Genesis 16 - Hagar and Ismael

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Frightening times for sure. It is high time for all of us, everyone who calls on the name of Jesus Christ to make sure of their position in Christ. Peter wrote;

2 Peter 1:10 (NASB95)

10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;

This is no time to dabble with sin or stray away from God’s flock. It has been observed; A coal that is separated soon grows cold but those that stay together remain hot!

So last week we learned about ancient covenants and saw in particular how Yahweh made or “cut” His covenant with Abram. We learned that God in-fact made a unilateral covenant with Abram by walking alone through the sacrificed animal pieces meaning that God alone was responsible to fulfill the terms of the covenant.

We learned that in the very same way Jesus Christ alone took on Himself the penalty for our Sins. How Good God is to us and how consistent the Holy Spirit is in the examples of Scripture.

So tonight we are going to look at a mis-step of Abram the man of faith, and his wife Sarai. A very human act that serves as a great lesson to us all.

So lets stand;

Genesis 16:1–9 NASB95

1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar. 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. 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. 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.” 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. 7 Now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. 8 He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from and where are you going?” And she said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.” 9 Then the angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority.”

This chapter is “pregnant” with issues, if I can use that term. The first being how long are we supposed to wait for God to act? Imagine God appears to you in vivid vision with a promise. Of this you are sure and yet you wait and wait. For Abram was 75 years old when he left Haran and received the promise of a descendant, a son.

He is getting old and more importantly to him his wife, Sarai, was past child bearing age.

The answer to our “how long” question is perhaps as long as it takes.

Article - How long

So Abraham was first promised descendants twenty-five years before Isaac's birth. However, when God provided the name of Isaac and a timeline of one year until his birth, it came true just as He said. There is often a delay between God's promise and its fulfillment. There were twenty years between Joseph's dreams and the time his brothers and father bowed before him in Egypt (Genesis 37:2; 41:46, 53). David was a teenager when Samuel anointed him the next king of Israel, but "David was thirty years old when he began to reign" (2 Samuel 5:4). There were more than four hundred years between God's promise of a Messiah and Jesus' birth. Even the disciples had to wait about nine days between Jesus' ascension and the outpouring of the promised Holy Spirit (Acts 1:3; 2:1). Although there may have been a delay between the promise and the fulfillment, God has always been faithful to keep His promises. Joshua 21:45 records, "Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass." Paul assured the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 1:20, "For all the promises of God find their Yes in [Jesus Christ]." So God is faithful to fulfill His promises, even if it took twenty-five years in the case of Abraham and Sarah. Both Abraham and Sarah are mentioned as examples of faithful believers in the "Hall of Faith" listed in Hebrews 11. In reference to their long wait for Isaac, Hebrews 11:11 says, "By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised." May every believer similarly place their trust in this faithful God.

So this is the setting for our text tonight.

Genesis 16:1–3 NASB95

1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar. 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. 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.

It is believed that Abram was given or bought Hagar when the had sojourned in Egypt. She then became Sarai’s handmaid or personal servant.

There are a number of issues that are in play here. The first being that in that time for a wife to be barren was a humiliation for her. That was her main function; to give an heir to her husband. It is interesting how many woman of scripture were barren until later stages of life. Sarah. Rachel, Hanna, Elizabeth to name a few.

Most importantly it seems that Sarai grew tired of waiting for their promised heir and decided that she would take matters into her own hands and follow what the cultural norms were. Which were allow her handmaid to give her a child. The idea was since Hagar was her property any child born by her would be Sarai’s. We will later see this same concept play out with Rachel and Leah and their hand maids.

Our story continues and the fun begins,

Genesis 16:4–6 NASB95

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.” 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.

