2024.04.28. Sermon Notes. Elroi – The GOD Who Sees. Abram, Hagar, Ishmael, Elroi
William Akehurst, HSWC
BIG IDEA: GOD’s Plans are best and in HIS own timing. Sometimes with knowledge of what is to come, we try to take matters into our own hands, move things along, only to find that we’ve gone the wrong way, and if we had only waited on the LORD, HIS plans would have been fulfilled. But GOD is the GOD Who sees, and will redirect us when we go off track.
Scriptures: Genesis 14:18-20, Genesis 15:1-19, Genesis 16:1-16, 1 Peter 2:20
Last time, we were introduced to Melchizedek who blesses Abram. Even before the Passover had occurred, Melchizedek presents a blessing with bread and wine to Abram, as a Common Union, or communion.
Melchizedek is noted as a King and High Priest throughout all of scripture. He has no origin and yet his legacy is significant even to this day.
We see a comparison to JESUS as our KING and PRIEST. We understand that JESUS at the Last Supper took both the bread and wine of the Passover meal and presented these elements as HIS Body, the bread, and HIS Blood, the wine, representing the New Covenant moving forward.
What’s interesting is that Melchizedek presents this blessing before it became established as a standard for a covenantal agreement. Like with the Bride and Groom’s covenant in Galilee (referencing “Before The Wrath” movie.)
Genesis 14:18-20 (Melchizedek’s Blessing to Abram)
18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. 19 And he blessed him and said:
“Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth;
20 And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” And he gave him a tithe of all.
FROM THAT BLESSING, GOD ENCOURAGES ABRAM (VS 15:1). GOD’S COVENANT IS MADE KNOWN TO ABRAM. THOSE WHO COME AFTER ABRAM WILL ALSO BE BLESSED.
Genesis 15:1-19 (NKJV)
God’s Covenant with Abram (Heb. 11:8–10)
GOD ENCOURAGES ABRAM (Vs. 1)
1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
THE DIVINE PROMISE, ABRAM IS JUSTIFIED BY FAITH (2-6)
2 But Abram said, “Lord GOD, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!”
ABRAM WAS TRYING TO UNDERSTAND WHAT GOD WAS SAYING.
GOD MADE HIS PROMISE TO ABRAM AND ABRAM’S HEIRS, BUT ABRAM HAD NO CHILDREN.
4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.”
PROPHECY EXPLAINED:
ONE WILL NOT BE YOUR HEIR, Hagar and Ishmael.
BUT THE ONE WHO COMES FROM YOUR OWN BODY WILL BE. Sarai and Isaac.
MARRIAGE PRINCIPLE. MAN AND WOMAN, THE 2 SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.
Abram was married to Saria, therefore “from his own body.”
5 Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
THE WORD OF THE LORD. LOOK TOWARD HEAVEN AND COUNT THE STARS, YOU CAN’T; SO SHALL YOUR DESCENDANTS BE.
6 And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
ABRAM BELIEVED, AND GOD COUNTED ABRAM’S FAITH FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
GOD PROMISES CANAAN TO ABRAHAM FOR AN INHERITANCE. (7-11)
7 Then He said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.”
8 And he said, “Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?”
9 So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. 11 And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
THE PROMISE CONFIRMED IN A VISION. (12-16)
12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him.
13 Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years.
REFERRING TO THE 400 YEARS IN CAPTIVITY IN EGYPT AFTER JOSEPH.
14 And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
REFERENCE TO THE EXODUS FROM EGYPT. MOSES “LET MY PEOPLE GO”.
15 Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. 16 But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
THE PROMISE CONFIRMED BY A SIGN. (17-21)
17 And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. 18 On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying:
“To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates— 19 the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
SARAI GIVES HAGAR TO ABRAM. (1-3)
Genesis 16:1-16 (NKJV)
1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. 3 Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan.
SARAI’S UNBELIEF
Sarai didn’t believe she could have children herself, and without inquiring of the LORD, she proposed a remedy of her own understanding. Abram would take her slave, Hagar, to have children on behalf of herself.
Anxiousness, lack of faith, and unbelief took over and GOD’S POWER was forgotten.
When we allow our thoughts to override GOD’S thoughts, we run astray. ABRAM was told by GOD that it would be his own descendants. Sarai’s discussion with Abram potentially caused doubt in Abram’s mind, and swayed him into Sarai’s thinking.
Scripture reminds us that our thoughts are not HIS THOUGHTS, nor our ways HIS WAYS. It’s important to Seek the LORD’s guidance and to ask HOLY SPIRIT to lead us in truth.
BE CAREFUL of seeking the counsel of others. Seek the LORD for the answers, and wait upon HIM.
(4-6) HAGAR’S MISBEHAVIOR TO SARAI.
4 So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes.
HAGAR BEING PREGNANT, LOOKED DOWN UPON SARAI.
IT WASN’T ABRAM WHO COULDN’T HAVE CHILDREN, IT WAS SARAI.
HAGAR APPARENTLY MADE THIS VERY EVIDENT TO SARAI.
5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The LORD judge between you and me.”
