Bible Story (Genesis Edition; Part I)

A Promise

The story continued when God met Abraham (again), and I imagined the possible scenario of that moment, comparing it to when I was catching up with an old friend; warm, delightful, even fun that they both laugh at each other. Abraham must've been tired through his long journey of life into the God's journey. Perhaps it's also the reason why Abraham asked to God, when did He will grant his covenant? When will he fulfill his promises? Well, God answered it in a very poetic & beautiful way; He asked Abraham to make a sacrifice first for him, and when Abraham slept (in a good, deep way), He woke him up and asked him to count the amount of stars and sands. It was his promise and will be fulfill to Abraham. Then, Abraham believed in Him again.

This is an interesting part, if we consider this chapter; Abraham's faithfulness started from a simple task by God, that will eventually turned him into a better version of himself, so when Abraham was questioning about the covenant, I think he had become a new guy, not like the old 'Abram', but the new 'Abraham'; stronger, smarter, braver, and above all, more faithful. Although it's still not an easy job to believe in God, Abraham had gone through a tough life, so that it made his faith grow & robust.

Then there was this problem, after Abraham had been convinced to God that he will became a great man & will have lots of kids, his wife has grown worry and anxious about her fertility; she wasn't young anymore and still wanted to help Abraham fulfill his desire and God's will. Perhaps that's why she sent Hagar, her slave to sleep with Abraham, not because of her anxiety that drove her (or perhaps it's true), but because of her active work to help Abraham, so that he could became 'The Father of A Nation'.

But it went bad, especially after Hagar had pregnant. Hagar look down upon her mistress and that's a common respond in an ancient world, where female's success was determined by her fertility & pregnancy, women that couldn't get pregnant were underappreciated in any level. It's possible the reason why Sarah treated her so bad at the end of the story. She can't stand to be underestimated by her own slave and there's a misunderstanding about it. Probably she thought that her way to fulfill his husband's purpose was not as good as she thought, and if she really appreciated Abraham's authority, she wouldn't mind about Hagar's treatment to her and took care of it, gently.

And it was surprising to see that Hagar was being a faithful maid by returning to Abraham & Sara, after she ran away to escape the tyrannical Sarah. She was convinced by angels to return to her master and mistress, so that she will receive a blessing from God. Although it's sounded like an impure faith, for seeing blessing as a profit to gain, perhaps she had also learnt to be faithful just like her master did with God. And her name will always be remembered by the Ishmael descendants, as it became a great nation as well. So, one way and another, God eventually fulfil His promise, right?

The story of Abraham so far, reminded us again about a journey of man's life. It's possible that we still confused with our live, that we don't know about our purpose & calling unto this world, but what I learned from Abraham is that he's a great man that started out small and simple, by being faithful to God, and faithful in my definition means, to dare seek for a good cause and a meaningful purpose, even though we're sacrificing a personal pleasure & happiness.

Being happy is great and we need it in our life, but Abraham never chose happiness in the first place as his moral compass; he chose what's right & meaningful. Abraham chose to go to Canaan (where he unaware and don't know anything about that land), than to stay at home with his family, his neighbor, and the culture that he familiar with. That's a great decision, right? Imagine that Abraham chose to stay at home, it would unlikely that God will found another guy and we would never know about Abraham.

To follow God's orders and his will is hard and took a lot of effort & energy to deal with it. But eventually, happiness & pleasure will come unto themselves, just as they cometh to Abraham. This kind of lessons had been missed out for our generation that will often pick our own pleasure than our personal responsibility. If we decide to make happiness, our ultimate purpose in life, it's nearly vague and absurd, because first thing is, we don't know what makes us happy and the second thing, is we don't know who we need to make happy; is it ourselves this second? Or this day? Or this month? This year? We can't figure that out, can we?

Responsibility was never a fun thing to do, but always worth doing. It might not be pleasantly for us, but it'll always be useful and meaningful to us, perhaps not our present self, but to our future self. Abraham chose to be good & responsible than to be happy, and it end up with a great journey and surprising adventure; Travel to Egypt, Met the Pharaoh, lied to his wife, became rich, fight kings, and save his nephew! Abram (Noble Father) has changed into Abraham (The Father of Many).

Then, what's next? Yup, finally God gave Abraham, a son. But there was a problem with it! Let's talk about it, next time!