Episode 170: When God’s Timing Feels Too Slow (Genesis 16 Study)

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Today Counts Show Episode 170

Preview

Jim Piper Jr: Again, bringing back the culture, Hagar is property of these. So just give a little bit more background. And as being taken as a wife, she was now elevated to a “Wife”. And we’re going to get into this in a second. But the laws that they did have in that community of that day is for whatever reason, if they wanted to demote her out of the marriage back into a concubine kind of a role, they–

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Winston Harris: Hey, before we jump into today’s episode, we want to thank all our donors and supporters who make The Today Counts Show possible. It’s through your generosity that we’re able to shape leaders through this content and this podcast. Be sure to like, subscribe, and follow wherever you find yourself coming across this content. Alright, let’s get to the podcast.

Introduction & Genesis 16

Jim Piper Jr: Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Today Counts Show. Today I have with me Gary Harpst, who is part of what’s called the Genesis Project. Before I dive too quickly, let me just recap. The Today Counts show is a podcast that discusses life and leadership. And we have a project going on called the Genesis Project, where we are pulling out life and leadership principles out of the Old Testament, the first book in the Bible called Genesis and there is so much there to pull on.

Today, we’re going to be looking at Genesis 16. I guess, Gary, the way that I would describe it is every chapter in Genesis is important. But this is kind of like a flagship chapter in that it kind of begins to explain why we have so much tension in the Middle East and around the world. Certainly not the only reason, but kind of the main reason maybe or the genesis, if you will, of that. So that’s going to be interesting.

Personal Reflections and Recent Travel Experience

I also want to tell you Gary that we were in your neck of the woods a couple weeks ago. My wife and I Rhonda flew into Cincinnati and we met another couple friend of ours. We went to the Creation Museum and to the Ark Encounter. I have to say that– And we did some other festivities. I have to say I was not prepared for information overload. Wow, what an experience that is. So if anyone’s a seeker or a believer that wants to strengthen their faith, it’s worth the trip. Going in the spring, of course, it was just as beautiful as ever. Green, green, green.

We also stopped and had a late lunch. Maybe we can call it a linner on our way to the Creation Museum. I forget the name of the little town, but a little town in Indiana. And man, was that really neat. It kind of reminded me of Mayberry, the Andy Griffith Show. It was a little town. Friday Night Football, I’m sure, is the main event. And that place was clean as a whistle. People were so polite, not so much like the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles where I’m from, or San Diego where I’m from, or Denver where I’m from, or San Antonio, where I’m from. So it was really good. But I wanted to tell you about that.

Gary’s Response and Shared Insights

Gary Harpst: That trip down there is kind of do it two different ways. You either go down and spend several days or if you’re on a short schedule, about all you can do is have a quick overview and even in a day, you just basically walk through it as fast as you can.

Jim Piper Jr: Yeah, I use my camera to take a picture of every exhibit. I don’t know that I’m ever going to have the time to go through it. But I did notice in their bookstore, they had some summary materials that you can purchase and of course, now buy online. So I might do that. There’s some really good stuff there. But I wanted to tell you that because you were kind of my travel agent. Told me where to fly into.

Gary Harpst: You are too far away, a couple hours away. Well, next time we’ll have to try to hook up.

Leadership Lessons from Genesis 16

Jim Piper Jr: Yeah, yeah, that would be that’d be great. And I think we’ll be back. I’ve got relatives in the area. So we need to do that. Hey, so before we start Genesis 16, everybody, there’s some leadership lessons that I want to highlight before we even get into the text. Because I think it might wet your whistle, it might give you that curiosity to stick with us here in Genesis 16.

So I wrote down six. And I shared these with Gary, as well as Matt and, and Winston. Winston nor Matt couldn’t be with us this time. The first one I wrote down is take responsibility for decisions. That means really kind of owning our decisions, realizing that we have a voice and we can give our voice away if we don’t think through it. The second one I wrote down is avoid acting out of impatience. I am putting these spiritual lessons in modern day terms. But we’ll get to read the ins and the outs of what God is teaching here in Genesis 16. But avoid acting out of impatience. That’s a big one. That’s going to come out.

Number three, treat subordinates with fairness and respect. You know, some of these things just seems to be as plain as the nose on my face. But apparently, that’s not always the case. Number four, listen to and protect the vulnerable. Number five, seek divine or higher guidance in times of conflict. And number six, which is similar to the first one, take responsibility for decisions. But this one is post decision making, acknowledge and learn from mistakes.

