[00:00:00] Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us
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[00:00:37] Thank you guys so much for being here. This is really encouraging to have this many folks. A part of our study tonight. This class, of course, is Encounters with God. And so we're going to look at different encounters with God.
[00:00:50] There's no hidden agenda there. That's exactly what it is. So tonight, if you want to go ahead and open up to Genesis chapter 16, just as a quick reminder that we talked about last week, encounters with God are about the person of God. Bless you. Encounters with God can happen anywhere. Encounters are meant to produce fruit, and encounters with God always require a choice. A couple of things we're going to be doing with regularity in this class. We want to ask a couple of questions each week with all of the different encounters, and we'll get to it at the end. But specifically, what does this, what does this event, or what are these people? What does this tell us about God? Oftentimes, we come to the Bible to find out about us. But the Bible was written really to tell us about God, who He is, how he relates to his people, what he expects for his people. So as we get into our study tonight, let that be the backdrop. So we're going to start in Genesis, chapter 16. Andrew, would you mind reading verses one through three for us now? Sarai, Abraham's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, behold, now the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go unto my servant. It may be that I shall obtain children by her. And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. So after Abram had lived 10 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. All right, this is a very interesting series of events. And if you jump right into Genesis 16, you're kind of jumping in, in the middle of a story. So for us to get a little bit of context, to get where we are, we're going to go back to Genesis 12. Before we get there, I want us to look at a few things that hopefully remind you of some of the things we talked about last week. There's some elements of this excerpt in these first couple of verses that sound familiar, particularly verse two. And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. God has made a promise to Abraham that he would be the father of many nations, right? And there's about 10 years or so that have passed since that promise was made. And Abram and Sarai are getting a little antsy at this point. And so Sarai comes up with the idea that, well, perhaps, perhaps we can go ahead and get things moving along and puts forth a plan.
[00:03:07] I see a little bit of similarity if you go back to Genesis chapter three, where we talked about last week. So she took of its fruit and ate. And she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
[00:03:16] The men in both of these examples are almost bystanders that are like, okay, sure, one is to eat some fruit and the other one is different from that.
[00:03:28] So to me, that was the first thing that jumps out. And I think as we get into these encounters, it's going to be really interesting and kind of eye opening to see some threads that you may not have seen in the past. And one of the things really just over and over again reading over this this week, the idea that Abram and Sarai, soon to be Abraham and Sarah, are just really human. Like, really, really human. And they are in the midst of God's plan. They're in the midst of what he is putting forth. They make some really bad decisions. They live with the consequences of those decisions. But this is the very beginning here, where we have Adam in the garden listening to. To Eve, who had listened to the serpent, to a really bad idea, and he just kind of goes along with it. And now Abram hears a pretty bad idea and kind of goes along with it. That was one of the first things that jumps out to me. Do you have anything on that one? You're doing swell. That's the right answer. All right, so let's get a little context. Who is Hagar? Flip back a page or so to Genesis chapter 12. In verse one, it says, now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house. To the land that I will show you. And I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. So that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. And him who dishonors you, I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abram went as the Lord had told him. And Lot went with him also. In this, it's just a little bit humorous to me. There was a season of my life before I got married. Where my closest friends were a married couple. And I was referred to as their Dupree. If you remember the show. You mean Dupree. So Lot is like their Dupree is Hey, Abram and Sarah. And the third will Lot. So anyway, that was just funny to me.
[00:05:09] So Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot's brothers.
[00:05:13] And Lot, his brother's son. And all their possessions they had gathered. They had gathered. And the people that they had acquired in Haran. And they set out to go to the land of Canaan. They came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land. We're going to skip down a few verses. They go through Canaan, where they're supposed to go. They set up some altars there to remember God. And then in verse 10, it says now there was a famine in the land. And so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there. For the famine was severe in the land. When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai, his wife, I know that you're a woman, beautiful in appearance. And when the Egyptians see you, they will say, this is his wife. Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Excuse me. I get real emotional at this part.
