Ill:
A man opened a new business and his best friend sent him a floral arrangement:
• When the friend popped in to see him a few days later;
• He was shocked to see that the shop had sent a card saying; “Rest in peace”.
• When he called the florist to complain.
• The florist said; “It could be worse.
• Somewhere in the city is an arrangement in a cemetery that reads;
• “Congratulations on your new location”.
• Mistakes of course, are part of life;
• Even the so-called greats have made them!
Ill:
• In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Act II, Scene II,
• Caesar asks Brutus, "What is’t o’clock?" Brutus replies, "Caesar, ’its strucken eight."
• The great Bard had forgotten that mechanical clocks;
• Were not invented until 14 centuries after Caesar’s death.
• Mistakes of course, are part of life;
• And we will see in to days passage Abraham & Sarah are about to make one big one!
Genesis 16 records a painful detour that Abraham and Sarah made in their walk with God:
• A detour that not only brought conflict into their home, but also into the world.
• What today’s journalists call "the Arab-Israeli conflict" began right here in this chapter!
• But this account is much more than ancient history with modern consequences.
• It’s a good lesson for God’s people about walking by “faith and not by sight”
• This chapter it’s a good lesson for us to learn;
• Concerning waiting for God to fulfil His promises.
• If we are honest many of us want ‘God’s will done our way’.
• Or we want God’s will done when we want rather than when he wants!
Ill:
• There had never been any argument about it;
• Fred was the wisest and shrewdest man in town.
One day a young lad in the community questioned him about it.
• “Fred, what is it that makes you so wise?” he asked;
• Fred replied: “Good judgement, I’d say it was my good judgement”
• The boy replied: “And where did you get your good judgement?”
• Fred said; “That I got from experience”.
• “Where did you get your experience?” asked the boy.
• Fred replied: “From my bad judgement!”
Genesis chapter 16 contains a classic case of bad judgement:
• We will see how dangerous it is to depend on our own wisdom.
• And how nescercery it is, to depend and wait on God, his timing & wisdom.
(1). Waiting (verse 1a):
“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children.
But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar;”
• In this chapter Abram was now eighty-five years old.
• For the last ten years Abram has been walking with the Lord;
• And during this time he had learned some valuable lessons about faith.
• But like many of us he too often wanted God’s will done his way!
If you know the story of Abram:
• Then you know God had promised Abram and his wife Sarai a child;
• But God had not told them when the child would be born.
• For Abram & Sarai it was going to be a long period of waiting,
• And most of us don’t like to wait.
One of the hard lessons we have to learn as Christians is:
• God is never in a hurry, he is never panicked; he is always just on time;
• He has a perfect timetable for all that He wants to do.
Quote: saying:
“Patience is a virtue,
Possess it if you can.
Found seldom in a woman,
Never in a man.”
• That might be true in a general sense;
• But it was not true for Abram’s wife Sarai.
• Sarai grew more and more impatient as she waited for something to happen.
• For God to keep his promise to Abraham and produce a child.
• She knew that each new day was a painful reminder;
• That she was physically well past the age to conceive naturally a child.
• What she did not know was this was all part of God’s plan;
• Ill: Hebrews chapter 11 verse 12 tells us that:
• God actually wanted Abram and Sarai to be physically past it!
• Waiting for their bodies to be "As good as dead".
• The reason being that this event was not going to be just the birth of yet another baby:
• It was an essential part of a bigger plan; God’s plan of salvation for the whole world.
Application:
Quote: G. Campbell Morgan:
“Waiting for God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not going to sleep. Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort.
Waiting for God means, first, activity under command;
second, readiness for any new command that may come;
third, the ability to do nothing until the command is given.”
A willingness to wait on the Lord, is an evidence that you are walking by faith.
Ill:
• The American minister & writer Philip Brooks (1835-93);
• Was noted for his poise and quiet manner.
• However, one day a friend saw him feverishly pacing the floor like a caged lion;
• And asked him what the trouble was.
• "The trouble is," replied Brooks,
• "That I’m in a hurry, but God isn’t!"
When God makes a promise:
• It never comes with the words; “Ah well promises are meant to be broken!”
• Neither does God forget his promises!
• Trusting God at times will mean being patient!