Gary, anything you want to say about those before we turn the page to Genesis?

Gary Harpst: Well, yeah, I’m just amazed at how fundamental this Genesis project has been on leadership lessons. So I think it’s better to dig in, but I think we’ll see how those things you recapped jump right out as you read through this.

Cultural Context of Genesis 16

Jim Piper Jr: Let’s do it. I’m going to read the first three verses and pause there. This is entitled the birth of Ishmael. This is Genesis 16. It says now, Sarai, Abram’s wife had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, ‘The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.’ And Abram agreed with Sarah’s proposal. So Sarah Abrams wife took Hagar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife. This happened 10 years after Abram had settled in the land of promise that is the land of Canaan.”

Let’s pause there for a minute because there’s a lot right here. I guess for the modern-day reader, we might go, “God, this is like really weird.” At face value, it’s really not that weird for that day, where your wife, if you were a man of stature, so to speak, and your wife would have maid servants. It wasn’t odd that a woman would be barren, would not be able to have kids. And it wasn’t odd that the man would take for himself that servant as a wife and possibly have a child. Then that child would become his and, get this, his original wife’s child.

Now, that doesn’t mean just because it’s in the Bible, and just because it seems to be that God is standing by, we know from Scripture that this isn’t God’s way. It wasn’t his way then and it’s not his way today. But it shows you how powerful culture can be. So I just want to throw that out there before, Gary, you make any comments on what you’ve seen here.

Community and God’s Design

Gary Harpst: Well, I think you’re touching on something that is a theme throughout the Bible that the power of community. If you think about that tribal culture back then, the ability to survive even was rooted in having a like-minded community that were under one governance, under one head. And so having more children actually made the community bigger and stronger but they were under one tribe. You see that in the idea of having multiple wives because you grow have more children faster. But really that idea of community is all through scripture. I mean, even the New Testament were baptized into the body of Christ. Community is such a central part of what God is doing.

By the way, when I read these three verses, the first thing came to mind with Sarah was how back when the angel appeared and told them they were going to have a child, how she laughed, you know. I don’t remember the timeline, how much time has passed. She was old even then, right? I think if my memory serves that it was still like many years, more than 10 years from that, even that promise. And she was old then. We read that God loves us or He promises something, and yet, as time goes on, we just get weak in our belief. So, I can relate to what she’s feeling right here.

Discussion on Impatience and Blame

Jim Piper Jr: I think anybody who’s being honest would have to say the same thing. When have we demonstrated impatience in our life, we may not have spiritualized it, right? But when have we used credit to get something we wanted that we really didn’t need? You know, as an example, when did we try to fix something that really probably wasn’t any of our business? We’re just impatient. We’re just we’re guilty of that. And Sarai is the instigator here to solve this problem.

Yeah, I’m glad that you referred to the previous text, because if I recall Sarah is kind of eavesdropping. When he hears about the promise of them having a child, she laughs.

Gary Harpst: Then she denied she laughed.

Jim Piper Jr: Yeah, then she denies it.

Gary Harpst: “I didn’t laugh.” Yes, you did.

Jim Piper Jr: In my imagination, I see her trying to cover her mouth, but it was too late. The noise came out and she laughed, thinking it was funny. And of course, she–

Mutual Accountability in Leadership and Marriage

Gary Harpst:  Also in this passage, there’s this complicitness of, okay, Sarah is the one initiated this, but her husband could have said no. Rhonda and I, we’re a team. You and I both have Rhonda’s. We’re a team and we’re better when we don’t both cave in at the same time on the same thing. So, it’s not all Sarah here.

Jim Piper Jr: No, it’s not. And when we do, when Rhonda is caving and I try to reel her back or I’m caving and she’s trying to reel me back, it does often create conflict because one of us are going down the river, so to speak. But in the end, many times we go, “Wow, you were right.” That kind of goes back to your community comments. It goes back to what we’ve talked a lot about before, accountability. The context of accountability is ownership. In this case, we could say if they both owned living right, doing right, honoring God then they would have been open to a discussion, a debate, if you will.

The way the scriptures lay this out, it seems that Abraham didn’t put up much of a fight. Which is interesting because you know, we are going to beat up on both of these people because the text says so, right? I mean, it’s pretty clear. But we just left a chapter where Abram was a hero and showed incredible courage and generosity and honor of God. And then of course, the chapter before that was the mistakes in Egypt. But then the chapter before that he believed God and so let’s just weave in the fact that we might be doing some commentary criticizing these leaders, but we’re also acknowledging that they’ve did some good stuff. It’s a lot like all of us. We have–

Gary Harpst: So true.