[00:05:54] Say you are my sister. That it may go well with me because of you. And that my life may be spared for your sake. When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. And for her sake, he dealt well with Abram. And he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys and camels.
[00:06:17] I used to think that First Corinthians 6 was the pilot episode of the Jerry Springer Show. Where a man has a sexual relationship with his father's wife.
[00:06:25] But turns out it was a lot earlier. And here we have Abraham that's aware Abram that's aware of what's going to happen. Because his wife is very good looking. Pharaoh is Going to take her into his house. And that's not. Hey, come on in for a dinner party. We're going to play Scattergories. It's going to be very fun, very civil.
[00:06:42] This is a harem. You are here for sexual purposes. This is a very.
[00:06:49] I can't conceive of this situation. This is the first indecent proposal. Maybe that's a better analogy, where in order for Abram to live, he offers his wife to a foreign man.
[00:07:00] And in return, what does Abram receive? What does it say?
[00:07:07] She boxes. Male donkeys, male servants, female servants. There you go. Livestock and servants.
[00:07:13] Now we're going to see that when Lot's in trouble, abram takes like 300 men and goes and rescues him.
[00:07:20] But here he offers his wife as an escape for him. This is one way to look at it, which may be the right way.
[00:07:27] Verse 17, it says, the Lord afflicted Pharaoh at his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. Pharaoh called Abram and said, what is this that you've done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, she is my sister so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her. Go. And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had. So he ends up getting his wife back, and he gets apparently all of those things that were given to him, and he goes on about his way. This is really important because it's very likely that Hagar was a part of the female servants that were given to him.
[00:08:03] So when you think of Hagar, she is not a person with rights. And up to this point, she's largely unnamed by the people and events that are happening. She's named by the author of Genesis, right? But she's not necessarily named by the people in the story just yet.
[00:08:20] She is an object.
[00:08:22] And so he takes a part of the wealth that he's been given after he also gave up his wife.
[00:08:29] That's a really big context to remember that when you get to Genesis chapter 16, and we have this dynamic between Sarai, who is unable to have children.
[00:08:39] She then gives her possession, her servant girl, Hagar, to then go to a foreign man. Because Hagar is Egyptian, she gives her to a foreign man, which would be Abram, for sexual purposes, to be the surrogate mother of his child. Because she can't. I think there's some. This builds in a lot of dynamics. This builds in some power struggles that we'll see. But ultimately, when you look at Hagar, she's kind of a remarkable person. Right. She was likely given to Abram as a gift from Pharaoh in exchange for Sarai. This is a really awkward situation.
[00:09:19] He gives up his wife for his own safety.
[00:09:22] I don't know what the right decision is there.
[00:09:25] But I go back to our first point, was that Abram and Sarai, very integral to God's plan.
[00:09:32] Very, very broken people. And we're going to see that over and over again. I do think we look at the Great hall of Faith sort of the way we look at some past generations. You think of, like, the greatest generation, all of the tremendous things that they went through, they get that title of greatest generation. It's really, really difficult things in their lifetime. But there are also some things that weren't great. Civil rights weren't really a thing in the heart of their generation. We had some. We had segregation. That was a part of their culture. So every generation has faults and has blessings, and every person in scripture has that as well. To me, that's one of these first truths that jump out there. You got anything to. No, I was just. It is important to know, going into chapter 16, kind of like you said, how vulnerable Hagar was, which also makes it pretty remarkable what she's going to say in a little bit. But I just kind of want you all to hold onto that and also think about her situation. If you remember Esther's narrative, it's kind of similar how put in a spot she did not ask to be in, but yet noticing what God does with her vulnerability. So we'll get into that in just a second. And that key part, she doesn't ask for any of this. There are things that happen to her that seem to be completely outside of her control and her input, but they are life altering. Yeah. So let's go back to chapter 16, and this is where we see the change in power. Would you mind reading four through six? Yes. And he went into Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. And Sarai said to Abram, may the wrong done to me be on you.
[00:11:14] 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. 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. So what's happened here? A lot. Yeah.
