The God Who Sees

Intro: Update on New Creation Church

Before we get into the message for today, would like to briefly share about New Creation Church

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it now and it won’t be the last time I say it: thank you!

Being sent as part of a team to plant New Creation Church has been among the most challenging things I’ve ever done

And I couldn’t be more grateful to be on the front lines as we, collectively, seek to Reach Sarasota

Couple quick things I’d like to share

First, thank you to those who have come to visit us

It is such an encouragement to see familiar faces there in support of the work

And would love to have more of you come visit!

Second, it’s really hard - pray for us

We believe that the gates of hell will not prevail against the advance of the church

But that doesn’t mean it will be easy

These are not flimsy gates you put up by the stairs so the baby doesn’t fall down the stairs

They are a strong protection to keep the kingdom of God from advancing

They will fall because Jesus is victorious over the kingdom of darkness

But they won’t fall easily

Third, we need some help

Ranch Readers program at Skye Ranch School

Christmas at the Park on Dec 23

Worship leader - if you know someone who might be willing to join our team, please let me know!

Transition

Thank you for the privilege of sharing an update on New Creation Church

But now let’s turn our hearts and minds to God’s Word

I am grateful to be here this morning with the opportunity to bring God’s Word to you for the first time in way too long!

We are continuing in the series on Genesis

And, geez, thanks Pastor Ken

I am glad to preach here, but as we get in to our text, maybe you will be wondering what short straw I drew to get this text to preach!

Because this morning we are looking at Genesis 16

The Mawhinney kids have been staying at our house for a few days

Friday night, Gracie and Rachel were on the futon

“Aren’t you proud of us for reading our Bibles?”

“Well, sure - what are you reading?”

Genesis 16 - I took another step and then stopped

Wait, why are you reading Genesis 16? That is the passage I am preaching on at Covenant Life on Sunday

And, here is the important part for all of you

“Because it has all the tea”

You get that? Genesis 16 has “all the tea”

And they insisted I tell you that it has “all the tea”

And no, I have no idea what that means either - that’s what you get from 2 teenage girls!

So with that, please stand if you are able for the reading of God’s Word that has all the tea

Scripture Reading: Genesis 16

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.

Pray

Tale as Old as Time

We have here a tale as old as time, right?

Boy meets girl

Boy falls in love with girl

Boy and girl get married

Girl can’t have babies

Girl offers her servant to boy

Boy sleeps with servant and gets her pregnant

Girl gets jealous of servant and angry at boy

Girl treats servant poorly

Servant flees from harsh treatment

Servant meets angel who sends her back to girl

Like I said, tale as old as time

Sin Everywhere

Seriously, before we go any further, let’s be clear on this

The depth of sin in Sarai and Abram in this story is astounding

Sarai’s grief at not being able to have a child is understandable

But Sarai was absolutely wrong to insist Abram sleep with Hagar

Abram was absolutely wrong to take that advice, to take Hagar as a second wife, and to sleep with Hagar

Sarai was absolutely wrong to treat Hagar with contempt and, dare I say it, abusively

And Abram was absolutely wrong to not protect Hagar but to give her over to the contempt and harsh treatment of Sarai

We could note that Hagar should have resisted sleeping with a married man, her master’s husband

But she had very little agency here and the emphasis is on the culpability of Abram and Sarai, not Hagar

Hagar was used by both Abram and Sarai

This may sound like adultery and some sleezy show we would see on TLC, but it was the culturally acceptable practice

If you couldn’t conceive, you could bear children through a maidservant and the child would be considered yours

That said, our standard is Biblical ethics, not culturally accepted ethics

This was wrong

Two Main Points

Two things I want us to focus on in the passage today:

God’s promises must be fulfilled God’s way

God’s promises are grounded in his faithfulness, not our goodness

God’s promises must be fulfilled God’s way

First, let us look at the idea that God’s promises must be fulfilled God’s way

Scroll back up to the last few verses of chapter 15

Genesis 15:18–21 “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.””

2 main components to the covenant:

The Place: One is the land that God would give to his people

The People: The offspring

In fact if we zoom out in the Bible, we see that the people and the place were central to the promises God makes in his covenant relationship with his people

But then immediately we get into chapter 16

Genesis 16:1 “Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children.”

Right after the promise of offspring to end chapter 15, we are told that Sarai was barren, no children

Now here is what I am sure of

Sarai was already sensitive to not having any children

It was already a point of sadness and grieving and longing for her

And I’m sure it is for some of you here this morning as well

“God, all I want is to have a child”

Or even sometimes resentment shows up in thoughts and feelings like, “God, why would you let those people get pregnant - they don’t even want a child”

Yet for all the ways that pierced Sarai’s soul, hearing the covenant promise of offspring to Abram must have pierced deeper still

God’s promise of offspring must be fulfilled, but how?

Well, if not her, maybe her servant?

So she does something almost unthinkable and tells Abram to sleep with her servant, Hagar

Look again at verse 3

Genesis 16:2 “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.”

Abram responds with “You’re giving me a hall pass to sleep with another woman. Well, if you insist.”

Look at the range of emotions that follows Abram sleeping with Hagar and getting her pregnant

Angst, anger, contempt, separation, jealousy, distrust

It pits Sarai against Hagar

And then Sarai turns against her husband, even though it had been her idea in the first place

Genesis 16:5 “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!””

The physical, relational, and emotional distance that is created by sin

Here’s the deal: I relate to this story way too much

Not because I have committed these same sins

But because I hear the promises of God and set out to fulfill them my way

God’s promise to Abram is going to be fulfilled in a miraculous way coming soon

And through Sarai!

