Brokenness

Introduction

Last week we saw God make his covenant with Abraham as he was in a difficult spot mentally. God assured him that his promises will be fulfilled. We previously discussed how covenants often come with some form of blood and that is what we will see next week. In between these two narratives though we see a story defined by brokenness. This brokenness comes through impatience and human error but through it all we see God’s enduring faithfulness.

There are a lot of actions that we can see are wrong in this passage and they have consequences that were unintended. As we go through tonight we are going to look at four things that connect to this brokenness. These points will be infertility, infidelity, abuse, and brokenness.

Lets begin to look at this tonight by first looking at our passage.

Genesis 16 ESV

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. 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. 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. And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. 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!” 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. The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 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.” The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” 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. 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 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.” Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered. And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.

So in this story Sarai recognizes her inability to have children and herself is wondering about the promises of God. She decides to take this problem into her own hands and present Abraham with her slave so that the slave could have a child on her behalf. This would have been a common practice at this time but is not an approved one by God. Abraham must think that this is how God is going to work and doesn’t question it. Here we see it opens up with sin from the both of them.

Hagar the slave gets pregnant and begins to look at Sarai with contempt. This means that she looked at her as less than herself and inferior. This made Sarai mad and she went to Abraham and he said that she could do what she wanted to her and this led to Sarai acting harshly towards her.

Because of the way she was treated Hagar fled to the wilderness where she meets with God, she then goes back and has the child.

Notice that throughout the child is never identified with Sarai, it is always identified as Hagar's son. This was not the intention that Sarai had with this whole situation.

All of this is a big story of brokenness. Brokenness is a result of sin. So lets pray and then we will start with looking at infertility.

Infertility

Genesis 16:1–2 ESV

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. 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.

The problem of infertility is one that stems from the curse in Genesis 3. There is problems that now occur in the reproductive process and Sarai is just as susceptible to them. This issue is one that becomes characteristic for the elect line. There will be reproductive issues in the lives of all of the patriarchs.

This issue is a result of sin and it is an issue that requires great trust in God. Sin came into the world and introduced all forms of brokenness. It is in these moments of dealing with the results of sin that we must lean into God more and more.

It is not only this issue that we must lean into God, we must always lean into him. There are going to be difficult situations that we must lean into him through. There are going to be decisions that you will have to make that you will need to lean into him to make. And can I tell you something, it is best to be leaning into him during the good times. Then when the tough times come you are already there.

Infidelity

Genesis 16:2–3 ESV

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. 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.

This next problem as a result of brokenness is infidelity. Because of the infertility Abram is pushed towards infidelity by his wife. In a non broken world Abraham would stand and say no Sarai you are my wife and God is going to fulfill his promises and he is going to do it though you and me not with anyone else.

This is sadly not what Abraham does though, there is no argument or anything he just goes with it.

There will be moments for us that because of the brokenness of our world we will be faced with decisions that we know are wrong and we can either go with it or say no. We can either fight the temptation that is before us in the form of some opportunity or we can give in. I am here tonight to say that we should fight to not sin.

This sin here led to a broken relationship with his wife Sarai. The issues that follow as a result of this are ones that stay and I would venture to say that this is something that never truly heals. Yes it was her that recommended it but she did not do that for herself but for her husband. She had no clue the repercussions that it would cause for herself if he went through with it.

For a short stent of a history lesson here we hear that Islam, the worlds biggest false religion, is described as an Abrahamic faith. This is because it stems from Abraham. The son that Hagar has names Ishmael and it is through his family lineage that Islam is founded. Abraham’s sin leads to the biggest false religion today that treats Christians as enemies and actively kills Christians. Our sin has consequences, it may not be like that but it does have consequences.

Abuse

Genesis 16:4–6 ESV

And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. 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!” 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.

Abraham’s infidelity to his wife leads to Sarai abusing Hagar. She takes her frustrations our on the slave woman. She makes her life miserable because she herself is miserable.

This is a common action in the world we live in today. People are miserable so their goal in life is to make everyone else miserable. Something happened to them so they want everyone else to feel that pain. There are so many reasons that people go to abuse but none of them are healthy. The reason that they all stem from though is brokenness and the effects of sin in a lost world.

Abandonment

Genesis 16:7–14 ESV

The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 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.” The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” 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. 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 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.” Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered.

The story finally turns to abandonment. The abuse becomes so much that Hagar flees. She abandons them because they have abandon her. She is alone and scared. This is a low point but it is just at that low point that God shows up.

Even when we feel abandoned we must remember that we are never truly alone, look at what she says about God after this encounter; he is a God that sees. She realizes that he is there for her. This is big in the story of the Bible because we see that God is still faithful to her and the child even though he was conceived in sin. The child is still a offspring of Abraham and because of that he will still be blessed.

When we feel like all hope is lost in our brokenness we must remember that we serve a God that sees us.

Conclusion

Genesis 16:15–16 ESV

And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.

In the end Hagar returns and she has her son. Things are back to peace for the time being.

Notice in this story how the brokenness is spiraling down. One issue that was a result of a fallen world leads to man messing up more and on it goes. Sin leads to brokenness and it spirals out of control fast.

Sin is our biggest problem and we are all susceptible to it. Because of our sin we need forgiveness from God. Praise be to him through that he makes this forgiveness openly available to all who would put their faith in him. This is the only way that we can deal with the brokenness that is all around.