905 Biblical Characters - Abraham & Sarah Pt.2 (Gen.16.1-6, 15-16; 17.1-5, 15-22; 18.1-2, 9-15; 21.1-7)
Notes
Transcript
- Abram left his homeland & his family because God told him to, but also there was a wonderful incentive
- God promised that He would make Abram into a great nation & that He would bless him & make his name great & that he would be a blessing – defined as “all the families of the earth shall be blessed
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- However, as the years roll on, Abram certainly became powerful & very rich, but he had no children of his own
- He was so powerful that Abram was involved in some of the wars that occurred & actually rescued Lot back from the clutches of the King, Chedorla/omer
- If you recall, Lot made the decision to go live in the valley which was the location of Sodom & Gomorrah
- When the Kings of Sodom & Gomorrah were defeated by Chedorla/omer & his allies, they took the spoil which included Lot & all that belonged to him
14 When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he led out his trained men, born in his house, three hundred and eighteen, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. 15 He divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and defeated them, and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus. 16 He brought back all the goods, and also brought back his relative Lot with his possessions, and also the women, and the people.
- He sent 318 trained men born in his house to rescue Lot & bring him back
- Imagine! You are very rich with so much livestock & an army full of men with their wives & children around you
- Yet you & your wife have none
Q. Would you be starting to wonder what this promise of a nation coming from you is all about?
- Perhaps, Abram was starting to think that he misinterpreted what God meant – then we read...
1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.” 2 Abram said, “O Lord God, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.”
4 Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” 5 And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” 6 Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.
- I remember travelling up to Qld with my family & stopping in the middle of the night on the side of the road with lights off in the mountains near Coonabarabran where nearby there are located some observatories that search the skies
- They sure put them in a great position because it was amazing – so many stars that you don’t ever see when living in cities or towns
- Abram did not mistake God’s intention
- The promise has not changed & there is no need to reinterpret what was plain & obvious to him – from his own body, will come an heir which will translate into a nation of people
1. Man’s Attempt to Solve God’s Problem
1. Man’s Attempt to Solve God’s Problem
- However, as the apostle Peter says,
8 But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.
- He is not slow in bringing about His promises, but as in this case that Peter is talking about, God is patiently waiting for people to repent
- But one day is LIKE a thousand years – not equal to a thousand years
- It’s illustrative only & merely saying that God is not subject to time constraints like us
- One day to the Lord is nothing when you don’t even live with time
- Time is relevant only to the creation of the heavens & earth - time also being created
- But God is outside of His creation where time itself does not exist
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- Nevertheless, we, as human beings feel the impact of time – we are created beings living in a created material universe
- Perhaps, we feel time too acutely – we tend to say or think that we don’t have much time or that we are always “short” of time
- Perhaps, we are short of time because we pack so much into what time we have
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- We come to our readings today & in the initial readings we have Sarai realising that time is not on their side
- Old Abe ain’t what he used to be & she herself has stopped having those indications that she could still bear children
- No cycle means that humanly speaking a child will not occur
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- This has made me stop & wonder about all the people of God who have been & gone & not seen the promises of God come to fruition
- Hebrews 11 is a great chapter which highlights the fact that faith is, in fact, a hope by which we live & that may not be realised during our lifetime
39 And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.
- This is what makes faith so powerful – it has a life of its own because it is faith that has us obey the Lord, in hope of the realisation of the promises
24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
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Q. But what happens when you come against a road block as some of you in Moama were literally experiencing during the bridge closure
