Yes. Although having a child through your wife's handmaid was the custom of Abraham's day, it was not necessarily God's will because he did not command Abraham to do that! The Law of God was not given to Moses until about 430 years later, so that custom was not lawful, but God did allow it like he did other things, because he had not written down his word yet. (The same holds true in the case of Cain killing Abel. That's why God did not kill Cain on the spot—because he did not command man not to kill until he told Noah in Genesis 9.
Genesis 9:5
And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man.
As you know, today it is not the will of God for you to have relations with a woman who is not your wife, and that has been his mind from the beginning with Adam and Eve....
Mark 10:6-9
But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
So I do agree with you that God never told Abraham how he would do it, but Abraham knew that if God could make his body alive to have children, he also had the power to make Sarah’s, his wife’s, body alive as well. Remember what the Holy Ghost said through our Apostle Paul?
Romans 4:19
And being not weak in faith [believing God’s word to him], he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb:
When God made this promise to Abraham, Abraham did not consider the deadness of Sarah's womb. Meaning that he had faith that God would "quicken" or make alive his body and his wife's womb. That means that Abraham knew full well that when God made him that promise, it would be through his wife Sarah, and not Hagar! Abraham committed the same sin that Adam did—he hearkened unto the voice of his wife [instead of the voice of God] when it came to God's will, Gen 3:17.
Abraham was supposed to make the spiritual decisions, not his wife! That's why after having Ishmael after the flesh with Hagar, God did not appear to Abraham until another thirteen(!) years (13 is the number of rebellion in the bible)...meaning God believed that Abraham rebelled against his word too.
Genesis 14:4; 16:15-16; 17:1
Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.
And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son's name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael. And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.
And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
So we see that Abraham knew full well what he was doing, and that he did what we all do sometimes as believers, and that is…walk after our flesh.
Hopefully this helps!
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