Genesis 16
Notes
Transcript
Good evening everyone. Welcome to Wednesday night bible study. I pray that your day has been blessed with his presence and that your expectations of tonight for more of his word are high. So we shall not waste time because tonight…oh boy tonight.
I have said it so many times and more than that, I do my best to live by it as sin always matters. Praise God for his mercy and his redemption but that is for eternity. When we take a detour of what God has said the plan is, it will always come back to bite us. I wish that we could learn that just by reading other people’s stories but unfortunately it seems that we must repeat their mistakes instead of learning from them. So learn from this one please. I am begging you. Let’s go. Abram is 84 years old right now and they are wondering when the baby is coming and where the baby is coming from.
1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar.
Ok any one by my wife notice anything in that verse. Pop quiz time lol. I know you love these. But I want to make connections so you can see the continuity of scripture.
Ok here is my leading question again not for Sonya to answer. Yall ever experience that in school. Isabella came home one day and said dad I was in so in so class and he would ask a question and then he would follow it up with anyone but Isabella want to answer. I told her yeah I have had that a few times. Ok so leading question. Did you notice the country from whence the servant came?
Egypt. Great. When did that servant come into their lives. I told you to underline it in previous chapter.
16 He treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
So yall remember that time when Abram doubted God could protect him from the famine so he went to the world aka Egypt to use it resources but he also doubted that God could protect him so he lied about his wife and the king almost slept with her but God protected her and him. Yeah. Sin always matters. That decision, has led to this.
Actions taken in moments of doubt or fear always lead away from God not toward Him.
Now here is Sarai about to take her own actions in fear and doubt.
2 And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
Hebrews tells us
36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.
She doesn’t have the endurance to keep going the way that God wants so she is going to take her own way. You want to receive the promise of God, then you better have some endurance.
Who does she say is preventing her from having a son?
So God is keeping something from her? Who does that sound like? Haven’t we seen this story before? A woman believing other voices than the word of God saying that God is just trying to hold something from her. Why doesn’t she talk about the promise? Why doesn’t she exclaim her joy in the possibilities. The future. No she has to like her husband in the previous chapter allowing her emotions to rule her. Emotions are not the problem, it is allowing emotions to make thoughts, which then conduct actions.
So let’s see if we continue down the same path of the garden of Eden. Because here we are with a wife who needs her husband to step in and be the spiritual leader. What does it say about him? He listened to the voice of his wife.
Now men, I get it. Being the spiritual leader is hard. I mean its not hard all the time. Everything is fantastic when you and your wife agrees. You are reading bible stories and everyone is on board. Look at me leading spiritual lead. But where the rubber meets the road when you and your wife are not on the same page and somebody has to make a decision.
Appeasing your wife and agreeing with your wife are not the same thing. Many times a man would rather appease his wife then do what’s right and I am just as guilty as anyone.
All Abram had to say at this proposal was no. We were told that we would have a kid. we are not going to go down that road. He doesn’t have to be a jerk about it. And let’s be honest. He would have had a bad day after that. Maybe sleeping on the couch. Getting the silent treatment. But it is better that your wife be upset than God. And all the men in the room go ehh. Because god doesn’t have to live her. We will tell our kids no all day long but will not say it to our wives. But He listened to her voice. which means he didn’t say anything because He listened to her voice. Not her listened to his. If this is what you want. Maybe a lack of faith or maybe the depravity of his heart.
This by the way is the exact same phrase used in Genesis 2 in which Adam listens to Eve
But I think all of us with any ounce of walking around sense, would have to agree that with this proposition, there is no way that this doesn’t come back on us. There is no way we don’t in some way pay for this later. lol Now I know that in this culture it is not as black and white as this. But God did not say this is how I am going to do this.
This is not an ordinary child that Abram and Sarai are going to have. He is starting something new with this family. We know that God is involved in every pregnancy. What I mean is no child is a surprise to God but God especially wants to be involved in this one and this is what God is waiting on but she doesn’t want to wait on him.
She turns to the world for the answers. This is what we do. We have to be careful. We have to endure.
She knows that Hagar can produce a son and Abram even at 84 can still get the job done. She cannot. So here is the scheme. and I want you to hear the self centered ness of this. Look at verse 2 again.
So here is the solution.
3 So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife.
4 And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress.
So they try to do this little ceremony to make Hagar his wife but God is not going to accept this. Now nothing in this culture is going to stop them because the culture allows for everything they are doing. The world says everything is ok. Sarai can get her baby by someone else having it because Hagar is a slave. But God is not ok with this.