So what began as an apparent solution to Sarai’s barrenness becomes a big issue. There are many examples of plural marriages in the bible but few if any really work. Gods design marriage from the beginning was monogamy, one man one woman. Here what Jesus said;

Matthew 19:4–9 NASB95

4 And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” 7 They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?” 8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. 9 “And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

The problem being that there always seems to be one who is the favorite and one how is loved less. The law speaks to this reality;

Exodus 21:10 NASB95

10 “If he takes to himself another woman, he may not reduce her food, her clothing, or her conjugal rights.

In the context of a less loved wife.

So in our story Hagar “despises her mistress (Sarai).” The word for despised here means to be of little account. So here Hagar looked down on Sarai perhaps out of pride in her quick success in producing an heir. Add to all this that Sarai was her mistress (master really) and Hagar was her servant the temperature in that household must have gotten very hot.

So in Verse 5, Sarai in effect says I want her gone and its your fault. Albeit it was Sarai idea. Literally the Hebrew says “My wrong be on you.”

So Sarai treated her harshly and Hagar fled. Our bad decisions always lead to pain. Here Abraham is in a no-win situation. He loves his son and has some feelings for Hagar and yet knows this was not Gods way.

Article - Hagar

Now lest we see Hagar as evil, notice how Yahweh loved Hagar and had a plan for her son as well;

Genesis 16:7–10 NASB95

7 Now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. 8 He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from and where are you going?” And she said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.” 9 Then the angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority.” 10 Moreover, the angel of the Lord said to her, “I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count.”

Notice, that it is the Angel of the Lord who seeks her out. There is a great message here in that it is always God who seeks us out. Its not us who finds Him! Back in the 70’s we used to have a bumper sticker that said “I found it.” It really should say He found me!

Jesus says;

John 15:16 (NASB95)

16 “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.

Now to add to the story Hagar’s name means “flight” or “fugitive.”

What an interesting picture a fugitive running from her home and God finds her. How many fugitives from God are on the run right now.

So in verse 8, the AOL asks Hagar where she is going? A great question to ask. Interesting that AOL found her near Shur which is on the way to Egypt so it looks like she was on her way back to Egypt. Symbolic of the world and the flesh. The tendency of fugitives from Christ is to run back to the world.

So God gives her direct directions to return and submit herself to Sarai. I can imagine that this was the one thing she did not want to hear.

When we are on the run trying to escape God we soon learn that there is no where we can go. David observed in Ps 139;

Psalm 139:7–10 NASB95

7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. 9 If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, 10 Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me.

If you are His He will always hunt you down. The great news is He wants to greet you like He did the prodigal Son.

Luke 15:20 NASB95

20 “So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

So, the AOL follows up with His direction to Hagar with promises and prophecy regarding her son.

Genesis 16:10–13 (NASB95)

10 Moreover, the angel of the Lord said to her, “I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count.”

11 The angel of the Lord said to her further,

“Behold, you are with child,

And you will bear a son;

And you shall call his name Ishmael,

Because the Lord has given heed to your affliction.

Notice how similar this is to the promises given to Abraham and that is because Hagar and her son are part of the fulfillment.

12 “He will be a wild donkey of a man,

His hand will be against everyone,

And everyone’s hand will be against him;

And he will live to the east of all his brothers.”

Quite a description. But it holds true of the non-Jewish semitic peoples. Always fighting.

13 Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God who sees”; for she said, “Have I even remained alive here after seeing Him?”

Notice that she says it was the LORD who spoke to her, meaning Yahweh or what is called a Theophany.

This not the end of Hagar in our story she will again be the center of controversy with Sarah in Ch 21.

The chapter closes with;

Genesis 16:14–16 NASB95

14 Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered. 15 So 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 him.

So in closing I wanted to read a passage from Oswald Chambers book - Not knowing where,

The destiny of a human being is vested in personal relationship to God. Abraham learned this lesson later; on Mount Moriah he proved that he knew the difference between obeying what God said and obeying the God who said it. Fanaticism is sticking true to my interpretation of my destiny instead of waiting for God to make it clear. The fanatics line is: do something. The true test of faith lies in not doing.

Pray