[00:11:39] So he went To Hagar, she conceived. All right? So she gets pregnant. When she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. So what's happened there in the Hagar Sarai dynamic?
[00:11:52] Jealousy. She feels like she has power now.
[00:11:56] Okay, why is that? Because she is carrying the air in her mind, being viewed as less than, but now can do more.
[00:12:07] She plays a huge role. She also can do the one thing that Sarai, up to this point, cannot do.
[00:12:14] So I think it's interesting that Sarai did to someone else what she had done to her. When we were in college, roughly the same time, we went through what was called pledge week, which was brothers in Christ largely hazing one another viciously and weirdly at times.
[00:12:35] It was a week of a lot of physical labor that didn't always have a point. We would ask, why are we doing this? And they would tell you, it's team building and all that. But really it was because somebody made them do it. Whoever was putting you through that. You ever met somebody that maybe have an older sibling or something that does to you what was done to them? That's what's happened here.
[00:12:55] Sarai. I can't imagine the emotional.
[00:13:00] I guess the word is trauma. What would have happened to be given by your husband. And of course, you want your husband to live to be in that situation. And you don't just move on from that. Right. We turn the page. But for the humanity here, that's a part of who she is now, those events.
[00:13:17] And I think from her, what I see here is from her hurt, her pain, maybe she then actually does the same thing to another woman, what was done to her.
[00:13:29] And I think there's something for us to stop for just a minute and think on that part of it that too often we don't reconcile. Well, we don't always reconcile with people, and we don't always reconcile with events, particularly things that have happened to us outside our control.
[00:13:46] That's a really, really hard.
[00:13:49] That's a hard one, I think, for anyone of any age, because there's a lot of us that are older in life that are probably still trying to work through things that happened at a really young age in life. And so these dynamics at play in these two women, they go far beyond just the excerpts in this particular moment.
[00:14:09] Anything jump out to you guys with that in mind? There you go. Hurt people. Hurt people. That's right.
[00:14:16] That's right.
[00:14:19] So it seems to me, reading down through verse seven and eight, that it's almost like Hagar didn't know that Was defiant, Right. So it says. And I'm reading through the King James version, right? So the mistress here is Sarah in the context.
[00:14:49] Right. Because when the angel shows up later on, it tells Hagar to go back to your mistress and basically follow her feet. Right? Right. So I don't know. It's almost, to me, like, Hagar kind of got, I don't know, hoodwinked a little bit in this situation, but I don't know.
[00:15:17] I don't know.
[00:15:20] Well, Sarah's upset because her plan worked, Right.
[00:15:27] So my translation in NIV says that she began to despise her mistress, which gives me different feelings. Like, I was almost confused when you guys were talking because, like, looking with contempt is like, she's looking down on Sarai, like she has power over her. But the way that I read that, like, with despise was like, I hate that you put me in this situation with abroad. And so, like, my first read through the NIV version, I was like, totally different wavelength. So I thought that that was interesting, the discrepancy between the two, because I think they kind of convey a couple of different angles there. Yeah, different commentators actually do have the same thing. They see it from different angles. I. What's your Hebrew?
[00:16:15] Yeah, I couldn't tell from looking at the lexicon stuff that I know how to use it. It didn't give me 100%. It was both two of them saying with the amplified Bible, it says she looked with contempt on her mistress and in parentheses, regarding Sarai as insignificant because of her infertility.
[00:16:36] That's an amplified translation. Okay.
[00:16:40] I think it could be both. Yeah, both make sense. Both make sense. Yeah.
[00:16:46] Yes, ma'am. Some of the definition of the five is the test. Loathe and hate.
[00:16:55] So that would be a description of how her feelings were towards her mistress, right?
[00:17:02] No, no.
[00:17:04] Yes, sir. So you talked about her being someone with no authority and no power and being put in this position.
[00:17:14] I mean, you know, what if. What if Hagar didn't want to be, you know, Abrams wife? What if. What if she didn't want to have a child? What if that wasn't what she wanted? Now she's been put in this position. I just can't even imagine what that would be like, you know, I mean, we don't know. It doesn't say. But, you know, she goes back to Sarah, and then Sarah, I dealt harshly with her, and she ran away.
