And You Thought Your Family Had Probelms Series

Abraham, Our Spiritual Father

We continue to examine the story of Abraham, the father of the faithful. Our story today happens about 4,000 years from our day before Israel exits Egypt in Exodus – does that help you place our story? And even though Abraham lived so long ago, he remains vitally important. The Bible says every real Christian is a child of Abraham: “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Galatians 3:29). The Bible doesn’t say you are a child of Moses, a child of Isaiah, or even a child of Paul – but you are a child of Abraham. Abraham is the paragon of faith and he is our father in the faith.

Faith is the distinguishing mark of the Christian. Did you know that the Christians were called believers before they were ever called Christians? Believers – this is the distinguishing mark of a Christian, is he or she is a believer. So Abraham remains important for us because he is the father of all who believe (Romans 4:11). Now, our story shifts this morning from Abraham, the husband, to focus on Sarah, his wife. For the first time we hear from Sarah – who knew she could speak! Now, throughout our series, never take your eyes off of Abraham, the chosen one, for the story of Genesis builds to a pressure cooker. Will God be able to save the human race through His chosen one, Abraham?

Throughout their lives, they are learning to an important life lesson: when problems arises, glance at the problem but stay glued to God’s Promise. Find Genesis 16 with me, if you will and put a bookmark in Genesis 21. Note: Don’t be confused by the names Sarai and Abram for in time, God will changes their names to Sarah and Abraham.

Today’s Scripture

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

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?” 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.”

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” (Genesis 16:1-16).

What a mess!

We are going to look at five characters in our story today. But this is really a story of two women. In a world that was dominated by men, here are two women with very different roles in this ancient patriarchal society. Both are mothers and they find themselves in deep despair for very different reasons. Look with me first at…

Sarah

God promised Abraham more children than the stars in the skies above and the beaches on the collective beaches of the world. This was the mother of all promises, if you will. But ten years later, Sarah still not pregnant. So she has a suggestion – what if her husband, Abraham, has a child with her servant, Hagar. At his wife’s suggestion, Abraham and Hagar had relations with one another and she becomes pregnant. Hagar’s pregnancy causes a rift between the two ladies of our story.