“GOD ISN’T THE ENEMY OF YOUR ENEMY”

GENESIS 21:8-21

8  The child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

9  But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac.

10  So she said to Abraham, "Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac."

11  The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son.

12  But God said to Abraham, "Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you.

13  As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring."

14  So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.

15  When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes.

16  Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, "Do not let me look on the death of the child." And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept.

17  And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, "What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.

18  Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him."

19  Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.

20  God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow.

21  He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

Sarah was an angry woman.  Just ask Hagar.  Because of Sarah, Hagar found herself out in the middle of that miserable desert; out of luck, out of water and out of hope.

It all started shortly after Isaac was born. Now, Isaac was Sarah’s miracle baby.  So, she should have been elated, excited, exuberant. But she wasn’t.  Instead she felt threatened by Hagar and her son Ishmael. So, she went to her husband Abraham and gave him an ultimatum.  “It’s either her or me.  This tent isn’t big enough for the both of us.”

Poor Abraham quickly realized he was dealing with a difficult and demanding wife. He probably felt a little like the elderly minister who was surprised one day by his wife.  It all started when the he found a box in their barn. The box had three eggs and 100 single dollar bills in it. When he asked his wife about it she admitted that she’d been hiding it from him for the last 30 years. “Why?” the elderly minister asked.  “Because I didn’t want to hurt your feelings,” she said.  Now the elderly minister was confused. “How could a box with three eggs and 100 dollar bills in it hurt my feelings?” he asked. “Well,” the wife explained, “every time you preached a bad sermon I put an egg in the box.” The elderly minister thought about it for a moment and decided that three bad sermons in thirty years of marriage wasn’t all that bad. “Okay,” he said, “what about the $100 single dollar bills?” “Oh,” the wife stammered. “Each time I got a dozen eggs in the box, I sold them to the neighbors for $1.”

Like that elderly minister, Abraham had a difficult wife on his hands. So, after listening to Sarah complain, and complain and complain Abraham gave her what she wanted. He sent Hagar away. He sent Hagar out into the miserable desert. All of that, because Sarah’s insecurities filled her with all that anger and animosity.

Now we need to be clear about one thing right now. Anger isn’t always bad. In fact, there are several instances where Jesus got angry. Sometimes though, your anger gets the best of you.  That’s what happened to Sarah. You see, there was no reason in the world for her to be angry. Hagar wasn’t a threat to her. After all, Hagar was a slave. She didn’t have any pull or power.  Besides, God had already promised Abraham and Sarah that Isaac was the son who was going to make of them a great nation. Why would Sarah doubt that promise when the birth of Isaac, in and of itself, was a miracle from God?

Sarah doubted because all that anger poisoned her mind. She made assumptions that had no basis in reality. She made demands that put the life of an innocent child in danger.  Her anger got the best of her and by acting out the way she did, Sarah planted the seeds for a feud that is still going on today.  That’s right. All the conflict in the Middle East right now began on that fateful day when Sarah told Abraham to get rid of Hagar.  You see, Arabs today trace their ancestry back to Abraham through Ishmael and the Jews trace their ancestry back to Abraham through Isaac.

So, anger can be a dangerous thing. Now conventional wisdom says that you should count to ten when you’re angry. The next time you’re angry though, I’m going to suggest that you count to one and repeat this simple saying. God isn’t the enemy of my enemy. God isn’t the enemy of my enemy.

Keep saying it because it’s true. God isn’t the enemy of your enemy. In fact, God doesn’t hate your enemy at all. God loves your enemy. Just look at what happened after Abraham sent Hagar out into that miserable desert.

God didn’t let Hagar and Ishmael perish from the face of the earth.  That may have been what Sarah wanted, but God had something very different in mind for Hagar and Ishmael.  Do you remember what God said to Hagar when she raised her hands to the heavens and cried out in her agony? Hagar wanted their deaths be quick and painless.  Instead of answering that prayer though God made Hagar a promise. It was a promise that was very similar to the promise that God made to Abraham and Sarah.

“Do not be afraid,” God said. “Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.”

Now that promise would have made Sarah furious. You see when you’re really angry that’s not the kind of God that you want.  You want a God who’s going to back you up; a God who’s going to really let your enemies have it.  What you really want is the kind of God that Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner talked about in one of their comedy routines. In the routine Brooks plays a 2013 year old man who is being interviewed by Reiner. At one point Reiner asks him about his faith. “Did you always believe in the Lord?” “No,” Brooks replies. “We had a guy in our village named Phil, and for a time we worshiped him.” “You worshiped a guy named Phil? Why?” “Because,” Brooks replies, “he was big, and mean and he could break you in two with his bare hands!” “Did you have prayers?” “Yes,” Brooks says. “Would you like to hear one?  O Phil, please don’t be mean, and hurt us, or break us in two with your bare hands.”  “So, when did you start worshiping the Lord?” “Well,” Brooks says, “one day a big thunderstorm came up, and a lightening bolt hit Phil.  We gathered around and saw that he was dead. Then we said to one another. ‘There’s somethin’ bigger than Phil!’”

That’s the kind of God you want when you’re angry.  You want a God who’s really going to let your enemy have it. That’s the kind of God Sarah wanted.  God, however, isn’t the enemy of your enemy. That’s the way it’s always been and that’s the way it always will be. You can see it from one end of the Scriptures to the other.  When Joseph’s brothers sold him as a slave to get rid of him, God turned that terrible injustice into a blessing.  Eventually, Joseph became an important advisor to the king of Egypt.  In fact, when Joseph was reunited with his brothers many years later, he said “you meant it for evil, but God used it for good.”  In that moment, the brothers learned that God isn’t the enemy of your enemy.  Then there’s Judas.  Did you ever wonder why Jesus let Judas sit down at the table with the other disciples and him for the Last Supper?  Jesus already knew that Judas was going to betray him.  So, why let him be there and spoil that very special meal?  Because Jesus knew that God isn’t the enemy of your enemy.

God isn’t the enemy of your enemy either. It doesn’t matter what that person did or what you think that person may have done. It doesn’t matter if that person hurt you accidentally or deliberately went out of his or her way to make you miserable.  God isn’t the enemy of your enemy.

When you realize that, it makes you less likely to do or say something that you’ll later regret. It makes you less like to do or say something that will make a bad situation worse.

Former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall used to tell a story about two sisters.  Unfortunately, the sisters stopped talking to each other one day after they had a bitter fight. Even though they lived in the same house they refused to have anything to do with each other.  They even divided the various rooms in half.  Neither one was willing to give in because each was convinced that the other one was to blame for the feud.  Then one night one of the sisters got up and fell breaking her hip. The other sister heard her screaming in pain and ran to her side.  She then called for an ambulance and held her sister until it arrived. In those few moments the sisters’ love for each other overcame their anger toward each other.  After sharing this story Marshall would always end by saying, “The legal system can force open doors, and sometimes even knock down walls, but it cannot build bridges. That job belongs to you and me.”

Those bridges can only be built when you count to one and remember that God isn’t the enemy of your enemy. It’s too bad Sarah didn’t do that. Things in that troubled part of the world might be a little different if she had.   Amen.

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes                                                                            June 19, 2005