Maybe Abram is the promised father but maybe I am not the promised mother. Abram has a kid. He has an offspring. But God has not said this would be the plan.
what she is doing is putting her plans above God’s glory and that is a no go. When you put your plan above his glory it will end up badly. She wanted the baby now instead of listening.
So the baby is here yet it is not the child that God promised. And then look immediately at what happened. Hagar conceives and then she looks with contempt on Sarai. She says ha ha clearly it ain’t abram with the problem. She says look at what I can do and you can’t.
Now look at this.
5 And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!”
Man that goes wrong fast. You get one side eye glare and here she goes blaming Abram. Now Abram better speak up. This is what you wanted. I mean if I am Abram, that is my go to defense. You asked me to do this. I gave you want you wanted. You told me to do this. So this has no punishment on me. i just wanted you to be happy but men you know what her response should rightfully be…I just wanted you to protect me. She is hurt. She is embarrassed. She feels slighted. She knows that this was a bad idea. She knows that she has done something wrong. Here comes another write down moment.
I want you to see something
23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
Paul is talking about what to eat and what not to eat. He says right before this about don’t make your brother stumble. But this last part of this line right here. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. If you act out of fear. That is sin. If you act out of anger, that is sin. If the motive for what you are doing is not faith, it is sin.
When Abram left for Egypt. Sin because his motivation was that I don’t think God can keep me in this famine. When Sarai brings this to Abram about Hagar, her motivation is fear and distrust of God. Sin. What are you doing or have you done that does not come from a place of faith therefore, it is sin. They both abandoned faith. God had a better plan but they didn’t have faith. They thought their plan was better because God’s plan wasn’t working because well God, we don’t have a baby yet. It is rough trying to work your own plan. You can’t blame God when you work your own plan and it doesn’t work. But we want to. All the while, you can see God going, just trust me.
And let me just say this and as I typed it and as God said it to me and as I am saying it to you it hurts. When we do things out of God’s plan, he is gracious and full of mercy and redemption, but it will never be what it could have been if we had just listened. We will see through the entire rest of this book the ramification of this choice. We are still dealing with it today. Any time we work our plan it is problematic.
Whatever man does without God, he must fail miserably. Or worse, succeed even more miserably. George McDonald
If we work our plan and it succeeds, it is even worse. We must do what God says.
So Hagar has basically looked at Sarai and said take that. And now is the time for Abram to stand up again. He should have done it the first time and didn’t do this. But he is a passive man like Adam. Now here is the second time and what he should have told her was hey, I am sorry she treated you like that. I will talk with her. But we are not going to punish her for something we put her in. We see her, society sees her as my wife. Now that wasn’t the way to go, and we realize that but we got her into this mess and we are going to do right by her. But nope look what he says.
6 But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.
He says hey she is your servant do whatever you want. I don’t care. Abram my goodness man!!! You have got to stand up for once in your life. Then hey here comes God on me right. See this woman right here. I constantly want to do whatever I can in my power to make her happy. But truthfully that should not be my goal. My goal should be to make her holy. To get her to the presence of Jesus. To demonstrate to her how to follow Him. I have to get that right. Men you have to get that right. But yet again Abram does not. So what happens, Sarai dealt harshly and she leaves.
So here the mess has been made. And if this were a made for tv movie, we would zoom in on Sarai then cut to Hagar as she is running and then cut to commercial break because what is God going to do about it. Now God has to intervene to fix a mess that never should have been made if they had just trusted Him. Yet He is so gracious.
7 The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur.
8 And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.”
9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.”
10 The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.”
Ok first who came to visit her? Now you can disagree with me on this but most theologians believe that this is Jesus. If you do not believe that then find. I won’t argue about but there are different terms given when just angels appear but whatever. He finds her by a spring. I love that terminology because it says that he was looking for her. Doesn’t mean he didn’t know where she was going to be. Truth is he was probably waiting on her there. But he found her. Has God ever found you in the middle of your despair? Look again here at the mercy and grace of our glorious Lord that he comes personally to talk to her. And ask questions of her as though he needed answers. But when God ask questions, trust me it is for your benefit not his. Now before we get into this whole thing let look at James 4. There are 3 reason why we fight amongst ourselves.
