Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev19991003.htm

GENESIS: THE SOURCES OF GOOD AND CALAMITY IN OUR ORIGINS
Part III - God's Ongoing Program Of Countering Man's Apostasy At Babel
F. Round Five: The Battle Of Faith Regarding WAITING On GOD'S Lead To Accomplish His Will
(Genesis 16:1-16)
  1. Introduction
    1. A great temptation exists in a live of faith for the believer who sees life passing him by with what appears he may have little to show for it. That temptation is to "help God out" independent of God's leading!
    2. Abram learned the hard way not to "help God along"! His experience provides a great lesson for us today!
  2. The Battle Of Faith Regarding WAITING On GOD'S Lead To Accomplish His Will, Genesis 16:1-16
    1. God had promised Abram to have offspring from his body to inherit his possessions and one day to inhabit the land of Palestine, Genesis 15:3-5, 18-21. Abram knew God wanted him physically to produce a child.
    2. However, Abram's wife, Sarai had remained childless since her marriage to Abram, Gen. 11:30; 16:1a, and that for a period of time to where Abram had become concerned who would inherit his wealth, 15:2-3.
    3. Instead of waiting for God to lead in how or when Abram would do God's will and produce that offspring, Sarai and Abram came up with a humanly-orchestrated plan to "help God out" as follows:
      1. According to legal codes of the time as discovered in archaeological records, a childless wife could legally provide her maid to her husband for physical union and then adopt the child that resulted from their union as her own, Ryrie Study Bible, KJV ftn. to Genesis 16:2-3.
      2. Since Sarai was aware since Genesis 15:3-5 that God wanted their heir to come from Abram's body, barren Sarai suggested using this custom by giving her handm aid, Hagar to Abram to bear a son, 16:1-2
      3. Abram consented to Sarai, and Hagar became pregnant with Abram's child as a result, Gen. 16:2c-4a.
    4. This effort back-fired, creating great, threatening complications for Abram's marriage, Genesis 16:4b-7.
      1. However, once she had conceived, Hagar looked down on the barren Sarai, creating a big threat to Sarai's station in the family with her husband, Genesis 16:4b.
      2. Sarai exploded at Abram for Hagar's reaction of despising and threatening her station as the wife, 16:5.
      3. To calm Sarai down, Abram told her to do with Hagar what she desired. Sarai consequently dealt so harshly with her maid that Hagar fled from Sarai out into the wilderness, Genesis 16:6-7.
    5. God intervened to make for a more rational although complex relation between Hagar and Sarai, 16:7-16:
      1. Since Hagar's child was Abram's seed, and since God had unconditionally promised to bless Abram's seed in Genesis 12:3; 15:5, the Angel of the Lord intercepted Hagar to help her in her plight, 16:7-9.
        1. With nowhere to go but a well that would provide water in the wilderness, Hagar fled to that well that was located between Beersheba and Egypt, Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, ftn. to Genesis 16:7.
        2. The Lord there met Hagar and asked where she was going. She said she fled from Sarah, Gen. 16:8.
        3. God then instructed her to return to her mistress, Sarai and properly submit to her authority that was the acceptable route for her to take in the cultural and legal guidelines of the era, Gen. 16:9.
        4. In accord with this difficult directive, God promised to bless her unborn child as he was the offspring of Abram, Gen. 16:10 with Gen. 15:5. This son would be named Ishmael, meaning "God hears" to signify God had noted her affliction and was responding to it, Gen. 16:11, Ibid., ftn. to Gen. 16:11.
        5. God said this son would be a "wild onager", an admired and valuable animal at the time, meaning Ishmael would be respected by his peers, Ibid., ftn. to Gen. 16:12.
        6. Ishmael would live out the conflict that had begun in his mother's discord with Sarai, producing a people whose hand would be against him and he against every other man, Gen. 16:12b. He would probably live ea st of the other descendants of Abram, Ibid., ftn. to Gen. 16:12.
        7. Hagar obediently returned to Sarai, and in time gave birth to her son, Ishmael, Gen. 16:13-16.
Lesson: In view of the vast and costly enmity that has since existed between Abram's seed through Isaac in the Jews and in the sons of his seed, Ishmael in the Arabs, it was a MISTAKE for Abram and Sarai to "help God" man's way in producing Ishmael . God in GRACE undertook to bless in accord with His Word, but it would have been FAR better for them to have WAITED to do things GOD'S way!

Application: We must never "help God out" even if we know His will, but FOLLOW Him en route!