, which when compared with that of another, seems to be favourable. Pride involves putting yourself up and despising someone else. It is very likely to provoke jealousy in the other.
The person on the receiving end of such apparent behaviour is not going to be passive. They may well plot or attempt to plot the downfall of their perceived enemy.
Such was the tension that developed between Hagar and Sarah. Hagar quickly despised Sarah for her childlessness. Sarah,for her part, threw the issue back at Abram, blaming him for his decision making.
Then there is abdication of responsibility. When faced with difficult moments there is always the temptation to avoid taking responsibility for your own actions, or even your own part in the process. The next short step is to blame someone else, thus trying to distance yourself from any involvement at all. The buck, as they say, gets passed and as it does so transforms itself, by the miracle of metaphor, into a hot potato, which no one wants to hold!
Such was Sarah and Abram’s row. Sarah blamed him for her difficulty – forgetting that it was her suggestion that started it all. Abram tells her to do whatever she wants – as if it was nothing to do with him that he had just fathered a child.
Then there is downright bullying. This can be psychological, physical or emotional. t can involve constant nit-picking or fault finding. It can involve denial of privileges or rights. It can involve mocking or discrimination. Either way the recipient feels belittled, unloved, trapped and in despair.
Such was Hagar’s experience. Caught in the crossfire between Abram and Sarah and now in Sarah’s direct line of fire, Hagar takes the second classic stress route and flees her situation. She now sets out on a journey of running away in pain, in isolation, and having been abused. This is the road to Shur.
Maybe, as you read this, you can identify with one of the three characters. You may have been on the giving or receiving end of poor decision making, pride, jealousy, abdication of responsibility or bullying. You may be the one running way in despair. The angel of the Lord found Hagar on the road to Shur. The message was a four- pointer: go back; get back into the structure; I will make you fruitful; God has heard your misery.
This encounter on the road to Shur is not necessarily a blueprint. That would be to over-interpret the story. Sometimes it is right to walk away and not come back, but whether you literally go back or not, you will always have to face the problem and confront it. An encounter such as this (and God will always meet us in our pain) sometimes results in immediate fruitfulness. Sometimes the success can only be measured in extremely long timespans. In the end, your obedient response to God will always ultimately be successful. Sometimes that may involve submitting to an unfair system for a while. One thing you can be sure of is that you will always encounter the Lord who will always hear your misery.
It’s a messy road to Shur, but thankfully we have a God who specialises in dealing with mess.
Genesis 16:1-15
1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.” 6 “Your servant is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her. 7 The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered. 9 Then the angel of the LORD told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel added, “I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count.” 11 The angel of the LORD also said to her:
“You are now with child
and you will have a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
for the LORD has heard of your misery.
12 He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
toward all his brothers.”
13 She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered. 15 So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she Borne.
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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