Title: Beyond Jealousy
Text: Genesis 21:8-21
Author Christopher B. Harbin
Do we have enough? Is there sufficient to go around? How far do we trust God's provision to take us? Can we safely include one more, two more, ten thousand more? When we fail to trust in God's sufficiency, sharing with others becomes a threat. Jealousy begins to raise its ugly head. We think we need to protect and hold on to what is ours, not letting anyone else claim a share in what is under our care. Is it possible for us to move beyond jealousy to trust in God's sufficiency?
Today's text tells us of a feast that Abraham put on for all his retinue. It was a celebration of Isaac being weaned. That probably strikes most of us as odd. I've heard of birthday celebrations and I've been invited to all sorts of other parties, but I don't know anyone who has made a celebration of a child being weaned. Considering the context and the worldwide infant mortality rates and the dearth of healthcare in Abraham's day, Isaac's being weaned was an important touch stone. It brought him past the most vulnerable portion of his life, past those illnesses of infancy, and served as a beacon of hope that this child would most likely survive to adulthood. If we consider that the Bible barely recognizes miscarriage, stillbirth, and infant mortality, we might consider that perhaps Sarah's infertility was not a failure to conceive, but a failure to bring a healthy male child to term with a good chance at survival. After all, Abraham and Sarah were half-siblings.
Whatever the details of the case, Isaac had made it to this important stage of life, and it was deemed worthy of celebration. Then Sarah saw him playing with "the son of that Egyptian slave woman," the same child Sarah had taken as her own, declaring him Abraham's firstborn. She saw that child now as the product of her lack of trust is Yahweh, of her failure to await God's timing, of a union she had initiated and blessed betw ...
Text: Genesis 21:8-21
Author Christopher B. Harbin
Do we have enough? Is there sufficient to go around? How far do we trust God's provision to take us? Can we safely include one more, two more, ten thousand more? When we fail to trust in God's sufficiency, sharing with others becomes a threat. Jealousy begins to raise its ugly head. We think we need to protect and hold on to what is ours, not letting anyone else claim a share in what is under our care. Is it possible for us to move beyond jealousy to trust in God's sufficiency?
Today's text tells us of a feast that Abraham put on for all his retinue. It was a celebration of Isaac being weaned. That probably strikes most of us as odd. I've heard of birthday celebrations and I've been invited to all sorts of other parties, but I don't know anyone who has made a celebration of a child being weaned. Considering the context and the worldwide infant mortality rates and the dearth of healthcare in Abraham's day, Isaac's being weaned was an important touch stone. It brought him past the most vulnerable portion of his life, past those illnesses of infancy, and served as a beacon of hope that this child would most likely survive to adulthood. If we consider that the Bible barely recognizes miscarriage, stillbirth, and infant mortality, we might consider that perhaps Sarah's infertility was not a failure to conceive, but a failure to bring a healthy male child to term with a good chance at survival. After all, Abraham and Sarah were half-siblings.
Whatever the details of the case, Isaac had made it to this important stage of life, and it was deemed worthy of celebration. Then Sarah saw him playing with "the son of that Egyptian slave woman," the same child Sarah had taken as her own, declaring him Abraham's firstborn. She saw that child now as the product of her lack of trust is Yahweh, of her failure to await God's timing, of a union she had initiated and blessed betw ...
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