Temperament, Timing, and Spiritual Leadership

Jim Piper Jr: But we shouldn’t change the story, right? The story is what the story is. Again, bringing back the culture. Hagar is property of the– So just give a little bit more background. And as being taken as a wife, she was now elevated to a wife. And we’re going to get into this in a second. But the laws that they did have in that community of that day is for whatever reason, if they wanted to demote her out of the marriage back into a concubine kind of a role, they could.

Again, not that God would approve of it. So just because man writes laws, and we might be doing something that is “legal”, it doesn’t mean that it’s godly. And it certainly doesn’t mean that it’s good leadership. So one of the things that I thought of, I don’t know how much you study temperament, Gary, but from what I have seen, and read of Sarai, I think she if we use the MBTI, the Meyer Briggs, I’m seeing her as a guardian because impatience is at the height of many guardian temperaments. And they’re also fixers. They like to fix stuff right away.

My wife is a guardian, we tease all the time. And I say, “Let’s look at our watch. Yeah, the time is now.” She wants to go after things now. So I like that. A guardian, her intentions, a guardian often gets in front of right timing. But the intention is to serve, the intention is to fix, the intention is to guard. It is to protect. It is those kinds of things. So we see that as good as humaneness can be. When faith isn’t leading our temperament, our temperament leads us and not the Spirit of God that can lead us. Just throwing that out there.

The Consequences of Sarai’s and Abram’s Actions

Verse 4 and 5, continue this part, it says, “Abram had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. But when Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress Sarai with contempt. Then Sarai said to Abram, ‘This is all your fault.'” So first she blames God earlier. She says, “The Lord has prevented me from having children.” That was in the first part of verse two.

Blame, Ownership, and God’s Sovereignty

I always think that’s interesting when we blame God for stuff that happens in our life. And I can understand it logically, because if God is all powerful, then His passive will, maybe, why did He let this happen? Or did He actually do it? Did He make a conscious decision to do it? Did he make a conscious decision to let it happen? Is he not connected? But that’s a very narrow view of God’s design and God’s creation. It’s a very low elevation view. But you know, not like I’ve never thought that, Sarai. Sarai, you can join our conversation. We get it, but we’re wrong when we think that way.

So not only was it God’s fault that she wasn’t having children, now it is Abram’s fault that she is being mistreated by Hagar. In a sense, it’s true, because, Gary, you pointed out that Abram didn’t have to go along with this, and so in doing that, as the head of this tribe, he was a co-conspirator, at least. And it says, “This all your fault. I put my servant into your arms. But now that she’s pregnant, she treats me with contempt. The Lord will show who’s wrong. You or me.” In the Hebrew, the idea here is, you must take all of my pain, you must take all of my punishment. I push this on you.

Gary’s Reflection on Human Desire and Identity

Gary Harpst: Yeah, this may be not center to the drama here, but there’s something about, I just look at the almost insane things people do related to their deepest desires. As a designer, as an engineer, I say, “Well, why is this behaving this way?” What is it going on between Sarah and Hagar? Back in Genesis, it says, Genesis 1, that God designed us to have dominion and to do that, but we had to multiply. If you look at the root cause of most of our misbehavior, they are rooted in God designed us to multiply, which is a sexual, not just sexual, but it’s a desire to reproduce.

Man, I don’t think we can even understand the depth of a woman’s identity wrapped in the ability to have a child. Some are called or denied that. Some are called not to, but for somebody who wants it, it’s a desire that’s just almost beyond reason or ration. And I would say the reverse for men. I remember, I won’t use the name, but one of the most wealthiest people in the world, male, was caught sending pictures of his private parts somewhere else.

And I’m just thinking, well, we know this guy’s smart. We know he’s intelligent. What kind of desire overwhelms all of his reason of, he happened to be in a technical field, so he knows those pictures are kept online.” You know, it’s just not a reasonable thing to do. And yet we’re all, me, you, whatever, there are cases where our desires just kind of overwhelm all reasons.

And so you’ve got this dynamic going on here. The deepest desire of all is to have children. And all of sudden one has children or has a child and the other one doesn’t. I honestly don’t know how much of the contempt was Sarah’s or Hagar’s behavior or was Sarah’s jealousy. It’s not really clear, but both things probably exist.