To the extent that God is going to change their names to encompass the broad scale of his fulfillment of his promise

But nope, they couldn’t wait

They set out to fulfill God’s promises their way

And all I can think is how often I do the same thing

I see something I think would be good, in line with God’s promises, and I starting forcing my way

Even in the course of church planting I have felt this

God called us to plant us this church and now I need to go do it!

I want it to go bigger, go faster, go etc…

And here’s the sadly ironic part: Never once when I have attempted to fulfill God’s promises in my life my way has it ever worked

Yet I keep trying

And I keep causing sadness and heartache in my life and in those around me

Let me ask this: What would have happened if Sarai and Abram waited on the Lord?

God already had a plan - a way better one than they could have imagined - with Isaac yet to come

No, God’s promises are not intended to be fulfilled our way

God’s promises must be fulfilled God’s way

God is the sovereign ruler of all

When he makes a promise, he will fulfill it

He promised Abram offspring

And God’s promises must be fulfilled God’s way - in this case, through Isaac, not Ishmael

Let’s personalize this a bit, by asking questions of ourselves

What has God promised you or you feel God leading you to, but you are trying to knock down doors to make it happen your way?

And what would it look like for you to trust that God’s promises must be fulfilled in God’s way in your life?

God’s promises are grounded in his faithfulness, not our goodness

Chapter 12 - God calls Abram and then immediately he gets scared by a famine and goes to Egypt, away from where God was sending him, and has Sarai lie about them being married

Chapter 15 - God establishes this covenant with Abram, and then immediately in 16 we see here Abram and Sarai sinning in pretty major ways

Adultery, polygamy, abuse of a servant

But here is the good news of this passage

God’s promises are grounded in his faithfulness, not our goodness

Because “goodness” is not a word that can be used to describe Abram or Sarai in this passage

And it’s not a word that can be used to describe us either

Romans 3:12 goes so far as to say that “no one does good, not even one.””

Yet God does not abandon his promises based on our lack of goodness

Because God’s promises are grounded in his faithfulness, not our goodness

Let’s look again at verses 7-12

Genesis 16:7–12 “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.””

Abram sleeping with Hagar was sinful

And we see God be faithful to Hagar throughout

As she ran from Sarai, God sends an angel to meet her

Three things about this encounter between the angel and Hagar to note

The mercy of provision

The gentleness of conversation

The promise of offspring

The Mercy of Provision

First thing here is the mercy of provision

I find it interesting that the angel meets her specifically at a spring in the wilderness

Imagine where she is at physically at this moment

Physically, she has been on the run, fleeing Sarai

She is tired and thirsty and scared

When she comes to a spring in the midst of the wilderness

A place of provision in the midst of desert

There, at the spring, the angel greets her and calms her soul

As the spring in the desert grants the mercy of provision by relief and refreshment to her body, the angel of the Lord grants the mercy of provision by letting her know that God sees her

The Gentleness of Conversation

Then the angel asks a question, “Where are you coming from and where are you going?”

There is no anger, no scorn, no looking down on her

Gentle engagement and redirection to send her home

The Promise of Offspring

And then in the greatest show of God’s faithfulness here

Genesis 16:10 “The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.””

She is pregnant and is going to have a son

But not just a son, a son who will multiply

Offspring who can’t be numbered

God’s Faithfulness

In other words, for all the wrong and sinful actions of the people in this story, God continued to show up, to be present and faithful

And here is the great takeaway here

God’s promises are grounded in his faithfulness, not our goodness

We don’t (and can’t) be good enough

But this is the character of God - to faithfully do what he said he would do

Again, let me ask you to personalize this

Where have you seen God be faithful when you know you didn’t deserve it?

When is a time where you experienced his mercy, his gentleness, his faithfulness to his promises?

The Gospel: The God of Seeing

Now let’s turn to the last couple of verses

Look again starting at verse 13

Genesis 16:13–14 “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.”

Notice those words - “the name of the Lord who spoke to her”

At some point, she realized this was not just an angel of the Lord, but the Lord himself

This is the pre-incarnate Christ - the second person of the Trinity - come to see her

God saw her in her sorrow, in her distress, and came to her

She goes on to say that “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me”

But God’s promises go way deeper than she knew

Because it is this same second person of the Trinity who would later, in seeing both her and us in the distress of our sin, not only come to us but come for us in the person of Jesus

He would look after us not just with the mercy of water in the wilderness, but himself as the Living Water poured out for us

The God who sees, the God who looks after, is the faithful God who does and will fulfill all his promises to us!

Conclusion: Frank James’ Study of Church History

I’d like to close with a story

Frank James was my church history professor

First day of class, he always told the same story

He shared that he started studying church history because he couldn’t wait to learn about the great saints of old

What he quickly realized was that church history is full of sinful, wretched men and women

He then went on to say that he continued studying church history because church history is the story of God using sinful men and sinful women to accomplish his good purposes in the world

When we look at this passage, we can’t conclude that Abram and Sarai did it right

In fact, they blew it in pretty major ways, trying to fulfill God’s promises on their terms, their way

But this passage is also the story of God fulfilling his promises his way and the story of God’s faithfulness, not the goodness and faithfulness of any human

Pray

Transition to the Supper

Abram and Sarai couldn’t wait for God’s way, so they forced their own

This stands in stark contrast to the perfect Son, Jesus, who in the Garden of Gethsemane would pray, “Not my will, but yours be done”

Jesus shows us that true faithfulness lies in trusting God’s way and God’s timing, no matter the cost

God remained faithful to his covenant with Abram not because Abram deserved it, but because God is faithful

And that covenantal faithfulness finds its ultimate “Yes” in Jesus Christ, the promised offspring who saves us not because of our goodness, but because of God’s

Let’s remember him together as we part of the Supper together