Genesis 16

Hagar and Sarai

INTRO QUOTES:

300 Quotations for Preachers from the Reformation Bend Difficulties with Sweetness

When you encounter difficulties and contradictions, do not try to break them, but prudently let them pass, and bend them with sweetness and time. If all do not show themselves disposed, have patience, and advance as far as you can with the rest.

FRANCIS DE SALES*

Bend your difficulties and contradictions with sweetness and time!

Familiar Quotations William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

How poor are they that have not patience!

Familiar Quotations Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield (1804–1881)

Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius

Familiar Quotations Publius Syrus (42 B. C.)

Patience is a remedy for every sorrow.1

300 Quotations for Preachers from the Medieval Church Virtues Crowd out Vices

Where there is patience and humility there is neither anger nor worry

Francis of Assisi

The Problem

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

Hagar was property from the pharaoh most likely.

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.

It is interesting that she sees God as the problem- not the solution. She needs to figure out a solution because God is the problem. If she saw God as the solution, she would be praying- like Samuel’s mother, Hannah.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

12 As she continued praying before the LORD, Eli observed her mouth. 13 Hannah was speaking in her heart; only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard

Christian Quotations Patience

Teach us, O Lord, the disciplines of patience, for to wait is often harder than to work.

Peter Marshall

Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 2: Genesis 16–50 Genesis 16:2–6

There is first the general consideration that Sarai’s proposal seems to be the normal human response to the problem of childlessness in the ancient world, whereas the promise of a real heir in 15:4 suggests something abnormal would happen

She is trying to make God’s promises happen rather than letting God make them happen.

Sarai is making the case God will be ok with it because it is acceptable to the outside culture. God is clearly not ok with it. This is historical, not prescriptive.

It is important to note that the text views the unbelief as worse than Abram following the custom and sleeping with his wife’s maid. Now we view the act as sinful and excuse the unbelief.

Sarai has a lack of faith in the promise to Abram. God doesn't accept the custom of the day. God protects Ishmael and Hagar. Sex complicates the relationship because we are called to one flesh.

It seemed like a simple plan, but sex needs guardrails that are not defined by the culture. God has given this great gift and it is handled carelessly here. God looks after Hagar even when she is running away to not be seen.

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.

We know that the author, Moses, doesn’t approve because of the allusions to Genesis 3

10 years could be seen as God not fulfilling the promise of a descendant or confirmation that he had given them the land. It could have bred expectation and anticipation.

Abram was willing to share his wife with Pharoah and now his wife is willing to share her husband. Both are violations of God’s command of ONE FLESH- It is a family trait. (I learned it from watching you dad!)

The attempted resolution

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!” 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.

Thus the first scene ends in total disaster for all concerned. Hagar has lost her home, Sarai her maid, and Abram his second wife and newborn child

What was done to solve a problem has created many more

The Divine Solution

God shows up in the wilderness.

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?”

Genesis 3 and Genesis 4! Where are you? Where is your brother. God asks a question he knows the answer to!

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.” 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.”

Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 2: Genesis 16–50 Genesis 16:12

This verse describes Ishmael’s future destiny, to enjoy a free-roaming, bedouin-like existence. The freedom his mother sought will be his one day. The “wild ass” (פרא, Equus hemoinus hemippus) lives in the desert, looks more like a horse than a donkey, and is used in the OT as a figure of an individualistic lifestyle untrammeled by social convention (Jer 2:24; Hos 8:9). “He will be against everyone.” “Ishmael’s love of freedom will bring him into mutual conflict in his dealings with all other men” (Gispen, 2:128). “He shall dwell apart from his brothers” describes the bedouin living on the fringes of a more permanent settlement.

If you go to Israel with us, you will meet Bedouins

The faithful Response

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.” 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.

This can be looked on as the conversion of Hagar. She was likely not a follower of YHWH but now has seen and met him. Her response is to repent. To turn back and trust God rather than go back to her family in Egypt. She is grafted into this promise of Abram.