Jim’s Personal Story and Cultural Insight

Jim Piper Jr: I would imagine. Yesterday, I went to one of my grandson’s, I guess it’s called, they don’t call it graduation anymore, but graduation from kindergarten. Then the other grandson was graduating from I think that’d be fifth grade. They asked all of the kids what they want to do or who they want to be when they grow up. So they do a little slideshow of what they did.

As you can imagine, you had just about everything in there. You had astronaut, professional athlete. I mean, just about anything you can think of. But there was two that made us chuckle. Of all of these professions and lofty ideas, one said, “I want to be a mom.” That got this big old positive, dear moan among the crowd. It was kind of a precious moment. The other one that I thought was hilarious. I thought this kid could be a comedian. He said he wants to be alive.

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The Angel of the Lord Appears to Hagar

Jim Piper Jr: Yeah, I think also to it, probably the status, right? Lots of status. I think to your point, there is a deep engineering sense of identity, sense of purpose, sense of significance, we can continue to add to the synonyms. But that had to be at the center of it all. And then there’s that concedes to some sort of competition, bitterness, regret, what have you.

It’s interesting though, because Ishmael was as much Hagar’s– I’m sorry. As much as it was Sarai’s as Hagar, you know, legally speaking. I think Hagar was probably a pretty tough, a pretty strong person as well. There was probably that psychological high ground that she had, being that she’s the one that was able to bear a child. Imagine Sarai coming to Abram and saying that to him. He obviously didn’t know what to do because that’s what the next verse is about.

In verse 6, Abram replied, “‘Look. Look, lady.'” It doesn’t say “lady”, folks. But Abraham replied, “‘Look, she is your servant.'” Interesting. “‘So deal with her as you see fit, which was lawful.’ Then Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she,” Hagar that is, “finally ran away. The angel of the Lord,” and notice, Gary, in verse seven, it says “the angel of the Lord. ” So I believe it’s pretty clear that this is the same Lord that was walking in the garden. This is the pre incarnate Christ.

Encounter at the Spring: Divine Intervention

It doesn’t say “an angel,” it doesn’t say “an angel of the Lord.” It says, “the angel of the Lord found Hagar beside a spring of water in the wilderness along the road to Shir. The angel said to her, ‘Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where have you come from and where are you going?’ ‘I’m running away from my mistress, Sarai,’ she replied. The angel of the Lord said to her, ‘Return to your mistress and submit to her authority.'”

Then he added, folks, you need to put your seatbelt on because this is where something of massive history begins, not just in the birth of Ishmael, but in this promise, this covenant from God to Hagar. “And then he added,” this is the angel of the Lord. “Then he added, ‘I will give you more descendants than you can count.'” So this is a similar covenant that God is making to Hagar that he made to Abraham, but notice something, it’s absent of something big, and that’s land. The covenant that was given to Abraham was descendants and land. This is a covenant of descendants with no mention of land. There’s much more to read on this. But I wanted to pause there for a minute.

Nomadic Prophecy and Arab Identity

Gary Harpst: And if you look at the sort of the one of the primary characteristics of the this genetic line, if you will, that Arab people, to this day, they’ve been more nomadic. They’ve been not land centered. You just think of the, well, later on, I think it’s Ishmael, this same idea is continued on. It says, “You guys are always gonna fight among yourself unless you have a common enemy and then you’ll unite.”

And that’s exactly what happens. They fight among themselves until there’s a greater enemy, which often could be Israel or someone else. Yeah, you’re right. This is so profound in the seeds that were planted in this very situation we’re seeing the fruit of today. It’s really, really amazing.

The Prophecy of Ishmael and Arab Nations

Jim Piper Jr: Gary, it gets deeper. Verse 11 says, “And the angel also said, ‘You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son.'” And see, verse 10, “Then he added, ‘I will give you more descendants than you can count.’ And the angel also said, ‘You are now pregnant, and will give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael, which means God hears for the Lord has heard your cry of distress. This son of yours will be a wild man as untamed as a wild donkey.'”

I believe this is referring to a desert donkey which looked more like a horse. It says, “He will raise his–” This is what you were referring to Gary. He, Ishmael and when we say Ishmael, that would be his people. “He will raise his fist against everyone, and everyone will be against him. Yes, he will live in oh open hostility against his relatives.” We will learn later—not in this chapter, but we will learn later that it appears that if you haven’t read between the lines, folks, what we’re talking about here is the Arab people, the Arab nations.

