Steward's Portion

I WANT GODLY SUBMISSION to be my first response in every situation so I spend a lot of time meditating on it.  God is pretty clear in Scripture that we don’t have a choice in the matter, but what should our motivation be?  Hagar was commanded by God to submit, just like you and I, so let’s see what motivated her to obey.

Submission is an obedience issue.  Whatever authority God has placed in your life, He has done so with the careful knowledge that it will be hard to submit to it!  Yet we are commanded by God to do it.  It is a biblical imperative, not a suggestion or something you do when all the external circumstances line up just right.   What that looks like in real life is that most of the time you should submit, it is the last thing on your mind.   Most often we think of submission in reference to a wife submitting to her husband, but let’s step outside that common example and look at another woman’s struggle: a slave named Hagar.

And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.  And Sarai Abram’s wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.   And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.  And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the LORD judge between me and thee.  But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face.  And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. And he said, Hagar, Sarai’s maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai.  And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands.  (Genesis 16:2-9, KJV)

Hagar was “given” to Abram as a slave wife to bear a child in Sarai’s place.   When Hagar discovers her pregnancy she suddenly realizes her change in rank from just another slave, to the future mother of Abram’s heir and she gets puffed up and begins to despise Sarai.   Until that point I think its safe to assume she was pretty submissive to authority since she was the one selected as the surrogate, and she obeyed.   But here we see an attitude shift, one I have been training myself to recognize and avoid as soon as possible.  Entitlement.

Women, beware!  Feeling something is owed to you, or that you deserve better always leads you down a wrong path.  Remember Paul’s admonition: “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves” (Philippians 2:3, KJV).  Hagar abandoned lowliness of mind and provoked Sarai to jealousy.  Sarai began to make her life miserable.  Hagar fled.  But here is where God steps in and confronts Hagar.  He sent an angel to tell her to return and submit.  It is interesting to note that the bible uses the same word for “dealt hardly with” in verse 6 as it does for “submit thyself” in verse 9.  God was not mincing words: going back meant returning to hardship. Nothing will have changed back home for Hagar and returning meant ongoing mistreatment.  Now, put yourself in Hagar’s shoes, does submitting sound like a good idea?  Do you suppose it is what she wanted to do?  What motivation does God offer her to return?  Blessing!  Let’s look what happens next:

And the angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.  And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.  (Genesis 16:10-11, KJV)

Hagar’s reward for obedience in submission will be a blessing for her son and his offspring.  A blessing surprisingly like the one promised to Abram!  God gives her son a name that means “God will hear.”   We know from continuing to read the story that she did return and stayed in submission to Sarai for many years until Sarai finally bore Isaac and drove out Hagar and Ishmael for good.   Even at that point God heard Hagar and intervened to save their lives with provision and promise.   Hagar must have lived a very difficult life during those years with Abram & Sarai, but she laid hold of the promised blessing through her obedience and submission.

So how does this apply to us today?   I am not advocating that women should remain with abusive husbands.  If you or your children are being abused you have every right (and indeed an obligation) to separate yourselves from harm.   Often, when we submit to the leadership above us, God is swift to move on our behalf and bring correction.  But in the case of Hagar, we see that sometimes God will specifically call you to submit to difficult circumstances, which will result in a blessing.  Jesus faced this kind of submission when He submitted to death on the cross.  He had asked His Father if there was any other way, but there wasn’t.  So we are told that for the joy set before Him, He endured the shame of a death on the cross.  (Heb 12:2)  Jesus had His eyes on the blessing He would receive:  a pure and spotless Bride and the right to be seated at the right hand of God in Glory.  Jesus didn’t feel entitled to something better, He fully trusted that God the Father had a perfect plan and submitted to it to obtain the promised blessing.  We, like Jesus, need to learn to take the focus off our selves.

I believe one of the hardest places a godly woman can find herself in is being married to an unbelieving husband.  (Singles pay heed: there is a reason God says its a no-no!)  I believe that like Hagar, God is directly commanding the wife to stay in the relationship (painful though it will be) and show godly submission.  Obeying God will always reap a blessing now and/or in heaven.   In fact, Paul alludes to the fact, that there is a slim chance part of that blessing might even be that your husband will come to the Lord.  (1 Corinthians 7:16)

Submission is a crucial part of our ongoing Christ-like transformation.   (If there was an “extreme makeover spiritual edition” I promise you it would deal with submission!) In all circumstances I believe biblical submission to be a win-win.  Either God corrects me because I am wrong (win), God intervenes and corrects the leadership I have submitted to (win) or God pronounces a blessing over me for my obedience (win).  Any opportunity that we are given to submit should be viewed as a stage upon which we openly display our love for God through our actions.  Jesus said it best: “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love” (John 15:10, KJV).