The God Who Sees
Notes
Transcript
Call to Worship
Call to Worship
O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
Intro
Intro
Last week in Genesis 15, God re-establishes his Covenant with Abram and reaffirms that Abram will have actual, biological descendants that will be innumerable
His promise was not merely Spiritual
The nations that were to come from him would not just be from his household, but from his own flesh and blood offspring
While the application of that passage for us included us being spiritual children of Abraham, grafted into the family of faith through Jesus Christ, the genetic descendant of Abraham
We need to keep in mind the context of last chapter for Abram.
He knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that he would have a son of his own flesh and blood.
He believed in the Lord, and it was accounted to him as righteousness.
But as we get into chapter 16, Abram and Sarai take matters into their own hands to fulfill God’s promise.
Body
Body
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan.
Sarai, 10 years younger than Abram, is now 75.
Whatever sliver of hope that remained for Abram to have a child in his old age was infinitely more than they had for Sarai to conceive a child at this point.
Sarai, recognizing her condition, wanting to see the promise of God fulfilled for her husband, offered her Egyptian hand maid to be Abram’s wife.
Hagar, likely given to Sarai and Abram by Pharaoh a few chapters back, was kind of a surrogate for Sarai.
Like Rachel would later do with her handmaid with her husband Jacob
“Abram heeded the voice of Sarai”
Genesis 3:17 “Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.”
Pay attention to the parallels between Genesis 16 and Genesis 3.
Especially how both husbands “heed the voices” of their wives, leading to sin.
Polygamy as sin
Sin is defined as any want of conformity to, or transgression of, the law of God
Is Polygamy sin?
Scripture does not expressly forbid it, but as Jesus says, in the beginning it was not so: God made them male and female.
one man, one woman, for life.
So it is not part of God’s perfect creation and is a result of sin, but is not necessarily sin in and of itself.
In Exodus 21, God gives instructions on how to treat the first wife when a husband marry’s an additional wife.
God does not give instructions for how to sin “rightly”
However, the new testament qualifications for elders and deacons are very clear that it must be a man of one wife.
There are also OT Scriptures that refers to multiple wives positively
David
The prophets use 2 wives in a parable about God and his relationship with Northern kingdom of Israel and Southern kingdom of Judah
So how do we reconcile all these things?
Monogamy marriage between one man and woman is standard and ideal.
Marriage can only be between man and woman
not man/man, or woman/woman.
Because of sin, God has permitted (and occasionally blessed) marriage between one man and multiple wives.
However, it almost always turns out bad.
Christians should not pursue it.
For example, a pagan tribe converts to Christ including the polygamous chieftain.
Does he divorce his additional wives?
No, he continues to support them and love them to the best of his ability,
He is a Christian, but cannot ever be an Elder or authority within the Church.
Our standard is Scripture
We want to be slow to condemn something as sin that Scripture does not expressly forbid.
It would be almost impossible to enter into a polygamous union without sin.
It would violate laws in most nations (Romans 13)
(although laws are changing to permit sexual perversion)
Based on how we court, lust would be nearly impossible to avoid
would have to be some sort of arranged marriage
Just the nature of it would lead to a bunch of sin unless the husband and all wives were nearly perfect.
In eagerness to see the Promise of God come to fruition, Sarai comes up with the idea to give her hand maid to her husband as an additional wife.
Abram, in eagerness to see the Promise of God come to fruition, listens to his wife and takes on her hand maid as an additional wife.
what could possibly go wrong?
So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes.
Then Sarai said to Abram, “My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord judge between you and me.”
So Abram said to Sarai, “Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please.” And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence.
We don’t know how long Abram and Sarai were married before this, but it was likely decades of struggling with barrenness.
Desperate to be a good wife, she gives her hand maid to her husband so that he can have a son.
Immediately, Hagar conceives.
1 Timothy 2:15 “Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.”
Childbearing is intricate to the female being.
Her entire anatomy is focused on nurturing little humans and bringing them into existence.
To not be able to do that will naturally cause a woman to question her existence and worth.
Yet Sarai’s servant is immediately able to conceive.