- They are childless & passed the point of being able to have children
Q. What now happens with the promise of God?
Q. What thoughts go through a person’s mind?
- Perhaps, God has forgotten His promise
- Perhaps, I have misunderstood it – which is hard now since God made it very clear to Abram with a Covenant
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- I always get confused when people talk about shortsighted & longsightedness
- From what I understand it describe conditions of blurry objects at either short or long distances
- A short-sighted person has trouble seeing things clearly in the distance & a long-sighted person can’t see things clearly close up
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- I think this same physical issue has a counterpart in the spiritual
- Sometimes we just can’t see how the promises are going to come about & start thinking about ways God is bringing them about or in the case of Sarai here in this passage, inventing ways to bring them about
- So she gives to Abram her maid – an Egyptian woman by the name of Hagar
- There is nothing specifically said that implicates Abram & Sarai in a sin for doing this
- Certainly it was a common practise in their day
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- This Egyptian woman comes from the line of Ham
- Remember, that Ham saw his father Noah naked & Noah cursed Ham’s descendant which was Canaan
6 The sons of Ham were Cush and Mizraim and Put and Canaan.
- Egypt or Mizraim is the brother of Canaan who was cursed
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- What we do find is that Abram is descended from Noah’s son, Shem
- Both Shem & Japheth were blessed by Noah but not Ham
- Shem seems to have prominence for even Japheth in Noah’s prophesy is dwelling in Shem’s tent & not vice versa
27 “May God enlarge Japheth, And let him dwell in the tents of Shem; And let Canaan be his servant.”
- Although Ham’s son Canaan is cursed, there is no blessing bestowed on Ham & therefore on his descendants
- Interestingly, only Canaan is cursed to be a servant
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- Hagar cannot be the ideal in either Abram or Sarai’s eyes
- Abram taking an Egyptian maid to be his wife to have children for Sarai through her
- Later, after Isaac is of marriageable age, Abraham tells his servant to specifically go back to his family in Mesopotamia to find a wife for Isaac
- So I can’t imagine how this situation can be highly appropriate to either Abram or Sarai
- You know what I think it is – an act of desperation
2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Now behold, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Please go in to my maid; perhaps I will obtain children through her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
- Well, there isn’t any obvious or plain speech condemning what Sarai suggested & Abram approved, but I think there is good reason to see that this was not an appropriate thing to do, even though it was all above board in that day
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- Abram listened to the voice of his wife which certainly parallels Adam listening to the voice of his wife
- One of the glaring issues that has come out of Abram & Sarai’s attempts to secure the promise of God is the strife that has come into the family
- Now comes the jealousy & humiliation when the plan actually succeeds
4 He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her sight. 5 And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done me be upon you. I gave my maid into your arms, but when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her sight. May the Lord judge between you and me.”
- Here’s a lesson to you guys...
- Poor Ol Abe – He does as he is told & when the idea goes pear-shaped, guess who copes the brunt of it – He does!
- Of course, when the Egyptian maid is with child to one of the most powerful men in the east, she sure has reason to gloat
- Her son will be heir to the promise & she will be the mother of the heir – no wonder she looked with contempt upon her mistress
- But now, look how the tables have turned!
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- Their attempts to bring about the promise of God has resulted in terrible family turmoil
- Ishmael is born & he becomes the father of the Arabs
- The strife between the Palestinians & Israel that has particularly escalated in the last week is exactly due to this move by Abram & Sarai
2. God Upends Man’s Attempt to Secure the Promise
2. God Upends Man’s Attempt to Secure the Promise
16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him. 1 Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless.
- Here we see that Abram was 86 yrs old when Ishmael was born, but Abe is now 99 yrs old when God appears to him again
- Do your sums – this means that Ishmael would be about 13 yrs old
Q. Did you notice that God doesn’t speak to Abram everyday?
- We don’t know how long it was prior to Sarai giving Hagar to Abram but it was a long time because the reason Hagar was given was because Sarai’s patience for the promise had run out
- So even to the great patriarch Abram, God did not speak with him often at all
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- No doubt, at 13 yrs of age & his only child, Abram was very very fond of Ishmael
- As far as Abram was concerned, he is the one that he chooses as the
child of the promise
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- The Lord appears to Abram now 99 yrs old & says “I am El-Shaddai (God almighty), walk before Me & be blameless”
- God re-affirms the promise to him that he would be a great nation & have a multitude of people who will come from him
- All good so far
- God changes his name in readiness for the realisation of the promise
- No longer Abram, but Abraham – “a father of a multitude”
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- Sarai’s name is changed from Sarai to Sarah – which means “princess”
- Now comes the kicker
16 “I will bless her, and indeed I will give you a son by her. Then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.” 17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”
- This thing is unheard of – we say, impossible!
