God’s Timeline – Part 24
Hagar
and Ishmael
Pastor Bruce A. Shields
House
of Faith Church | www.PS127.org | www.TruthDigest.org
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SERMON INTRODUCTION (2021 A.D. = 5781 Jewish
Calendar Year)
-
Creation Week
(Approximately 4000 B.C.)
o Adam, Eve, and the Fall
-
Cain and Abel
o Evil Fills the World
-
Noah Did All God
Commanded Him
o The Flood 2400 – 2300 B.C.)
o God’s Covenant with Noah
-
Noah’s Sons and Ham’s Sin
-
Nations of Noah’s Sons
-
Tower of Babel
-
God calls Abram (2090
B.C.)
o Abram and Lot part ways
o Rescue of Lot
-
The Lord’s Covenant with
Abram for Isaac
o Hagar and Ishmael Born (2101 B.C.)
Genesis 16
“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she
had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept
me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family
through her.”
Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So after Abram had been
living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and
gave her to her husband to be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she
conceived.
When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her
mistress. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am
suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant,
she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”
6 “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her
whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.
7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the
desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 8 And he said,
“Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.
9 Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your
mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel added, “I will increase your
descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”
11 The angel of the Lord also said to her:
“You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son.
You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your
misery.
12 He will be a wild man; his hand will be against everyone
and everyone’s
hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”
13 She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are
the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” 14
That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between
Kadesh and Bered.
15 So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael
to the son she had borne. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him
Ishmael.”
I.
THE IMPATIENCE OF UNBELIEF
a. Sarai and Abram struggle
with their faith
i.
If
they weren’t struggling with their faith, they would have believed the Lord and
waited for His promise.
ii.
Unbelief
is the root of impatience
iii.
The
flesh quickly tires of waiting for the promise of God
b. Sarai believes a work of
the flesh will solve everything
i.
Because
that is what the flesh does, tries to be God in our lives
ii.
If
God wants you to do something, He’ll tell you
iii.
Sarai
first blames God, “The Lord has kept me from having children…
iv.
Then
she offers a solution since the Lord isn’t fulfilling His promise.
v.
“Go
sleep with my servant; perhaps I can
build my family through her.”
c. Abram believed in Sarai
instead of God
i.
His
lack of faith in the promise of the Lord led to works of the flesh, rather than
walking in the Spirit.
ii.
Abram
believed and obeyed his wife rather than God
iii.
Like
Adam
iv.
Or
Cain, obeying his flesh rather than the word of God.
v.
So
after 10 years in Canaan Abram took Sarai’s Egyptian servant Hagar for his
wife.
II.
WORKS OF THE FLESH ALWAYS CAUSE DISSENSION
a. Hagar conceived and
dissension began
i.
We
are told Hagar despised Sarai, but we are not told if she was in the wrong for
doing so.
ii.
Sarai
could have been treating her poorly, or perhaps Hagar was in the wrong and
wanted Sarai out of the picture because she did not want to share her husband?
iii.
The
scripture implies that she waited until after she was sure she was pregnant to start
despising Sarai, so it sounds as if she was in the wrong.
iv.
The
works of the flesh (Sarai and Abrams fault) caused dissension…it always does.
b. Sarai blamed Abram for
being despised by Hagar
i.
It
always seems it is someone else’s fault
ii.
“You
are to blame for the wrong I am suffering!”
iii.
Was
it Abram’s fault? Partially, he should have never taken Hagar as a wife just
because Sarai told him to.
iv.
Perhaps
he didn’t stop Hagar from disposing of Sarai?
v.
Either
way, Sarai blamed Abram.
vi.
How
did Abram respond?
c.
Abram says “whatever, do what you want to her…”
i.
The
scripture then says Sarai mistreated Hagar
ii.
Abram
is wrong here, and so is Sarai…
iii.
Whatever
the mistreatment, Hagar runs away into the wilderness
III.
THE ANGEL OF THE LORD HEARS HAGARS TEARS
a. Hagar runs to the
wilderness to be found by the Lord
i.
The
Lord hears Hagar by the well, and asks her, “where are you coming from and
where are you going?”
ii.
“I’m
running”
iii.
The
Lord tells her, “Go back, submit to Sarai”
iv.
But
then the Lord says something odd,
v.
“I
will increase your descendants so much they will be too many to count.”
vi.
“Name
him Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your misery.”
vii.
“He
will be a wild man, his hand will be against every man, and every mans hand
will be against him. He will live in hostility toward all.”
b. The Lord keeps His word though
Ishmael was a work of the flesh
i.
Why
does the Lord multiply Hagar’s descendants so there will be too many to count?
1. Because the Lord promised to
do so with Abram’s descendants, and Ishmael is Abram’s descendant.
2. The Lord had to do this, or
He would be a liar.
ii.
So,
who are the wild men who are against everyone, and who everyone is against? The
men who live in hostility towards everyone. The children of Ishmael, the Arabs.
iii.
This
is the problem
1. The Lord promised Isaac who
was to be the firstborn and have too many descendants to count. The work of the
Spirit would make this so.
2. Abram and Sarai were
faithless, after 10 years gave up on the Lord’s promise.
3. Sarai offered a solution in
the flesh
4. Abram had more faith in her
than God
5. So instead of the first
child of Abram being the promise of God, it was Ishmael, a work of the flesh.
6. Even today, the children of
Ishmael (Arabs) and the children of Isaac (Israelites) cannot have peace,
because both claims to be the promise of God.
a. Ishmael technically the
firstborn (work of the flesh)
b. Isaac the promise of God
(work of the Spirit) but second in line because of Abram and Sarai’s unbelief.
c. The Lord heard Hagar’s
tears and Hagar got to see the Lord
i.
Hagar
(who is faultless in this) says to the Lord, “You are the God who sees me. (her
misery) I have now seen the one who sees me.”
ii.
The
well where Sarai was found by the Lord is now called Beer Lahai Roi, which
means Well of the living one who sees me.
iii.
Abram
was 86 when Ishmael was born.
CONCLUSION –
Walking in the Spirit is
not the working of the flesh.
·
The flesh quickly tires of waiting for the promise of the Lord.
·
The impatience of Abram and Sarai’s unbelief led to them working in the
flesh to fulfill a promise of the Lord that was to be fulfilled in the Spirit.
·
Works of the flesh always bring dissension.
·
The Lord still fulfilled His promise, but because of the works of the
flesh, there would always be dissensions between the sons of Ishmael and the
sons of Isaac.
Next week we will look at the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abram, the
birth of Isaac.
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