[00:17:42] She didn't run away before that. We don't know how much silence passed. But presumably she could run away at Any time. Yeah. That's when she ran away. Yep. Less than nine months is about the best we can gather on that. And I think, keep in mind, all of this going back to it was either verse one or two, where you can tell there's already anger in Sarah's heart, which again, rightfully, because this is 25 years of waiting. That's a long time to wait. Three years is a long time to wait. Two years is a long time to wait. 25 years is a very long time to wait. But if you remember what it said in verse one, it was one or two. It said, the Lord prevented me from having this child. So she already has this frustration.
[00:18:29] And there's also thoughts. Did actually God prevent her from having. You know, we don't know that, but she was looking.
[00:18:41] Her pattern of behavior so far is. And we can't. And I'm not justifying what she's doing, but I'm also not saying that. I mean, being in that position, I cannot imagine what she might be feeling going through. Especially when she sees other people that have been able to live out the very thing she has not been able to live. But she has acted so far as if she is justified in her behavior because God has prevented. And that's the challenge is even if something hasn't been allowed, we can't let ourselves be okay with justifying what we're doing based on our own viewpoint. I guess it's like they had the.
[00:19:22] I don't know if this analogy of work. They had the picture of the box of the puzzle because God said, this is what I'm going to do. But they were trying to put pieces together at this point and didn't realize that the pieces were actually. They were putting the cardboard side together. Right. When you flip it over, you start to see the clarity. I think it's really easy to do that, particularly when it comes to. To waiting. This can be one of the points we dive into here in just a moment. Yeah. And that's what I was going to get is that, you know, don't we all kind of feel that way sometimes that, well, I did this because I've been waiting this long or I've been looking for something. And we almost justify ourselves, our minds, while we do what we do. And so that's kind of trying to frame that a little bit. But yes, just a footstep. I mean, we've already talked about it, but Taygar was so. Her situation was so bad, at least her. That she left while pregnant into the wilderness that to Me sounds like certain death back at then, I mean, what was she's walking back to Egypt through desert. Yeah. As a pregnant lady. But that's to her also too. Like you said that her plan didn't work, but like her original plan was that so she could obtain children through Hagar. And so then probably she realized that her plan didn't work because Hagar started looking bad on her and she realized that's not going to be her child. Yep. Well, in this culture, if you were someone's servant in this situation, being Sarai's servant the way, and there's some commentaries on how this actually works, but essentially legally, then that child would be regarded as Sarah's. So there's ownership here, I think, on some deeper levels as well. But the child born to her servant would be essentially legally child born to her. Yes. So it said that the Greek word for despised or contempt is qalal, which is spelled with a Q, and that the usage is from the Hebrew verb kallel primarily conveys the idea of being light or slight in a figurative sense. It can mean to make light of something, to treat it with contempt or disrespect, or to curse. The term is used in various contexts, including the belittling of people, objects, or even divine commands. It can also imply a reduction in status or value. It goes on to say that in ancient Hebrew culture, words carried significant weight when the act of cursing or belittled was taken seriously. And the concept of halal reflects a worldview where honor and. And respect for paramount. And to make light of someone or something was to undermine their dignity or worth. And this was especially important in a society where social and familial relationships were tightly knit and hierarchical.
[00:22:20] Add to that the status of being able to bear a child and the status of not being able to bear a child. So it seems to me Sarai is coming from hurt, insecurity, all of those places with this. And again, as was very succinctly said, hurt people, hurt people.
[00:22:42] I mean, the treatment of Hagar by Sarah is bad enough, but the way she treats God is yet another level on that, because at the same time that she's basically shunning God and saying, you didn't do what you promised because the time frame didn't fit what I expected.