A Biblical View of the Middle East Conflict

And what happens down the road, which we will read about is that Ishmael will become known as the Ishmaelites, and they will have 12 tribes almost as a copy of the Israelites who had 12 tribes. Though Isaac and Ishmael were half brothers, these are nations at war and have been at war. So when we watch what’s going on in the Middle East and we form opinions without reading scripture, we’re pulling from a deficiency in information.

Gary Harpst: Yeah, that’s right. You know, you mentioned 12. You look at the significance of 12, it sort of is a symbolic of a nation. And so Israel had 12, but the church has 12. For whatever reason, God has chosen to use that symbol, if you will, of a nation or a people. You also notice the name here, Ishmael, and Israel.

Jim Piper Jr: Very good.

Gary Harpst: Yeah. You know, they’re very parallel. El in that language means God and one means to be, what does it say down? Mine says God hears. That’s what Ishmael is. And Israel is more in, you know what that means? I think it means more contention, if you will, or more–

Jim Piper Jr: Yeah, it does come from a root of contention.

The Grit of Drawing Near to God

Gary Harpst: Yeah. You think about Isaac. I mean, sometimes I think to be close to God and to grow in your knowledge of Him is a very gritty process because the closer you get to holiness, you are unpredictable when you kind of enter into that holiness. And I think that name Israel in the conflict is rooted in being in relationship to God. I’m not saying it very well, but you know, how can you get close to the pure and holy God and not have some consequences of that? And of course, Jesus at the cross bridged that but I don’t know. You know what I’m getting at, that being close to God is not, it’s holiness next to something that isn’t holy.

God’s Care for All People

Jim Piper Jr: Yeah, and I think where people in the West need to be careful when we make our judgments about good guys and bad guys in the Middle East, maybe we should stop for a minute and remember some things. One, I mean, you can help me, I’m going to do this at the top of my head. One is that in a human sense and even in a divine sense, Abraham is the father of both the Jewish nations and the Arab nations. He really is, and they both claim that, and that’s true.

Also notice that God met the Arab nations in the sense of its prince, Ishmael. His mother Hagar and Ishmael being in the womb and blessed them in the sense of becoming a massive people group. At the same time, he also says that they will have unique trouble. I don’t know if that is the result of Abram’s sin. I would lean that way more than God’s curse. It’s almost like God just calling it the way it is. So here’s going to be the result of this unfortunate situation.

Tender God

But what we do see here is a tender God who once again demonstrates that he cares about all people, all tribes, all tongues, everyone. And though we may have various opinions as to the actual dirt in the Middle East, and who has rights to it, one thing we have to be careful of as Christians from a biblical perspective, God has chosen all people. And that comes out clear. He’s given the opportunity for all people that have faith in him and to pursue him. Some will and some and some won’t. But this is kind of what I meant about sticking a flag and Genesis 16, because this is kind of where the world is divided in a pretty significant place.

Gary Harpst: Just one side comment here. It says, Ishmael, that name means God hears. To this day, culturally, there’s such a commitment of prayer by those people. What is it, four times, six times?

Jim Piper Jr.: Yeah, boy, I’m a little rushed in that but they’re definitely committed to prayer.

Gary Harpst: For that to have lasted this many generations is a real amazing testimony because they believe God hears them.

Intersecting Histories of Ishmael and Israel

Jim Piper Jr.: Yeah, yeah. In their blood is this contention. So that’s the other fact that you can’t argue it. I mean, you can argue if you want. But here we’re reading from ancient text that tells us how it’s going to be and that’s what we see. That is definitely what we see. I guess it’s also good to note, and we’re getting way ahead of us now. But in the story of Joseph, which we will get to, a powerful story. Man, that’s going to be a powerful story, Gary, when we get there. But when Joseph’s brothers gave Joseph up, he actually gave him up to traveling Ishmaelites. And so here again, we see this intersection of these nations, and not such good light.

And then to wrap up this chapter, we’re looking at verse 13, “Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord who had spoken to her. She said, ‘You are the God who sees me.’ That’s another testimony to God reaching out to all people, nations, tribes, tongues. She also said, ‘Have I truly seen the one who sees me?'” Like she’s just shaking her head. Wow. “Here I was cast out. Cast out.” And God comes to her.

