Genesis 16.1-6-Unbelief of Abram and Sarai and the Conflict with Hagar
Tuesday January 10, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 16:1-6-Unbelief of Abram and Sarai and the Conflict with Hagar
Lesson # 79
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 15:1.
This evening we will study Genesis 16:1-6, which records that against the will of the Lord, Abram agreed to his wife, Sarai’s scheme to have him sleep with her Egyptian maid, Hagar in order to have a child since Sarai was barren and now in menopause.
This bad decision by Abram and Sarai produced conflict in their home.
This bad decision also had historical repercussions since it resulted in the present day Arab/Israeli conflict since Ishmael, the son that Abram fathered with Hagar, was the father of the Arabs and Isaac who Abram fathered later on with Sarai, is the father of the Jews.
Genesis 15:4 records the Lord guaranteeing Abraham that he will father a son and which guarantee Abraham undoubtedly related to his wife Sarah.
Genesis 15:1, “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.’”
Genesis 15:2, “Abram said, ‘O Lord GOD, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?’”
Genesis 15:3, “And Abram said, ‘Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.’”
Genesis 15:4, “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.’”
Genesis 15:5, “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.’”
But in Genesis 16, we see both Abraham and Sarah operating in unbelief and attempting to solve their problem of being childless by using Sarah’s personal servant Hagar as a surrogate.
This attempt to take matters into their own hands failed miserably and produced conflict in their home and in the world to come.
Abraham and Sarah’s failure teaches us that failure to wait on the Lord and trust Him to deliver on His promises and attempting to solve our problems independently of the Word of God will cause misery and heartache!
In Genesis 16, we see that from the human perspective, the Lord appears to be delaying in fulfilling this promise of a child with Sarai, but this is done to test the faith of Abram and Sarai.
Jeremiah 20:12, “Yet, O LORD of hosts, You who test the righteous, who see the mind and the heart.”
The fact that Abram and Sarai still had not a child caused great tension and conflict in the home of Abram and Sarai resulting in them attempting to engineer their own fulfillment of the promise of a child that the Lord made to Abram in Genesis 15.
On several different occasions prior to the failure of Abram and Sarai in Genesis 16, the Lord promised Abram descendants, thus obviously implying that the Lord would give Abram and Sarai a child (Gen. 12:2, 7; 13:14-16).
In fact, in the previous chapter, Genesis 15, the Lord flat out stated that Abram would not have to adopt an heir but would father an heir himself.
Eventually, we will see that the Lord will demonstrate His omnipotence by waiting until it was humanly impossible for Abram and Sarai to have a child before He would miraculously fulfill His Word.
Luke 1:37, “For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Romans 4:17, “(as it is written, ‘A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS HAVE I MADE YOU’) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.”
In the meantime, Abram and Sarai, aware that they were advanced in age, entered into panic and attempt to help the Lord in fulfilling His promise to them of a child.
Genesis 16:1, “Now Sarai, Abram's wife had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar.”
Gordon J. Wenham makes the following comment in the “Word Biblical Commentary” series, entitled “Genesis 15—50”; Waco: Word Books, 1994:
“It was a serious matter for a man to be childless in the ancient world, for it left him without an heir. But it was even more calamitous for a woman: to have a great brood of children was the mark of success as a wife; to have none was ignominious failure. So throughout the ancient East polygamy was resorted to as a means of obviating childlessness. But wealthier wives preferred the practice of surrogate motherhood, whereby they allowed their husbands to 'go in to' . . . their maids, a euphemism for sexual intercourse (cf. 6:4; 30:3; 38:8, 9; 39:14). The mistress could then feel that her maid's child was her own and exert some control over it in a way that she could not if her husband simply took a second wife.”
“Hagar” was acquired by Abram and Sarai from Pharaoh while they were in Egypt (Gen. 12:15-16).
“Maid” is the noun shiphchah (hj*p+v!) (ship-kah), which refers to the fact that Hagar was a personal servant and property of Sarai and was accountable to Sarai and not Abram and this relationship is confirmed by Genesis 16:8-9 where the Lord tells Hagar after she ran away from Sarai to submit to Sarai’s authority.
Genesis 16:2, “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.”
Now, according to a comparison of Genesis 16:16, at this particular time in the Genesis narrative, Abram was eighty-five years old and a comparison of Genesis 17:17 reveals that Sarai was ten years younger than Abram, therefore, in Genesis 16:16 she was seventy-five years old.
It is reasonable to suppose that Sarai was already in menopause since Genesis 18:11 states that when she was ninety years old that she was well past the age of childbearing.
Therefore her proposal to Abram helps explain her complaint that the Lord has prevented her from bearing children.
Sarai draws the conclusion that because she has entered into menopause that the child that the Lord promised Abram as recorded in Genesis 15 will not come from her body but another.
It appears that her faith in the Lord has weakened and so she seeks a solution independently of the Lord.
The people in Abram's culture regarded a concubine as a secondary wife with some, but not all, of the rights and privileges of the primary wife so in effect Hagar became Abram's concubine.
Not only was using a concubine an option, but in Hurrian culture husbands sometimes required that if their wife could not bear children she had to provide a concubine for him.
This custom helps explain why Abram was willing to be a part of Sarai's plan that seems so unusual to us and though using a woman other than one's wife was a custom of the day it was never God's desire (2:24; Matt. 19:4-5).
