“Submit Yourself” (Gen 16:9)

“The Angel of the Lord said to her, Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand” (vs9).

We submit ourselves to the Lord Jesus, if we will be saved, and the gospel SUBMITS us to God. We are not saved apart from bowing the knee, even as Pharaoh gave command to everyone saying, “Bow the knee! So he set him over all the land of Egypt” (Gen 41:43). We surrender to Him as Boss, Lord, and Rule Maker for our lives.

God has counsel for us, even as He had for Hagar: “Submit yourself under her hand”.

Husbands, love your wife, “just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her” (Eph 5:25-28). This is submission to Christ. You do it because He loves you, because He commands, and because you can't be happy or saved in sinfulness. Wives, “submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord”, because He is the Savior of the body, the church (vs22-24). He died for you, and He commands, gives, and takes pleasure in your obedience.

Children, pastors, employees, employers, etc, are all TOLD what to do. John the Baptist, when approached by the crowd about what they should do, told them specific instructions according to their station in life. He said, “He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise”. Others came and he said, “Collect no more than what is appointed for you”, so that he taught according to station, and you have been placed in this world, in your body, in your situation and with your ability to honor God, and you're to use it abundantly by submission (Luke 3:10-14).

We obey in every station of life to find salvation. Hagar is weary, and God gives her, like you and I, weary and heavy laden with shame, the power to get out. He tells us clearly what must be done. Submit to His will.

Secondly, the promise is given to the weary. Ishmael never had Hagar's weariness, so he never had Hagar's God. Hagar had God's grace to see Him who sees her. She was afflicted and on the run, “feeling from the presence of [her] mistress”, when God told her to submit to her hand.

If she hadn't been weary, the command would have no power in her life. She left home because her PRIDE forced the issue and caused a repercussion, even as our sinfulness has brought us to misery, helplessness, and willingness to obey. Now, she hears “submit yourself”, and rather than saying, “I'm too good. I don't need God or you”, she now says by her obedience, “Amen. Your will be done. If this is the only way of peace, then THANKS, and I take it!” Our Lord Jesus says to the weary, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt 11:29).

Finally, only obedience can reveal the joy of the gospel. The Lord said, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God?” She went home at God's command, and things were as He promised. The child was born, she found refuge, and so shall we. He shows you His beauty AS you believe. She said, “Have I also seen Him who sees me?”

"The Will of God is Christ" (Curtis); "Prayer and Predestination" (Dietz)

The will of God in all things is to glorify his Son. Whatever temporal thing God takes from us or whatever sickness he lays upon us, he knows we have need of those things. But God withholds that for which our flesh lusts, turning our double-minds into a single ambition for Christ till our temporal need no longer makes up our petition before him. When he has brought us to truly realize that in spite of the job or the health or the financial help we lack, it is CHRIST WE MUST HAVE then we have reached the end purpose for which God gave the trial. When our prayer is for Christ then our prayer is according to God's will. 

As he fills our hearts with a fresh, joyful view of our Redeemer we wonder why we ever felt so stricken by the lack of those earthly needs when the King of heaven and earth, who shed his blood to buy us to himself, does only that which is best for us. He shall never leave us nor forsake us, and how thankful we are to him that he will never let us forget it.  
 - Clay Curtis 

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‘Peter therefore was kept in prison; but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for Him’. (Acts 12:5). 

Did not these early New Testament brethren, LIKE US, believe in the good and wise providence of God? Yes they did. Did not they believe in the sovereign, electing and predestinating grace of the Heavenly Father? Yes they did! Did they not trust and worship God based upon and in the merits and blood of Jesus Christ the Messiah? Yes they did! Look then my friend at these and every one of the masters’ sheep…’they prayed without ceasing’ in time of trouble! Believing such doctrines and things as they are plainly revealed in this book only leads His people to do such as this…pray, love, perform good works, etc. Don’t let anyone tell you different! Impartation of grace always leads to being gracious! 
- Drew Dietz

“Great and Small” (Esther 1:20-22)

 “And when the king’s decree which he shall make shall be published throughout all his empire, (for it is great,) all the wives shall give to their husbands honor, both to great and small. And the saying pleased the king and the princes; and the king did according to the word of Memucan: For he sent letters into all the king’s provinces, into every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language, that every man should bear rule in his own house, and that it should be published according to the language of every people.” (vs20-22)

We must glorify God in honoring the small and the great: we cannot obey people if they are good (in our eyes), but we must obey if they have authority given unto them.  God respects no man’s person, and neither must we; we mustn’t yield honor to some, and then be so proud as to hold it back from others, because of what they do, “Likewise, you wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conduct of the wives” (1 Pet 3:1).  Every PASTOR is honored of God that preaches the gospel of God’s grace, every church is holy, no matter her outreach and power, and every boss and husband is to be honored, whether they obey God or not. We are unselective in obeying God, not saying, “I’ll love, but not him”, “I’ll be subject, but not here”, or “I’ll do your will, until I think better”. Instead, we are bowing to God in Jesus Christ, and authority demands we bow and love all people.  We cannot live as we see fit, lest GOD’S power is attacked by our rebellion.

Jesus died so that God would be honored by FAITH, rather than legal obedience. Jesus answered God’s law, so that we honor God by believing His love and promises. He justifies God to bring fruit in us that is pleasing, to produce a Vashti’s destruction and to produce the crown rights of Esther.