[00:23:04] But I'm still going to hold on to that promise. At the same time, I'm just going to do it my way. Right. So it's interesting to me that she's pushing him aside and saying, you didn't fulfill Your promise, but I'm going to take over. And then once what I decide to do bears fruit, in this case, a child, then I want you to come back into the picture and pick up where you left off and take up, you know, I'm gonna help you. Yeah, basically. So it's a shunning of God, but expecting God to be there for her at the end of the day after she gets through with this, you know, sidetrack that she's taking. Right. Can I take it a different route? Sure. I mean, there's a. There's a promise being made to Abram, and she's the fulfillment of that promise. Right. It comes through her.
[00:23:55] And having been. Maybe she felt unworthy for 25 years of being able to do her part, maybe God saw. She saw that, or she thought that God said, you're not worthy of this, at least not yet. So, I mean, that could do a lot to you. Yeah. When you're waiting, your mind goes in a lot of directions and. Yeah.
[00:24:20] Because God can't answer no. Like, his answer can be no. And that's really hard when you're waiting because you don't know. Well, it could be, you know, 20 years from now, 30 years from now. Or his answer could be no. Yeah. Hunter, did you have. I was gonna say, if I'm doing the math right, she's 76 years old at this point.
[00:24:40] So I don't know how the age of menopause works.
[00:24:47] We are not prepared to cover that in this class.
[00:24:50] This is Jason's week. Hunter, what's the Hebrew word for no? Just kidding.
[00:24:55] You can easily see a house. She's probably thinking, like, am I going crazy here, or am I supposed to have a child a different way? Yeah. From what I had read, life expectancy at this particular time is still greater than what we generally have today.
[00:25:10] But she's not young by any means. It would be upper middle age kind of thing. Still. Definitely beyond childbearing and rearing age. Oh, yes.
[00:25:23] I obviously gone over this story a couple of times, and I think when you read through it initially, it's easy to say, like, oh, Hagar did have contempt for Sarai. Right. But I think, like, reading this more in depth, my big question is, did Hagar really actually have contempt for Sarai? Right. And I guess my perspective now looking at this is, did Sarai have contempt for herself?
[00:26:03] And then putting that feeling on somebody else onto Hagar and saying, she's got contempt for me?
[00:26:13] And so I just thought that was interesting and not that these two Equate. But I, you know, it's like if somebody abuses or hurts somebody else, especially with you, they usually have contempt for that person that they hurt. That is directed in that way. So I'm not, you know, saying to that level or trying to connect it on that level, but it is a pattern that a lot of times when our hurt is directed. Yeah. Do you think it's reasonable hurt? Sarai's like her actions here. Is that reasonable?
[00:26:45] What she tried to do came. You think so?
[00:26:48] I mess up all the time. Think I take things in my own hands that God may have laid out for me. So I'm better than her.
[00:27:00] Sarah dealt harshly with her when Abram told her that. Do with her what you will. Yeah. And I'm thinking, if it were me in Hagar's position, she's dealing harshly with me, me, who knows what that means. And if, if, if Sarai is going to basically own that baby, she may be concerned how she's going to deal with him and then flee.
[00:27:29] Yeah. He's been passive twice. So he's been passive twice. He is a husband. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I have found in life that in the moment, it's very reasonable to do anything when I'm. Particularly when I'm desperate. Right. Or I'm feeling desperate, I'm feeling the intensity of the moment. Hindsight is what gives clarity. I think, again, this makes sense in my mind. Hopefully makes sense out loud as well. For Peter to get out of the boat and to walk on water seems unreasonable until you realize who's calling him out of the boat.
[00:28:09] For Peter to look at the wind and waves as he's walking on water in the middle of a storm seems like a reasonable response. Until you realize that Jesus has called you to walk on water. And then from the perspective of faith, it's unreasonable. Right. And I think that is the challenge, is that to walk by faith and not by sight is really, really difficult.
