11. THE BENEFIT OF SHOWING RESPECT |
|
Have you ever been impatient and by doing something too soon you really messed things up? Sometimes if we are not patient we can really cause serious harm. Consider the following story adapted from a real event.
Once there was a construction company building a concrete structure just like the ones you see in your own neighborhood. Each day the construction workers would arrange the wood forms for the concrete to be poured into. There were a lot of wood supports (kereste) holding up that wood form because concrete is heavy and needs a lot of support before it sets up (sertleşmeden). After a floor of concrete is poured, the supports for that floor need to remain in place for a minimum of 28 days for the concrete to reach 98% of its maximum strength. If you remove the form supports early, the building could collapse because the concrete isn't strong enough.
According to this rule, the workers could build about three floors a month. This meant that at any one time, three floors needed to be supported while the concrete was curing. Perhaps you have driven by a construction site and seen the concrete floors being supported by a lot of wood or steel supports.
Well one day the workers were setting up the timbers for a new concrete floor. The boss of the crew, Irfan, said to one of his workers,
“Go down and get more timbers to make these form supports.”
The worker, Hafiz, went down and got some timbers. Can you guess where he got them? That’s right, he took them from a lower floor that was still curing. He didn’t bother or didn't know to go down and get unused ones from the ground level. Maybe, you have already figured out what happened.
Irfan, assuming Hafiz had gotten the supports from the ones on the ground level, ordered his men to prepare forms and supports for the next floor. So they made the forms, attached the supports and prepared the iron framework. Everything was looking good and the men were prepared to pour the concrete. But when that heavy, wet concrete began to settle into the forms, the unsupported floor below couldn’t hold it. The whole building came crashing down. What seemed like a quick solution turned into a big problem!
Yes, sometimes we have to wait and if we don’t wait it is a disaster. Unfortunately all of us, at least occasionally, look for quick solutions to our problems. We think that faster is better. But that is not always so. How would you relate to the man who took the timbers from the wrong place? Was it his fault or the fault of the boss? Hafiz was not trying to cause an accident. But he did the wrong thing and there were negative results.
There is a natural law in life called cause and effect. When you do something or make a decision, something happens. Usually, if we do something bad it has negative results. This is a reality we live with on a daily basis. But sometimes bad things happen because we didn't think through the problem or we made a hasty decision. Even though we didn't want the situation to end the way it did, it happened and we need to live with it, sometimes for the rest of our lives. But how does God behave toward us when we do the wrong thing or make a wrong decision? Fortunately for us, we can once again look at the life of Prophet Abram to get an answer! Do you remember when God promised Abram a son and that he and his descendants would be a blessing to the whole world? Well shortly after that Abram made a decision that had negative effects and he would have to live with that for the rest of his life. Let's pick up the story in Genesis chapter 16.
1 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, "See now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her." And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. 3Then Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. 4 So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, "My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The LORD judge between you and me.” 6 So Abram said to Sarai, "Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please." And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence.
When God created Adam and Eve He created one woman for one man. He blessed their union and told them to be fruitful and multiply. But after sin entered the world through Adam and Eve's disobedience, marrying and sleeping with multiple women became a common practice. But it must be emphasized that this behavior was directly linked to and a result of sin. God did not ordain it. So just because something is common does not mean it is good. To have the flu in Istanbul in the winter is common but it is not good. And perhaps photographs of scantily dressed women in the daily newspaper are common, but that doesn't mean they are good either.
Yes God shows us His plan of one wife for one man. He shows us the sacredness of the marriage relation and we have record in the scriptures of what happens when this wise arrangement is broken. There is bitterness and jealousy, something definitely not in God’s plan. Now let us return to Hagar who has to run from her mistress.
7 Now the Angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. 8 And He said, "Hagar, Sarai's maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?" She said, "I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai." 9 The Angel of the LORD said to her, "Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand." 10 Then the Angel of the LORD said to her, "I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude." 11 And the Angel of the LORD said to her: "Behold, you are with child, And you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, Because the LORD has heard your affliction. 12 He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man, And every man's hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren." 13 Then she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, "Have I also here seen Him who sees me" 14 Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; observe, it is between Kadesh and Bered. 15 So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
We notice something very special here. In spite of Abram and Sarai violating their marriage bond by bringing Hagar in as a mistress, God shows mercy to them all. It wasn’t Hagar’s fault, as a servant she was just doing what she was told. But Hagar was wrong when she began to despise or look down upon Sarai. God could have easily scolded each one of them for their sins and abandoned them. But He overlooked their impatience, pronounced a blessing upon Hagar, and said that her descendants would be innumerable. This story shows us that God deals with us like a faithful parent deals with a child.