Sarai’s command “go in to my maid” refers to the fact that Sarai was demanding immediate action from Abram and was “wearing the pants” in the marriage and was out of the will of God since the wife’s responsibility is to be obedient to her husband (Eph. 5:22-25; Col. 3:18; 1 Pet. 3:1-7).
The statement “Abram listened to the voice of Sarai” reveals that Abram had failed not only spiritually by operating in unbelief but also failed in his authority in the marriage as Sarai’s husband.
His response should have been no and he should have explained to Sarai that the Lord had promised them that they would have a child together.
Abram who is the father of all those who believe (Rm. 4:11) fails to operate in faith meaning he failed to trust the Lord to give him and Sarai a child.
Abram and Sarai are motivated by fear at this particular time, they fear that they will never have a child and so they take things into their own hands rather than trust in the Lord, and this lack of faith, had negative consequences.
Notice that Abram and Sarai are never said to consult the Lord in prayer because they have decided to take things into their own hands.
Biblical faith is trusting in the promises of God regardless of the circumstances or consequences and resting in them.
The circumstances may be impossible, and the consequences frightening and unknown but we obey God’s Word just the same and believe Him to do what is right and what is best.
Abram and Sarai are looking at the fact that they are childless and thus enter into fear rather than concentrating on the Lord’s promise that He would give them a child.
Abram and Sarai have become impatient with the Lord and as a result have grown tired of waiting for the Lord to deliver on His promise of giving them a child.
Isaiah 40:31, “Yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.”
Genesis 16:3, “After Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Abram's wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife.”
Sarai in faith trusting the Lord alone to give her a child is a picture of grace procuring salvation through faith alone in Christ alone, totally apart from the works of the Law (Eph. 2:8-9).
On the other hand, Hagar is a type of the Law, which offers the Lord some human resource or merit for acceptance with Him in place of complete dependence upon His power and unmerited blessings both to save and to keep the promised Seed (Gal. 4:21-31).
Genesis 16:4, “He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she (Hagar) saw that she had conceived, her mistress (Sarai) was despised in her (Hagar’s) sight.”
The statement “He (Abram) went in to Hagar and she (Hagar) conceived” refers to the fact that Abram and Hagar had sexual intercourse and as a result Hagar got pregnant.
The statement “when she (Hagar) saw that she had conceived, her mistress (Sarai) was despised in her (Hagar’s) sight” indicates that Hagar became proud and looked down upon Sarai because she and not Sarai was able to give Abram a son, which was like rubbing salt in the wounds of Sarai who was already suffering because of being childless.
Undoubtedly, Hagar was basking in the affection of Abram when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael and this drove Sarai to jealousy.
Genesis 16:5, “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.’”
Abram has reaped what he sowed meaning he disobeyed the Spirit and obeyed his sin nature by not trusting in the promise of the Lord to give him a child through Sarai.
Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.”
Galatians 6:8, “For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”
Abram has sowed the wind but reaped the whirlwind in the form of Sarai’s contentiousness or in other words, her bitching for lack of a better word.
Hosea 8:7, “For they sow the wind and they reap the whirlwind.”
Sarai has become a contentious woman, which the Word of God prohibits Christian woman from becoming.
Proverbs 19:13, “And the contentions of a wife are a constant dripping.”
Proverbs 27:15, “A constant dripping on a day of steady rain and a contentious woman are alike.”
Proverbs 27:16, “He who would restrain her restrains the wind, and grasps oil with his right hand.”
Proverbs 21:9, “It is better to live in a corner of a roof than in a house shared with a contentious woman.”
Proverbs 21:19, “It is better to live in a desert land than with a contentious and vexing woman.”
Proverbs 25:24, “It is better to live in a corner of the roof than in a house shared with a contentious woman.”
Like Eve, Sarai has not taken responsibility for her actions and has blamed someone else for the results of her act, namely, Abram.
Sarai found that her scheme had backfired.
A child was born, but while loved by Abram (17:18,20; 21:11), Sarai despised him (21:10).
The birth of Ishmael had driven a wedge between Abram and Sarai, rather than drawing them together.
Abram had given Sarai what she had wanted, but now she insisted that he had failed her in doing so as indicated by her statements to Abram in Genesis 16:5.
While Sarai was angry with Abram, she must have known that it was she who had made Hagar’s bed but we do not read of confession of sin on Sarai’s lips, but only bitterness.
Abram did not learn his lesson either as demonstrated by his failing to function as the authority in the marriage and defers to Sarai in choosing what to do with Hagar.
He was the accomplice to sin by refusing to resist it or to rebuke Sarai.
Sarai’s stinging rebuke served only to cause Abram to retreat further.
He did not acknowledge his sin either, nor did he confront Sarai with hers but instead he persisted in allowing Sarai to have her own way.
Genesis 16:6, “But Abram said to Sarai, ‘Behold, your maid is in your power; do to her what is good in your sight.’ So Sarai treated her harshly, and she fled from her presence.”
Abram had gone along with Sarai’s plan to produce an heir and now he gave Sarai free reign in dealing with Hagar.
Sarai seems to have been within the boundaries of legality, while obviously not functioning according to the love of God.
Hagar, tired of facing Sarai’s tyranny, fled, heading back toward the land of Egypt.