[00:28:35] It's really hard at every stage of life. Has become more and more apparent. Right. As you get older, hopefully wiser, more mature in the faith, then generally you take on heavier things. So it's not that it gets easier, it's that that wisdom equips you further. Yes, ma'am. Speaking as someone who can relate to Sarai, it's just especially when you see other friends starting to have something that you want and you're desperate for that, you're going to do whatever you can do to get your hands on it. And not saying that, you know. Yeah. There's so much more medical miracles now today than there were back then. But, I mean, at the same time, it's just it.
[00:29:20] It puts things into perspective sometimes where you're looking at Sarai, who's like, well, I'm giving Hagar to Abram, and things may work, things may not work. And then it does work, and then you're like, what's up, God? Yeah. Yeah.
[00:29:39] Yes, Ronnie. My experience with difficulty is I can see patterns of when I take my eyes off the Lord and then I experience inwardness and within my inwardness is where I would make my decisions. And so with this situation with Hagar and Sarah, Sarah could be experiencing her doubt within herself and in her God because she took her eyes off the Lord and was internalizing all her pain and grief. And just like the lady said at the front, seeing other women having their babies and celebrating. So in today's society, it is so very easy to get our eyes off the Lord. We're not in the Scriptures because we're so busy living this life of survival and what we have to do on a daily basis versus when I experienced my own process of digging more into the Scriptures. Life is so much different in my choices and my thoughts. My thought patterns are so different when I have my eyes on the Lord versus inward and on the world.
[00:30:50] That's great. To your point about her thinking in the moment and not having hindsight.
[00:30:58] It's been 25 years and nothing has happened.
[00:31:05] I know the Lord's going to bring it about, but how is he going to do it? Maybe this is the way he would want to do it, or maybe this is the way he's chosen to do it. Not justifying her, but just trying to think like she might have thought after 25 years. Yeah, but like Corley said, it's easy to justify in your mind why something and feel like if you feel like you're supposed to be the fulfillment of that promise, as Cam said, then okay, well, if I broke it, I need to fix it is almost the mentality. Maybe you want to read on. All right. The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness. The spring on the way to Shur. 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.
[00:31:53] So from my best guesstimate here, we're talking multiple weeks journey from where she is to where she's going. Again, the text doesn't give any indication that there's anyone else with her. It's A pregnant single lady walking back home by herself, and she is found by the spring of water by the angel of the Lord.
[00:32:15] This, to my knowledge, is the first time we have the angel of the Lord phrase used. The first encounter in Scripture of the angel of the Lord. There are some similarities that we've already noted about God's presence, or the word of the Lord seem to be used similarly, those phrases. But there's some connections here that I want us to look at. First, what's familiar in verse 8? Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going? Remember we talked about in Genesis, in Genesis 3, the question is there, where are you? Who told you? Have you eaten? What have you done? These seemingly rhetorical questions, sort of the parental approach of what'd you do? Right. Giving them the opportunity to say that. But I think it's interesting. Well, first, I'm curious, is there anything interesting about the specific questions asked to Hagar? And if so, why do you think those are the questions that are asked there? I'd see if she was in her right mind, wake up from a coma, and somebody said, yeah, whose favorite. Yeah, yeah, okay. General wellness. Well, I also think it's interesting that it starts with her name and who. Her mystery, you know, who her owner is, and then it says, where have you come from?
[00:33:35] You know, because that, I mean, the angel of the Lord is acknowledging where she came from. Yeah. By stating her name and who she belongs to. So I just think that that's interesting to me that, you know, I'd be like, well, you already know who I am, you know, So I don't know, maybe it's the.
[00:34:00] Where have you come from? As what is your mindset?
[00:34:03] And what, What. What is your.
[00:34:07] Yeah. Where. Where are you right now? And maybe even deeper than that, when someone speaks your name, that's significant if you meet a celebrity and they know your name personally. Right.
[00:34:21] Forgive me, but Turbo man jingle all the way.
[00:34:25] He knows my name. Right. What was the kid's name? I don't remember now.
[00:34:31] Anyway, I had a really good Arnold Schwarzenegger. Jamie. Wow. So not that great. But that was good. Good reference, Heidi. Anyway, he knows his name, right. It's Christmas time. Ish.