Hagar returns and in faith trusts God. Abram takes up her case and allows the boy to be called Ishmael. She is grafted into the promise and God heard her prayers. He looks after her.

Sarai would have been humbled every time she heard the name Ishmael- God Hears!

At the end of this chapter, Sarai has not benefited from God’s provision, but Hagar has. Hagar has learned to trust God even in affliction and in the wilderness. She knows the presence of God more than Sarai.

The lessons learned.

Sarai doesn’t pray in her suffering but Hagar does. Hagar grows closer to God and forever will have son who will remind her that “God Hears”

Forever more Sarai would be reminded that she didn’t pray when she hears Abram call his son “Ishmael”.

Hagar returns and in faith trusts God. Abram takes up her case and allows the boy to be called Ishmael. She is grafted into the promise and God heard her prayers. He looks after her. Abram and Sarai means they believed that she encountered an angel.

In light of this, what should we do?

1. Godly Faith is patient.

Two women in this story, one is heard by God and the other is not. The key is that Hagar trusts the word of God and obeys. She is even willing to go back to a hard situation. Sarai does not and her life struggles are added to. (by her not God).

300 Quotations for Preachers from the Reformation God’s Promises Require Faith

There is no place for faith if we expect God to fulfill immediately what he promises. It is hence the trial of faith to acquiesce in God’s word, when its accomplishment does in no way appear.

JOHN CALVIN

2. Godly faith trusts in Jesus.

ILL: Galatians

English Standard Version (Galatians 4:21–31)

21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia;5 she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.

31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

Paul makes the allegory. As followers of Jesus, we are saved by a promise- not by doing it ourselves. This is the connection to Jesus- When we have faith in Jesus we are trusting in the promise, not trying to justify ourselves.

We naturally try to do things ourselves and end up further from God! Abram and Sarai should have trusted God. This delays their promise at least 13 years.

When we follow Jesus, we follow by faith, not by trying to do it ourselves. It is not our goodness, it is God’s goodness bestowed or given to us. That is the Gospel. Even in our foolish rebellion, God loves Abram and Sarai and keeps His promise to them. (and in goodness grafts Hagar into the promise!)

3. Godly faith protects us when we sin.

Even in their disobedience, sexual misconduct, breaking the marital vow, lack of faith- God keeps his promise. Their faith allows God to bestow his righteousness on them. Following Jesus isn’t about being perfect or not sinning. We strive to please God because he has given us life and His righteousness. This is the Gospel. We are like Abram and Sarai, we fail and make mistakes and even rebel, yet our hearts trust God. We run to him when we sin and he bestows on us His righteousness.

ILL : The number of times I have screwed up is astounding that I am a pastor. But I am not a pastor because I don’t make mistakes, I receive grace because of our relationship. Because we know each other as a family in this church, we guard the relationship. We address sins in loving ways. We correct each other face to face when needed. We apologize and reconcile whenever we have disagreements.

My hope for this church is that we are a light to this world. We see that it has never been about us being perfect or not making mistakes. So we walk humbly in this world. We walk humbly with our political beliefs, with our social and cultural beliefs because we admit that we don’t know everything and we screw up a lot. We get things wrong. BUT we are firm in our passion for Jesus. The risen Christ forgives our sins and has reconciled us to God. We have righteousness because of God’s grace.

This week I want to challenge you to focus on humility and patience.

Patience in waiting hopefully with God. If you are anxious, I want you to pray for and practice waiting with anticipation that it will happen. God will deliver you. God will reconcile you to that person, God will show up when you need him.

If you have conflict or frustration with someone, I want you to practice humility. I want you to remind yourself that you don’t know everything- you might be proven wrong. I want you to remember that you are one bad decision away from ruining your reputation, so instead of piling on when someone falls or angers you, you will respond like the John Bradford watching fellow Christians walking towards execution, There but for the grace of God go I. We are not better or more moral than anyone else, but we have a God who is. So we will live with patience and walk with humility. Amen.