The servant is more valuable than the mistress.
And Hagar knows it, and immediately begins to despise Sarai when she realizes she is pregnant.
So at this point:
Sarai sins by not trusting God, taking matters into her own hands and suggesting Abram marry Hagar.
Abram sins by not trusting God, taking matters into his own hands by heeding his wife’s suggesting and marrying Hagar.
Hagar up to this point didn’t have much say in the whole thing:
As a servant, she had no say in who she was able to marry
there is nothing morally wrong with that.
Our modern notion of “consent” is fiction
We might not like the idea of “consent” being part of our fake modern morality, but that doesn’t make what Abram did immoral.
However, after conceiving, Hagar did sin in how she began to despise her mistress.
Yes, she was Abram’s wife
but she was still Sarai’s servant, and she owed Sarai certain obligations including respect.
Everything so far in this story offends our modern egalitarian sensibilities we have been indoctrinated in.
After seeing how Hagar despises her, Sarai goes to Abram and blames him for her own suggestion.
Like in Genesis 3, we see blame shifting.
Sarai does not take responsibility for her own actions, but wants to lay the blame on her husband.
Yes, as head of his family, Abram still bears responsibility, but she still bears responsibility for her own actions.
Sarai even invokes the Lord in condemning Abram.
Abram then determines to permit Sarai to treat her maid servant (his second wife) however she sees fit.
Abram abdicates his responsibility has husband and father to protect his wife and child to pacify his first wife for the consequences of her foolish idea.
Sin and foolishness is compounding
Sarai then treats Hagar so harshly that she runs away.
It was within Sarai’s right as mistress to punish Hagar for her wicked attitude towards her.
Hagar sinned by fleeing the consequences of her sinful behavior towards Sarai; she is a servant.
Abram is in a no win situation, but now his inaction has lead to his wife, pregnant with his only child, to run away into the wilderness.
Now the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. And He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.”
The Angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand.”
Hagar is likely returning to her native Egypt.
The Angel of the Lord
A Theophany - an appearance of God in the OT
Also possibly a Christophany - an appearance of Jesus, the second person of the trinity in the OT
The Angel of the Lord is shone to be God in the next verses.
God finds and confronts her: Where have you come from, where are you going.
Fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai
God tells her to return and submit.
Becoming Abram’s wife did not erase her status as Sarai’s maid.
God is more than just “fine” with hierarchies
They are part of his Good creation.
Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Gal. 3:28 does not erase distinctions, but God does not limit his love and attention because of them.
Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, “I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.” And the Angel of the Lord said to her:
“Behold, you are with child,
And you shall bear a son.
You shall call his name Ishmael,
Because the Lord has heard your affliction.
He shall be a wild man;
His hand shall be against every man,
And every man’s hand against him.
And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.”
Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, “Have I also here seen Him who sees me?” Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; observe, it is between Kadesh and Bered.
Hagar is Abram’s wife
She is blessed and her son will be blessed
But she is still Sarai’s maid.
Being a Christian grants us access to the blessings of God
but it doesn’t erase our lot in life.
Servants are still servants
Kings are still kings
Men are men
Women are women
Rich are rich
Poor and poor
Ishmael means “God hears”
So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The God who Sees
God sees all
He sees your condition
He sees your sin.
He sees his children and cares about them.
Hagar
An Egyptian servant woman, put in a difficult position, pregnant with the seed of Abram, who sinfully despises Sarai
God searches her out and protects her.
She ran away from her duties because of affliction brought on by her own sinful actions.
God appeared to her.
If God cared so much about Hagar that he appeared to her because she was now part of the promise given to Abram by God, what does that say about us?
Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
God sees us where we are at.
He sees us in Hagerman, Idaho
At Valley Baptist.
Be diligent in doing good, but don’t be foolish
God DOES require us to walk in the works He has prepared for us
Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
But we need to exercise godly wisdom to decide which “works” are His, and which are our own flesh.
Even when we make foolish decisions and have to endure the consequences, God is still with us.
He sees us and hears us.
Cry out to Him
Seek to do His will in your life
Be content with your station in life and worship Him.