1 The world says its ok. The world ha okayed our decisions to sleep with my serant
2 Our own flesh Sarai hey if you are okaying me to sleep with our servant who is young and beautiful I am in
3 The devil because once we get out from the authority of Christ, we are under the authority of the devil.
But even Hagar has to submit. What does Jesus call her? Look at verse 8. So does God acknowledge her marriage to Abram? No he keeps her in her proper place. She is not Abram’s wife. She is Sarai’s servant. He does not recognize what they did as right or legal. She is headed back to Egypt back to the world. back to what was comfortable and he says, you will not go there. You will head back to your mistress and you will submit to her and ultimately, you will submit to me.
He says I will multiply your descendants. What does that sound like. Same type of promise given to Abram who’s child she carries. but not the complete promise just similar. He continues
11 And the angel of the Lord said to her, “Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your affliction.
12 He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.”
So he clarifies that she is going to have a boy. You shall call him Ishmael which mean the Lord hears.
Verse 12 is where the problems show up. The repercussions of their actions. Even though God forgives there are repercussions. Sin always matters
He is going to be a wild donkey of a man and there is another name for donkey you can insert there and you would put it in modern day terminology. lol
His hand shall be against every man and every mans hand against him
So let me break this down for you because you may not know who this is or how this relates to us today. The Arab nations are this line of people. They come from this break of covenant right here. Muslims, the Palestinians, the Iranians, Iraq, Al Qaeda, Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood, etc all come from this line. So does this line up that they are against every man and every man’s hand is against them? They are constantly in one conflict after another even in themselves. They do not settle very long they just want to take over lands they want to dominate. That is the core belief of the Quran. To subjugate everyone into believing and following Allah. They will either follow or die. They are not peaceful people at their core unless they have been redeemed because the center of their belief is this declaration by God.
So we have all of this turmoil in the middle east today in 2023 because of this decision by Sarai and Abram. This is not a some little decision they made. There will never be peace there with these people until the antichrist comes because of what God has stated. Are we to hate them. Absolutely not! We should try to lead them to Jesus. At all cost.
So Ishmael is not the chosen one. He is not the promised heir. God has established this.
Look at this
13 So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.”
Hagar, taken into captivity. Forced to have a child by a man she does not love. Essentially though the culture was different, raped. She was mistreated by Sarai, after she mistreated Sarai and yet here she is. I have seen the God who sees and protects me. Can i just put this on here. Two huge take aways from this.
God saw her in all of her misfortune and was there the entire time and she acknowledges it.
We must acknowledge the truth that God never leaves us despite how we feel. Despite what we think. He never goes away. He never abandons us. He never steps so far out of the picture as for us to be alone. The next big one
No matter the circumstance of the birth, God cares for children.
We have a society that has devalued human life so much that no one matters. Any one can be so easily discarded as to think they are no more than yesterdays trash. We have people going into malls and to schools and to church. We have society in which kids are burned because their parents don’t believe the same way. We have a society in which the elderly can be raped and pillaged simply because we want to. We have society in which teens can disrespect teachers and law officials because their parents have taught them it is ok. We have a society in which you can dispose of a human in your own toilet with just a couple of pills if you wish. THAT IS NOT GOD AND IS NOT RIGHT!!!! God shows right here what he is about. All of those other things stem from our lack of adherence to God and to value of human life which comes from god. All human life is sacred he shows it right here. I think this verse right here is the mantra of Pro Life. He is the God who sees and he blesses that child despite what happened to the mother and despite what that mother might endure in the future he says go have that boy. He is in charge.
No matter what situation they have been produced in He cares.
And look
14 Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered.
15 And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.
16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
Is this the covenant that God had planned? No it isn’t and let me say this. Abram is 86 God says you’re going to have to keep waiting. 13 more years. Abram nor Sarai or in the place where they fully trust God yet. God says you will have to get there. I will make sure of it. Ultimately you will submit to my plan.
Ok here we go. Ladies let me talk to you for a moment. Do not search for a passive man. Seek a man that will say though today might be bad, I would rather be out of line with you than with God. Men stop being passive. Stop being the guy that goes along to get along. We have talked about this in our mens study. Get up off your blessed assurance and lead your family spiritually. Abram passivity caused a lot of problems.
If you have been here like them, own it. Take responsibility.
True repentance is the vomiting of the Soul. Thomas Watson
Sin is a big deal. Abram and Sarai will do that. I am so thankful for redemption. But there are some consequences this side of heaven cannot be undone. God is right please do what he ask.