CALL IT THE BLAME GAME, JEALOUSY, BITTERNESS.
SARAI HAD GIVEN HER MAID TO ABRAM, AND YET SHE CRIES OUT, “MY WRONG IS UPON YOU”. AND TRUTHFULLY, ABRAM COULD HAVE SAID NO. HE COULD HAVE WAITED ON THE LORD. BUT INSTEAD, HE DID WHAT HIS WIFE TOLD HIM TO DO.
6 So Abram said to Sarai, “Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please.” And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence.
ABRAM’S PUSHBACK TO SARAI.
WE HAVE ALL MADE MISTAKES IN LIFE, AND MUST BEAR THE CONSEQUENCES OF OUR OWN ACTIONS RATHER THAN REACT TO BLAME OTHERS WITH OUR ACTIONS.
1 Peter 2:20 For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.
(7-16) THE ANGEL COMMANDS HAGAR TO RETURN, THE PROMISE TO HER, BIRTH OF ISHMAEL.
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 And He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.”
9 The Angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand.” 10 Then the Angel of the LORD said to her, “I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.” 11 And the Angel of the LORD said to her:
“Behold, you are with child,
And you shall bear a son.
You shall call his name Ishmael,
Because the LORD has heard your affliction.
12 He shall be a wild man;
His hand shall be against every man,
And every man’s hand against him.
And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.”
“EL ROI (THE GOD WHO SEES) WAS HERE”
13 Then she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, “Have I also here seen Him who sees me?”
14 Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; observe, it is between Kadesh and Bered.
15 So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
Vs. 7-16. HAGAR LEFT ABRAM AND SARAI’S HOUSEHOLD, TO RETURN TO HER ORIGIN. THE ANGEL FOUND HER, AND ASKED…
WHERE HAVE YOU COME FROM?
It’s a question for us too. Are you running from something? We too must examine where we have come from.
Hagar was running from her duties to Abram, as well as the privileges that she was blessed with in Abram’s care.
WHERE ARE YOU GOING?
Hagar was headed back to Egypt. The land of false gods and idols.
Are you running INTO sin? If Hagar returned to Egypt, she would return to idol gods and danger in her travel.
REMEMBERING WHO WE ARE SHOULD REMIND US OF OUR RESPONSIBILITY.
EXAMINING WHERE WE COME FROM, SHOWS US OUR SIN AND FOOLISHNESS.
CONSIDERING WHERE WE WILL GO, UNCOVERS POTENTIAL DANGER, RISK AND OUR OWN MISERY AND MALCONTENT.
AND THOSE WHO LEAVE THEIR PLACE AND RESPONSIBILITY, MUST RUSH TO THEIR RETURN, NO MATTER HOW MORTIFYING IT MIGHT BE.
THE ANGEL’S DECLARATION, “I WILL” SHOWS THAT THIS IS NOT SIMPLY AN ANGEL, BUT THE LORD GOD.
HAGAR’S RESPONSE WAS FOR HER TO REALIZE THAT GOD WAS BEING MERCIFUL AND GRACIOUS TO HER, SO THAT SHE WOULD RETURN TO SARAI WITH A BETTER MINDSET.
KNOWING THE OUTCOME OF ABRAHAM, ISAAC AND JACOB, WE ANTICIPATE WHAT COMES NEXT IN THE ACCOUNT OF ABRAHAM’S BLESSING.
BUT THIS VARIABLE OF ABRAM, HAGAR AND ISHMAEL WILL ALSO FIND IT’S PLACE IN HISTORY, AND THE CONFLICT BETWEEN HAGAR AND SARAH’S OFFSPRING, CONTINUE TO THIS DAY.
HOW MANY TIMES HAVE WE ANTICIPATED GOD’S ANSWERS, AND TAKEN THINGS INTO OUR OWN HANDS.
HOW MANY TIMES HAVE WE ATTEMPTED SOMETHING DIFFERENT ONLY TO REALIZE THAT IF WE HAD STAYED THE COURSE, THINGS WOULD HAVE TURNED OUT BETTER?
WHILE WE ARE TO TAKE STEPS OF FAITH, DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE “THE GOD WHO SEES” AND HIS PLANS FOR YOU IN HIS TIMING FOR HIS PURPOSE.
THIS IS NOT TO SIT BACK AND DO NOTHING, BUT ALSO TO NOT BE SO ANXIOUS THAT WE ATTEMPT THINGS FROM OUR OWN UNDERSTANDING.
AND WHEN WE GO THE WRONG DIRECTION, REMEMBER, THAT THIS “GOD WHO SEES”, IS THERE WATCHING AND WAITING FOR US TO ACKNOWLEDGE HIM, SO THAT HE CAN REDIRECT OUR PATHS, USING OUR MISTAKES FOR HIS GLORY.
PRAYER,
FATHER, help us to fully rely on you. To trust YOU even in the waiting periods of life. To believe in YOUR Promises and stay the course of growing in YOU and digging deeper into YOUR WORD. In JESUS NAME. Amen.
Be blessed and be a blessing,
Bill
