Force of Hand

Genesis 16:1

“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children, But she had an Egyptian slave name Hagar.”

If you have worked on cars for very long you know what cross-threaded is.  It is when you force the nut or bolt to continue to be screwed in or tightened even though the threads don’t match up.  You end up being cross-threaded.  This, most of the time, ruins the bolt and the hole you are putting the bolt in.  The bottom line is that too much force was applied when you should have backed off and started over. 

Sarai was soon to be the mother of many nations through Isaac.  The Lord had told Abram and he believed it as did Sarai… for a little while.  How much did she believe? It is written down in the verse above.  “But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar.”  We all have a proverbial Egyptian slave in the time we don’t expect the Lord to come through.  We often call it plan B.  Plan A was to trust the Lord and believe that He will direct our paths.  This was working great until the plan seemed too long or it took a wrong turn in our eyes.  Sarai was in this spot.  She knew what the promise was.  She understood what the Lord could do.  She was all in on the whole thing until the timing was called into question. 

“But she had an Egyptian slave….”  The Lord promised to bless them with a son, but it has not happened so I guess it must be through someone else, the Egyptian slave.  Fabricated force of hand does not redirect the will of the Lord.  Sarai still had a biological son and Isaac went on to be father the nation of Israel.  Sarai’s force of hand?  Well, this is what the Bible says about that, (vs. 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.”  

This is what as known as force of hand. Just like the cross threaded bolt, we force our will over God’s plan. We know what the Lord wants us to do, trust in Him and His timing, but this can also be the hardest part.  For example, staying at your job until the Lord moves you, staying single until the Lord brings the right man for you, keep grinding out the work until the Lord promotes you.  All this is easy to say at the beginning, but how about when we get to the place where we choose to force our hand over the Lord’s will? 

The Bible says in Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”  It is better to plant yourself by the streams of living water than to force the Lord’s will. Sometimes the best place to be is in the middle of the Lord’s will for your life even when things don’t seem to be going anywhere. 

Today be still and thank the Lord for His will for your life. Ask Him for help being still and trusting in the promises of the Word of God.  Our force of hand often creates more issues than it solves, but waiting on the Lord strengthens our faith in the creator.