• But if we wait, he will not let us down.
Ill:
Psalm 40 verse 1: “I waited patiently for the Lord…..”
• The result of waiting “He lifted me” God answered!
• Because God always keeps his word.
Think about it logically:
• If God grants our requests straight away then there is no real faith involved;
• But if we have to wait and keep on trusting, our faith would is deepened and God glorified.
(2). Scheming (verses 1b-4a):
Abram and Sarai were about to discover:
• That there are knock on effects to our actions when you play God;
• Soon the dominoes will all start falling.
“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar;
2 so she said to Abram, The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; 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 maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.
4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived”.
Abram and Sarai are about to operate on human logic:
• But instead of waiting and trusting;
• Notice how Abram & Sarai put ‘2+2 together and make 5’.
• In the culture of their day, if a woman could not have a child;
• And did not want her husband to take a second younger wife.
• It was quite normal to give her slave-girl to her husband;
• And any child born would be counted as their own.
• This enabled the family name to be continued;
• And the inheritance to be dealt with smoothly.
Notice:
• At no time do they ever use Hagar’s name;
• In their eyes she is simply a means to an end.
• Notice also they never once inquired of God;
• And at no time did God ever tell them to do this – this is their idea!
In verse 2 Sarai was ‘second-guessing’ God:
• She is about to reduce God to her understanding and way of working,
• This is a dangerous thing to do.
• She is about to do the opposite of Proverbs chapter 3 verse 5-6:
• “Trust in the Lord will all your heart and lean not on your own understanding”.
Notice in verse 2:
• Sarah says to Abram "It may be"; or “perhaps I can build a family through her”.
• She did not say, "This is what the Lord said!"
• She has moved from the certain promise of God;
• To her own wisdom and understanding.
• Furthermore, Sarai was not concerned about the glory of God;
• Her only goal according to verse 2 was "That I can build a family through her ".
Perhaps for Sarai there is a hint of disappointment with God, even blaming God when she says in verse 2,
• “The LORD has kept me from having children”.
• Never forget: that God’s delays are not God’s denials,
• The enemy may whispers to us,
• "God is holding out on you! If He loved you, things would be different! Blame Him!"
• But do not believe him, for he is a liar!
• Remember: that God’s delays are not God’s denials,
• Sadly for Sarai & Abram and also Hagar;
• They are going to have to learn this lesson the hard way!
According to the culture and marriage code of that day:
• It was perfectly legal for Abraham’s use Hagar to produce a child.
• So again in her own mind; to Sarai this plan of hers made perfect sense.
• Notice: that the plan seemed to be successful,
• For Hagar conceived a child. Circumstantial evidence that Sarai was right after all!
• But not everything that is legal;
• Or that appears to be successful is approved by the will of God:
• Throughout the story God never accepted Hagar as Abraham’s wife;
• Notice what the Angel of the Lord called her in verse 8: "Servant of Sarai” or “”Sarai’s maid".
• Later on in Genesis chapter 21 verse 10:
• She is called "this slave woman and her son". Not "Abraham’s wife and son."
• Question: Why?
• Answer: I suggest because Hagar was never God’s idea for Abram.
Application:
Quote: Scottish novelist George MacDonald was right when he said,
"In whatever man does without God, he must fail miserably,
or succeed more miserably."
Abram and Sarai seem to badly fail:
• They were unwilling to wait on the Lord but rushed ahead with their own plans.
• They acted only to please themselves, and not to glorify God.
• They were not obeying God’s word;
• And so they certainly did not bring joy and peace to their hearts or their home.
Quote: Proverbs chapter 3 verses 5-6:
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”
• There are three commands in that verse:
• “Trust”, “lean” and “acknowledge” that’s our part!
• If we do that, the verse goes on to tell us God’s part;
• “He will make your paths straight”.
• Actually 4 times an important term is used, it’s the word “Yours”.
• “All your heart”, “your own understanding”, “in all your ways” “your paths”
Because Abram and Sarai did the opposite of proverbs chapter 3 verse 5:
• They had to face the consequences of their actions.
• Quote: “Basic physics teaches that for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction.”
• As conflicts erupt in Abram’s household;
• A chain reaction is set in motion.
