February 14 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Devotional

What Sarai and Abram did was perfectly proper. According to the prevailing moral code, the childless woman could offer her slave woman to her husband. Note that Sarai says: "Perhaps I can have children through her". It was an ancient form of adopting a child. Later this practice was taken up in the laws of Moses.

According to human insight and according to the rules of the existing order, this was the logical thing to do. Abram and Sarai had suffered long enough. The woman took the initiative, which was also quite proper. Everyone would have agreed that Abram and Sarai chose the right procedure.

But God had drawn this couple away from the sphere of human calculation and planning. Abram and Sarai had been placed on the highway of God's promise, and there they were to carry their cross by faith. God wanted them to stay on that highway and keep hoping in the promise. But with their adoption plan, they went onto the side road of their own solutions.

We do not judge them.

More than ten years of struggle lay behind this decision. Weren't those people entitled to some happiness?

In some Bible versions Sarai says, "Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from having children." Behold! Look and see for yourself. Faith is being certain of what we do not see (Heb. 11:1). But how can one always live by things we do not see? Look! Ten years and no children. We understand why Sarai faltered.

And Abram too lays down his burden. He leaves the highway of faith. Together they depart.

Of course this will lead to all kinds of trouble.

Why? Because living with God means that we carry our cross along the highway of faith toward the horizon of God's promise.

REFLECTIONS

In what areas of your life might you be tempted to "leave the highway of faith" and second-guess God?

Andrew Kuyvenhoven's Daylight, a modern devotional classic, was originally published by Paideia Press in 1977. This updated edition is copyright 2009 by Faith Alive Christian Resources. You can order a copy of this revised version of the book directly from the publisher.

A man of many accomplishments, Andrew Kuyvenhoven is probably best known for his contributions to Today (formerly The Family Altar), a widely-used monthly devotional booklet associated with the Back to God Hour. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations for this updated edition of Daylight are from the Holy Bible: Today's New International Version copyright 2001, 2005 by the International Bible Society.