[00:34:41] He knows his name. And there's something very. I think there's a connection there. There's identity there. There's something empowering about just him knowing her name. That this person that seems to have been only singled out for bad things, to be taken captive and then to be surrogate, seemingly without choice. On both of those, I think starting with the name is significant. Very good. The angel was looking for her.
[00:35:12] Was she looking for God?
[00:35:14] Was she looking for God? I don't think so. There's no indication of that. Maybe. But he was pursuing her. She's also Egyptian. She's not an Israelite. Right. So I think that's also significant. And what he just said is going to be very important, that he was after her. Yep, in just a second.
[00:35:32] The second question, where are you going? She. She never answers. It's interesting. She says where she's from. I'm sure she's not where she's going. She's like, I'm running away from this. Which I guess kind of implies anywhere but here. But she probably didn't know where she was. Yeah, that's right. Right. It's interesting that when God asks that question, he then follows it up with an answer to his own question. He's like, oh, you should go back here. And then if you do that, these are the things that the questions actually come with instruction.
[00:36:06] Right. And purpose. All right, we'll keep moving.
[00:36:11] 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. 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.
[00:36:32] I can't help but, of course, we're looking at hindsight. I can't help but go to Exodus 3 at the burning bush. And we're going to get more in depth in this particular encounter in a couple of weeks. But in the same way that that Moses is told to go back to a place that has a whole lot of trauma, has a whole lot of hurt, has a whole lot of pain, a place that he's been running from. Hagar is told to go back to the place from where she's running from, when she's running, however you say it, go back.
[00:37:03] And not only that, the people she's returning to apparently receive her.
[00:37:10] So think about this when you come back before we get to her response, imagine if you're Abram and Sarai.
[00:37:22] Sarai in particular put this whole series of circumstances into action. Oh, man. Time. And Abram kind of watched it and then said, do what you wish. And then she runs away.
[00:37:34] We can have a lot of conjecture on what those emotions were, and probably all of them are right.
[00:37:40] This is what Hagar is armed with to bring back this is her above there. The angel gave her the same promise that he gave Abraham.
[00:37:52] Well, I will multiply your descendants so they can't be counted.
[00:37:57] Yeah, I got some good news and I got some bad news. Right. That's sort of this situation really, really big good news. You're going to go back. There's going to be a lot of multiplying here. The bad news is he's going to be a wild man. There's going to be enmity here. Right. We're still seeing this at play today in the Middle East. Right?
[00:38:21] Okay, let's keep going. All right. So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her. You are a God of seeing. For she said, truly, I have seen him who looks after me. Therefore the well was called Bear la ha roi. It lies between Kadesh and Bered. So to kind of go back to what Hadi said, Elroy, the God who sees me. And just because I couldn't resist, Elroy, the God who sees me, the God who knows my name.
[00:38:52] Can you think of another instance where there was a woman who was seen by Jesus that was near a body of water? What's that? The Samaritan woman, John 4.
[00:39:06] She goes into town and says, come and see a man that told me everything.
[00:39:10] And further along in that verse, I can't remember where I put that one.
[00:39:14] Never mind. The response of the people is that we no longer believe because you've told us. We believe because we have seen with our own eyes. I think there's a little bit of connection here where she goes back with this promise, with these words. Abram accepts that she then has the baby. Ishmael is born back where he's supposed to be born. There's, I think, in that an acceptance of God's, of God's words.
[00:39:39] Abraham and Sarah had to reconcile what God had said, his decision here. And there's sort of this be still moment that you have to move forward this way. This is what I say. Yeah. And what's interesting about that, El Roy. El is of course, God, usually. Well, that's where that refers to. Roy was seeing. But that was the first time, I think, in the Old Testament that somebody else named God. And so that's pretty incredible if you think about, she came from a servant, was a servant of Pharaoh. Now she's naming God, like seeing him like that. And then one of the things I saw this morning was that was also the same Hebrew word for shepherd. So she's feeling shepherded even amidst all of this, which is a lot Pretty remarkable. Yeah.