(3). Fighting (verse 4b-6):
“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 servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.
6 Your servant is in your hands, Abram said. Do with her whatever you think best. Then Sarai ill-treated Hagar; so she fled from her.”
Quotes:
“When you throw dirt at people you’re not doing a thing but losing ground”.
“A bulldog can beat a skunk any day, but it just isn’t worth it!”
Well Abram and Sarai don’t come out of this episode smelling too good.
• Maybe that’s why someone has said;
• ‘Of all fights, family fights are the most painful and the most difficult to settle.’
Three consequences take place in these verses:
(1). HAGAR DESPISES SARAI (VERSE 4B).
“When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.”
• Hagar realises she has gone from being just a servant girl, a nobody;
• To being able to bear Abram a son.
• She is able to do what her mistress and Abram’s wife is unable to do;
• Hagar became proud, and this irritated her mistress.
(2). SARAI BLAMES ABRAM (VERSE 5).
“Then Sarai said to Abram, You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering”
• She seems to have forgotten;
• That it was she who had made the suggestion in the first place.
• She gave Abram the green light;
• And now she is flashing with raging red rage!
• Abram is now caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place.
• Pressure mounts, and in verse 6 he blurts out another poor decision:
6”Abram said, "All right! She’s your slave, and you can do whatever you want with her."
• Abraham’s solution was to give in to his wife and abdicate spiritual headship in the home.
• He should have had pity for a helpless servant who was pregnant,
• But instead he allows Sarah to mistreat her.
• As head of the family, he should have sorted things out, but he did not.
(3). HAGAR BECOMES A VICTIM (VERSE 6B)
“Then Sarai ill-treated Hagar; so she fled from her”
Sarai’s harsh jealousy drives Hagar away
• Her plan seemed so easy and perfect in verse 2;
• But now it has suddenly become completely derailed.
• This family who were supposed to bring blessing to all the earth;
• Have only succeeded in becoming a community of oppression.
Abram, Sarai, and Hagar:
• Were at war with each other;
• Because they were at war with the Lord,
• They had decided to seek God’s will their way, instead of his!
• And at first the plan seemed to work: there was peace in the home;
• But his peace was only a brittle, temporary truce that soon would fail.
• Because it was not the "peace of God."
(4). Submitting (verses 7-16):
“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, servant 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 so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count.
11 The angel of the LORD also said to her:
You are now with child
and you will have a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
for the LORD has heard of your misery.
12 He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
towards 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.”
Hagar was probably one of the slave girls Abram acquired from Pharaoh (12:16):
• Fed up with the mistreatment she is getting from Sarai;
• She decides to return back to her home in Egypt.
• But stopping for water at one of the springs in the Negave;
• Ashe hears her name and then two questions.
• (1). Where have you come from?
• (2). Where are you going?
Notice:
• In verse 8: Hagar answers the first question: “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,”
• But in verse 9: It is the angel who answers the question.
• He answers it with a hard command;
• “Go back and submit”.
• Maybe the angel saw the fear on Hagar’s face;
• After all she was being mistreated and now she is a runaway slave!
• Sarai has the perfect excuse to do with her what she wants!
• I would imagine Hagar is full of fear and doubt.
• So notice the angel of the Lord encourages her with a promise in verse 10:
• “I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count.”
• Now having told her the big picture in verses 11-12:
• The angel of the Lord now narrows it down to the one child she is carrying:
AND THEN HE TELLS HER SEVERAL IMPORTANT THINGS:
(1).
• She is told what to name the child (verse 11).
• She is to call him ‘Ishmael’ ("God hears").
(2).
• In verse 12:
• She is told that the child will not have an easy life.
• While he would not be Abraham’s heir in the blessings of the covenant,
• Ishmael would still enjoy blessings from God since he was Abraham’s son.
• God promised to also multiply Ishmael’s descendants and make them into great nations;
• And He did; for Ishmael is the founder of the Arab peoples.
Application:
• Hagar’s wilderness experience brought her face-to-face with God;
• It also taught her some important truths about Him.
(1).
• She learned that He is the living God who sees us and hears our cries when we hurt.
• The name of the well means "The well of One who lives and sees me."