There once was a woman who was going to make yogurt. She cooked the milk, wrapped the pot in a towel and set it aside to let the milk curdle.
“Let this sit here until morning” she told her young daughter.
The young girl wanted to please her mother by putting the yogurt in the refrigerator to cool down. But unfortunately, she did not wait long enough for the milk to become yogurt and when she moved the pot into the refrigerator the milk did not curd. When her mother saw the pot in the refrigerator just before bedtime, she said to her daughter,
“Look what you have done! I told you to leave the yogurt until morning, why didn't you listen to me?”
“I am sorry mother, I thought if I put it in the refrigerator it would cool quicker and make your job easier” the girl said.
The mother just smiled,
“O.K. my daughter, I forgive you. But just remember, some things require patience and time to work out. Yogurt is one of those things and you can't take short-cuts while making it.”
Sometimes, taking shortcuts doesn’t work out so well. And in the case of God’s promises, taking shortcuts always makes a mess that only He can clean up. Abram and Sarai became impatient and didn't want to wait for God to fulfill the promise in his own way and time. That impatience proved to be a mistake that brought extreme tension and unhappiness in the home. And yet God did not abandon His servants because of the mistakes they made. Isn’t that encouraging for you and me? Yes we too make mistakes in life. We too can be impatient and not wait for God’s promises to be fulfilled in the way He has designed. And we often suffer the results of that. But we can also know that as parents deal with their children in mercy so our God deals faithfully with us when we err.
Questions for Discussion:
1. God did not reprimand Abram for being impatient and trying to fulfill God's promise in his own way. Why not?
2. When the angel of the Lord addressed Hagar, why did He call her Sarai’s maid and not Abram’s wife?
3. Why did God tell Hagar what kind of person Ishmael would be?
4. Have you ever felt like you were trying to do something for yourself that you should really be letting God do for you? What was it? Selecting a spouse maybe?
Once there was a construction company building a concrete structure just like the ones you see in your own neighborhood. Each day the construction workers would arrange the wood forms for the concrete to be poured into. There were a lot of wood supports (kereste) holding up that wood form because concrete is heavy and needs a lot of support before it sets up (sertleşmeden). After a floor of concrete is poured, the supports for that floor need to remain in place for a minimum of 28 days for the concrete to reach 98% of its maximum strength. If you remove the form supports early, the building could collapse because the concrete isn't strong enough.
According to this rule, the workers could build about three floors a month. This meant that at any one time, three floors needed to be supported while the concrete was curing. Perhaps you have driven by a construction site and seen the concrete floors being supported by a lot of wood or steel supports.
Well one day the workers were setting up the timbers for a new concrete floor. The boss of the crew, Irfan, said to one of his workers,
“Go down and get more timbers to make these form supports.”
The worker, Hafiz, went down and got some timbers. Can you guess where he got them? That’s right, he took them from a lower floor that was still curing. He didn’t bother or didn't know to go down and get unused ones from the ground level. Maybe, you have already figured out what happened.
Irfan, assuming Hafiz had gotten the supports from the ones on the ground level, ordered his men to prepare forms and supports for the next floor. So they made the forms, attached the supports and prepared the iron framework. Everything was looking good and the men were prepared to pour the concrete. But when that heavy, wet concrete began to settle into the forms, the unsupported floor below couldn’t hold it. The whole building came crashing down. What seemed like a quick solution turned into a big problem!
Yes, sometimes we have to wait and if we don’t wait it is a disaster. Unfortunately all of us, at least occasionally, look for quick solutions to our problems. We think that faster is better. But that is not always so. How would you relate to the man who took the timbers from the wrong place? Was it his fault or the fault of the boss? Hafiz was not trying to cause an accident. But he did the wrong thing and there were negative results.