[00:40:31] Not to race through these, but we do have just a few minutes. So a few things that I see in Hagar's return. One, our actions have consequences. Her return was a reminder of what Sarai did and what Abram did to begin with. The birth of Ishmael was a reminder of their actions. Right.
[00:40:50] I do think that. I don't think that God intends for us to sit in the shame and regret of our actions, but I do think oftentimes we have to live with some consequences longer than others.
[00:41:01] And I think God intends for us to move forward even alongside those consequences sometimes. And maybe the consequence is not always the right word there. But these guys are in the lineage of the promise. The promise runs straight through Abraham to us today through Christ.
[00:41:20] All of this still came about in the context of God's plan, even with some off ramps here of humanity.
[00:41:30] Hagar's act of faith, her submission to the angel of the Lord. She acted in faith and went back.
[00:41:37] She returned to the place that she hated so much. She was leaving that she was hurt. All of that is right there. That is huge for her willingness to go back. And ultimately, because God saw Hagar. Hagar return because of the words that Hagar reported to Abram, Abram received Hagar back.
[00:41:59] And I think that's also significant. Again, in our faithfulness, there is collateral impact to the people around us.
[00:42:10] Even in the most bizarre and most painful sometimes of circumstances, our faithfulness will always stand in contrast to unfaithfulness, always stand in contrast to what the world has to offer. And I don't think that's a small truth to overlook either. And Hagar bore Abram a son. And Abram called the name of his son whom Hagar bore ishmael. Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
[00:42:39] So we're still not fully getting what Abram and Sarai were hoping. But a few things that this tells us about them is that impatience can cause us to do some extreme things. And in the moment, extreme things that seem reasonable or they seem like the right thing to do, that oftentimes only distance from that moment, only distance gives us clarity.
[00:43:04] It's hard.
[00:43:06] And one. To me, one benefit of the church and the design of the church is that there's a collective wisdom of experience that when we don't actually let other people into our lives and share. That was poorly timed. We don't actually share what's going on in our worlds with each other. These kinds of really difficult things. We rob ourselves of the opportunity then to walk with each other and to learn from the collective wisdom, not only of scripture, so great a cloud of witnesses, but also the cloud of witnesses, so to speak, that we interact with weekly. I think there's a big loss there when we don't allow ourselves to be in each other's lives.
[00:43:42] Yeah. I love what you mentioned about waiting being faith, because I know when we think of waiting, the whole time we're just thinking, all right, what's the end result? But the waiting is usually what happens in me while I wait. That's the value of it, is how can I grow in this? And maybe the that is the we feel like there's a doing part. But yeah, waiting is also doing. Yeah. Yeah. Jason. Yes. Just real quick, is it really is it really impatience, though? And all kidding aside on the menopausal comment, but reading ahead, when the Lord gives heads up to Abraham, Abraham that he's going to have a son, he says, Abraham fell to the ground laughing and said, you're kidding me in paraphrasing. And then the next chapter over, when the three men show up in tent. Yeah, they can tell you that he's going to have a son. Sarah's listening to it, says, there's no way I can't bear children. So was Sarah really being impatient?
[00:44:43] Well, she took action.
[00:44:45] So I feel like impatient may be the right word there. Maybe not. I don't know what other words you would use. She took action after time because whatever result she thought was supposed to come and not come.
[00:44:58] That's, I guess, why I use the word impatience there.
[00:45:02] But that's a good point. Yes, ma'am.
[00:45:05] Maybe desperation is a better term.
[00:45:09] Anyway, just a couple of those last ones there. That God brings about his will and his timing, his ways and not our ways. And I know we hear that a lot. That's one of those that gets monogrammed at Hobby Lobby and stuff. But it's a biblical truth and unfortunately, we oftentimes have to be reminded of that one the hard way.
[00:45:27] Often.
[00:45:29] Anyway, thank you so much for your comments on a great discussion this evening. And Lord willing, we'll be back on Sunday and we'll do this again next Wednesday. Y'all have a great week. Yeah.