Ill:
• Popular Victorian text was of a big eye and it contained the words
• “Thou God seeist me!”
• That sign may sound like a threat (ill: C.C.T.V. to catch you out)
• But actually it’s a promise (ill: kids play, watch from a distance)
(2). He is a personal God, concerned about abused people and unborn babies.
Ill:
A socialist once came to see the millionaire American Andrew Carnegie;
• And soon was railing against the injustice of Carnegie having so much money.
• In his view, wealth was meant to be divided equally.
• Carnegie asked his secretary for an assessment of everything he owned;
• And at the same time looked up the figures on world population.
• He did a little arithmetic on a pad and then said to his secretary.
• “Give this gentleman l6 cents. That’s his share of my wealth.”
We have a God who is concerned about justice:
• And foolish is the Christian who ignores this fact;
• We are to be salt & light in society.
• Making sure that the people are treated correctly;
• Regardless of their colour, creed, financial or whatever situation!
Quote Joseph Addison:
“There is no virtue so truly great and godlike as justice”.
(3). He knows the future and cares for those who will trust Him.
Ill:
An interesting map is on display in the British Museum in London.
• It’s an old mariner’s chart, drawn in 1525,
• Outlining the North American coastline and adjacent waters.
• The cartographer made some intriguing notations on areas of the map;
• That represented regions not yet explored.
• He wrote:
• “Here be giants,” “Here be fiery scorpions,” and “Here be dragons.”
• Eventually, the map came into the possession of Sir John Franklin,
• Who was a British explorer in the early 1800s.
• Scratching out the fearful inscriptions,
• He wrote these words across the map: “HERE IS GOD.”
As Christians we rest confidently in the knowledge:
• Whatever the futures holds for us good or bad.
• We do not face it alone, “HERE IS GOD!”
Quote:
“I know who holds the future,
and he will guide me with his hand.
With God things don’t just happen,
Everything by him is planned.
So as I face tomorrow,
With its problems large or small,
I’ll trust the God of miracles,
Give to him my all”.
(5). Obeying (verse 15-16):
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”.
This angelic encounter gave Hagar the strength to return back to Abram and Sarai:
• The record does not tell us how Sarah responded,
• But it would appear that she accepted here.
• Having heard Hagar’s report of the angelic messenger;
• Sarah did not mistreat her again; for, after all, God was watching!
Abraham also had to submit to God:
• In this entire episode, Abraham played a rather passive role.
• He let Sarah talk him into marrying Hagar,
• And he allowed Sarah to mistreat Hagar and drive her from the camp.
• It appears that Abraham did not offer to help Hagar in any way.
• But in verse 15 when his son was born,
• Abraham acknowledged him and obediently gave him the name that God had appointed.
Both Abraham and Sarah had to learn to live with their mistakes:
• If only they had waited; instead of trying to ‘second guess’ God.
• Things could have been so much easier both for them and succeeding generations.
Ill:
• An old sailor repeatedly got lost at sea,
• So his friends gave him a compass and urged him to use it.
• The next time he went out in his boat,
• He followed their advice and took the compass with him.
• But as usual he became hopelessly confused and was unable to find land.
• Finally, he was once again rescued by his friends.
• Disgusted and impatient with him, they asked,
• "Why didn’t you use that compass we gave you? You could have saved us a lot of trouble!"
The sailor responded:
"I didn’t dare to! I wanted to go north, but as hard as I tried to make the needle aim in that direction, it just kept on pointing southeast."
That old sailor was so certain he knew which way was north;
• That he stubbornly tried to force his own personal persuasion on his compass.
• As a result he was unable to benefit from the guidance it offered.
• Let us make sure we do not treat God like that man treated the compass;
• Trying to manipulate him to work our way!
• Remember the Lord’s prayer is:
• “Thy will be done” not “Thy will be done my way”
Ill:
A friend often told me about the problems he had getting his son to clean his room.
• The son would always agree to tidy up, but then wouldn’t follow through.
• After he had finished school the young man joined the Marine Corps.
• When he came home for leave after basic training,
• His father asked him what he had learned in the service.
• “Dad,” he said. “I learned what ‘now’ means.”
May each one of us tonight:
• Realise that God’s way is not only right;
• But we too need to apply it NOW!