- Wow, doesn’t this throw a stone in the cogs
- Abraham is thinking that this promise is done & dusted as far as the procedural steps are concerned
- Ishmael is here & he is the son of the promise as we have arranged it
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Q. What a shock to Abraham?
Q. What about my dear, darling Ishmael? My firstborn, my cherished boy!
- Abraham had already settled on Ishmael & pleads the case for Ishmael to be the son of the promise
18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before You!” 19 But God said, “No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. 20 “As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I will bless him, and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. 21 “But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year.”
- The Lord then appears again to Abraham but, this time, while Sarah was also present
- 3 angels of the Lord appear as 3 men
9 Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “There, in the tent.”
- They reiterate the promise that Sarah would have a son – Sarah who is beyond 90 yrs of age & Abraham at 99
- Ages that are so well passed the age of child-bearing that it would be laughable on a human level
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- Like Abraham when he first heard it, Sarah too, laughs within herself with the thought of it, but there is a possible tinge of pun or sarcasm in her thoughts too
12 Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have become old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?”
- Shall I enjoy the sexual pleasures of my youth were her thoughts!
- But the thoughts she has, are the thoughts that what these angels are saying is absurd
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- Sarah laughed in her heart, but so did Abraham in his heart, but Sarah is called to account
- I wondered about this, until I remembered that it was Sarai who led the way to Abram taking Hagar for his wife
- Abram “listened” to the voice of his wife – this is a common expression which means to obey – he obeyed the will of his wife (he did as he was told)
12 Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have become old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” 13 And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, when I am so old?’ 14 “Is anything too difficult for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” 15 Sarah denied it however, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. And He said, “No, but you did laugh.”
- It seems to me that a point is being made to Sarah about instigating the whole Hagar thing instead of trusting the Lord - He never asked for that to happen!
- Eve, SAW that the fruit was good for attaining wisdom; then she TOOK & ate & GAVE some to her husband with her & he ate
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- Sarai SAW that they were missing out on something beneficial but that there was was a way to get the son she & Abe was promised
- So she TOOK Hagar & GAVE her to her husband & he partook!
- Perhaps, I’m reading more into this than is warranted, but it seems to me that a point is being made of Sarah’s unbelief in the power of God
- “Is anything too difficult for the Lord” – Sarah, in particular, seemed to have thought so
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- The impossible became possible & in the following year, Sarah did have a son & he was named Isaac
6 Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.” 7 And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
- It is so incredible, even preposterous, to think that old could become young & have children
- How amazing that God can reverse the whole natural course of human existence to bring about His promises
3. God Puts His Signature on the Promise
3. God Puts His Signature on the Promise
- This leads me to the last, but probably most important point to note
- The origin of God’s promise is not of man – it is supernatural, divine
- God is all over this – not only in the fulfilment of the impossible but also in the set up
- God planned the timing, the delay, so that we could witness the contrast between human attempt’s to bring about God’s promise & its blessing, & God who works beyond the capability of man to bring about His promised blessing
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- We witness this very thing through the Gospel
- God overturning the natural presumptions of people to bring about the fulfilment of this promise to Abraham
- As far as people’s thoughts on Jesus are concerned, it was an anathema – a cursed thing – to even suggest hat God in the flesh could die on a cross, let alone believe it to be true
Q. Do you know that crosses never existed on a church prior to AD 300
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- Having died for the sins of the world, Jesus is then raised bodily from the dead
- To which the religious leaders of Israel were desperate to deny/cover up with lies of His disciples stealing the body
- To which the Greeks mocked the apostle Paul when he preached on the resurrection of the body
- It is as ridiculous to think of resurrection, as it is to believe that a man & woman in their nineties could have a child
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- But this is the work of the Lord our God – El-Shaddai – God almighty
- He overturns the presumptions of man & puts His signature on His work so that all may believe that it is He who does these things
- You can trust in Him because the Lord has brought about this promise & the redemption through Jesus Christ – the fulfilment of that promise to Abraham
- Closing again with this very pertinent passage from Gal. 3:26-29
26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.