Get Rid Of Her, Genesis 21:8-12

Get Rid Of Her

Genesis 21:10 and she said to Abraham, "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac."

This recorded event seems cruel. Here is a woman with a son of around 15 years old who obeyed her mistress and had a son to her mistress's husband. For all these years since she has remained subject to her mistress and her son was treated as part of the family. But now, when the mistress has a child of her own, they want to cast her out, the slave woman and her son. How is this fair? ... We will do a blog on this tomorrow...

As I said, this act of getting rid of the son and his mother seems cruel, yet it plays as an important lesson into a spiritual truth. For the birth of Ishmael was an act of the flesh. Sarai said, look, I apparently can't  have a child and God promised you descendants, so the only logical thing to do is for you to have an heir through our slave woman. Abram agreed and a child was born. But, God said no, that is not what I had in mind. Wait for me and I will perform a work in you that only is possible through the my Spirit. And, he did. At the age of 90, barren Sarah conceived and had a child!

Do you see the correlation? Many times we work to fulfill what God has promised through our own efforts and it actually works. Well, at least it appears to. What it does is that it causes problems and evil takes root. God says get rid of your slavery to the flesh and live by the Spirit. If this sounds like I am stretching the application of this Scripture, I'm not. It is spelled out in Galatians 4:21 - 5:26.

K and A, you are to live as free women, not as slaves to sin. You know how I want you to live a holy life that matches up to the Word of God. You cannot do it on your own. You cannot do it by knowing the commands of God, then trying to do them. No, you must allow the Spirit to rid your life of natural desires that seem to logical in your mind. Then, set you mind on what the Spirit desires, then you will be able to fully please God as you walk with him (Romans 8:5).

~Dad