There is a natural law in life called cause and effect. When you do something or make a decision, something happens. Usually, if we do something bad it has negative results. This is a reality we live with on a daily basis. But sometimes bad things happen because we didn't think through the problem or we made a hasty decision. Even though we didn't want the situation to end the way it did, it happened and we need to live with it, sometimes for the rest of our lives. But how does God behave toward us when we do the wrong thing or make a wrong decision? Fortunately for us, we can once again look at the life of Prophet Abram to get an answer! Do you remember when God promised Abram a son and that he and his descendants would be a blessing to the whole world? Well shortly after that Abram made a decision that had negative effects and he would have to live with that for the rest of his life. Let's pick up the story in Genesis chapter 16.
1 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, "See now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her." And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. 3Then Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. 4 So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, "My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The LORD judge between you and me.” 6 So Abram said to Sarai, "Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please." And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence.
When God created Adam and Eve He created one woman for one man. He blessed their union and told them to be fruitful and multiply. But after sin entered the world through Adam and Eve's disobedience, marrying and sleeping with multiple women became a common practice. But it must be emphasized that this behavior was directly linked to and a result of sin. God did not ordain it. So just because something is common does not mean it is good. To have the flu in Istanbul in the winter is common but it is not good. And perhaps photographs of scantily dressed women in the daily newspaper are common, but that doesn't mean they are good either.
Yes God shows us His plan of one wife for one man. He shows us the sacredness of the marriage relation and we have record in the scriptures of what happens when this wise arrangement is broken. There is bitterness and jealousy, something definitely not in God’s plan. Now let us return to Hagar who has to run from her mistress.
7 Now the Angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. 8 And He said, "Hagar, Sarai's maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?" She said, "I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai." 9 The Angel of the LORD said to her, "Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand." 10 Then the Angel of the LORD said to her, "I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude." 11 And the Angel of the LORD said to her: "Behold, you are with child, And you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, Because the LORD has heard your affliction. 12 He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man, And every man's hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren." 13 Then she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, "Have I also here seen Him who sees me" 14 Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; observe, it is between Kadesh and Bered. 15 So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
We notice something very special here. In spite of Abram and Sarai violating their marriage bond by bringing Hagar in as a mistress, God shows mercy to them all. It wasn’t Hagar’s fault, as a servant she was just doing what she was told. But Hagar was wrong when she began to despise or look down upon Sarai. God could have easily scolded each one of them for their sins and abandoned them. But He overlooked their impatience, pronounced a blessing upon Hagar, and said that her descendants would be innumerable. This story shows us that God deals with us like a faithful parent deals with a child.
There once was a woman who was going to make yogurt. She cooked the milk, wrapped the pot in a towel and set it aside to let the milk curdle.
“Let this sit here until morning” she told her young daughter.
The young girl wanted to please her mother by putting the yogurt in the refrigerator to cool down. But unfortunately, she did not wait long enough for the milk to become yogurt and when she moved the pot into the refrigerator the milk did not curd. When her mother saw the pot in the refrigerator just before bedtime, she said to her daughter,
“Look what you have done! I told you to leave the yogurt until morning, why didn't you listen to me?”
“I am sorry mother, I thought if I put it in the refrigerator it would cool quicker and make your job easier” the girl said.
The mother just smiled,
“O.K. my daughter, I forgive you. But just remember, some things require patience and time to work out. Yogurt is one of those things and you can't take short-cuts while making it.”
Sometimes, taking shortcuts doesn’t work out so well. And in the case of God’s promises, taking shortcuts always makes a mess that only He can clean up. Abram and Sarai became impatient and didn't want to wait for God to fulfill the promise in his own way and time. That impatience proved to be a mistake that brought extreme tension and unhappiness in the home. And yet God did not abandon His servants because of the mistakes they made. Isn’t that encouraging for you and me? Yes we too make mistakes in life. We too can be impatient and not wait for God’s promises to be fulfilled in the way He has designed. And we often suffer the results of that. But we can also know that as parents deal with their children in mercy so our God deals faithfully with us when we err.
Questions for Discussion:
1. God did not reprimand Abram for being impatient and trying to fulfill God's promise in his own way. Why not?
2. When the angel of the Lord addressed Hagar, why did He call her Sarai’s maid and not Abram’s wife?
3. Why did God tell Hagar what kind of person Ishmael would be?
4. Have you ever felt like you were trying to do something for yourself that you should really be letting God do for you? What was it? Selecting a spouse maybe?