So that well was named Beer lahai Roi, which means, well of the living one who sees me. It can still be found between Kadesh and Bered, Bered probably is how that should be pronounced. “So Hagar gave Abram a son and Abram named him Ishmael. Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born.”

A Leadership Missed Opportunity

Though Abram did not do this, hopefully he came around later, God stepped in for Abram and provided that voice, that comfort for Hagar, which really should have come from Abram.

And so God here, what we’ll call it the angel of the Lord here, to be more exact, although I shared my view, the angel of the Lord came and comforted somebody who in some ways probably deserved it. I mean we had we had a fight going on between these ladies. So I’m sure there was plenty of crime to go around pretty plenty of blame to go around, but to be cast out completely and to be thrown out to die. And Abraham allowed that to happen.

What’s the term? He dismissed the problem, and just gave it to Sarah to do what she would want. That is not what we want to be doing as leaders. We need to speak for those who can’t speak for themselves. You know, there’s a thing called grace and there’s a thing called mercy. And leaders would do well to pay attention to mercy. You know, sometimes people bring things on to themselves. But I’m not sure we’re called to compound the problem to pile on to the problem. How can we provide some service, some hope for the future.

The Importance of Submission and Accountability

Gary Harpst: There’s another leadership lesson in here that is probably one of the most challenging, I think for me personally, back up in verse nine. The good news is God sees her and speaks to her and cares for her, but his command is return and submit. And it’s not just return, it’s return and submit yourself to her authority. We think in life, boy, that’s just one of the hardest things there is. We want to judge, “Okay, I’ll submit to my boss if he’s right. I’ll submit to my boss if he’s good. ”

The Old and the New Testament don’t talk that way. I mean, what was it, Ephesians, I think Paul says, “If you’re a slave, remain as a slave. You can honor God.” In other words, you cannot use your profession or your situation as an excuse for not honoring God. There isn’t any condition you’re in where you can’t honor God. And that’s really foreign to my idea of authority, you know.

Service Beyond Convenience

Jim Piper Jr.: I’m going to join you in that. I wrote in my journal over the weekend. We were at an event over the weekend, it was a faith focused event with some leaders a small event. The topic was so convicting that I found myself writing two questions in my journal. One one question was, when is the last time you went out of your way to serve somebody in need? Then the other one was similar. What if you worked harder at adjusting your mindset to serving others? Similar question, but one was challenging my memory to–

You know, it’s one thing to serve somebody when it’s convenient, when it’s easy, but to serve somebody when it’s going to cost you something, that’s a different level of service. And then what is my general posture of serving? So I think that’s kind of related to what you were saying. If I’m going to go to work and I’m going to serve or am I going to be a Monday morning quarterback? Question everything that my boss has said or done or is leading us you know to do, not saying that we have to check our brains out and follow somebody over a cliff. But I think your point is well taken. And it’s a great place I think to end Genesis 16 as we journey to 17.

Stepping Into Conflict as a Leader

So folks, if you haven’t felt the heat, the heat is here it’s coming. We’re going to learn a ton more about leadership. But I think what I will tag on Gary is in verse nine, you referred to Hagar going back and submitting to somebody who probably didn’t deserve it to receive submission to receive service. But the other one that jumped out at me is the conflict between Hagar and Sarai and Abram did not step in. He probably didn’t step in because he didn’t want to step in, but he was also part of the problem.

And if you’re part of the problem, if you’re not the referee, but you’re a referee and you were part of the problem, that probably looks different. I think leaders are called to stepping into conflict, even if that conflict and maybe especially if that conflict were in part ours.

Leadership Beyond Comfort and Convenience

Gary Harpst: I couldn’t agree more. Whether it’s in the church or in the family, we happen to live in a culture now that– I mean, it’s always existed, but the idea of social media, it’s so easy to vent and have no responsibility for the venting. You just dump stuff. And so this sort of almost consumer mindset in our relationships, “Well, I’ll stay in marriage as long as it’s convenient. I’ll stay in my job as long as it’s convenient.” Fortunately, God calls us to a close relationship that goes beyond convenience.

Jim Piper Jr.: Boy, leadership requires humility. Gary, thank you so much for helping me today in Genesis 16.

Gary: Yeah, this is good. Thank you.

Outro

Winston Harris: Thank you for joining us here at The Today Counts Show. We got so much more planned for you so stay tuned and stay connected on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and subscribe on YouTube. Remember, today counts.
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