Do It Yourself Religion
(Abraham and Sarah, Going it alone) Genesis 16
1 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. And she had an
Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar.
2So 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.
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.
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."
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.
7Now 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."
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.
After all the promises of God to Abraham and all the reassurance God had given him, again we find Abraham faltering and going it alone in his own strength.
Here we see a weakness in Abraham. Instead of assuring Sarah of the promises of God, he succumbed to her idea. We have to remember, whilst God promised an heir to Abraham and Sarah, he hadn’t at this point made it clear that it would be a child born of Sarah’s own flesh, only that the child would be of Abraham’s own loins.
Acts 7 and Gen 12:1 The promise was seed of Abraham.
Gen 15:4 And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.
It is only later in chapter 17 do we find God making it clear that the true heir would be of Sarah’s own flesh.
Gen 17:16 And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.
Sarah, in her way, was trying to fulfil the promise of an heir to Abraham by the only means she knew.
It was the custom of these days that any woman should provide an heir to her husband. If she could not, she would use a surrogate and the resulting child would be placed in the lap of the barren wife.
This wasn’t anything out of the ordinary at this time, custom allows for these kinds of arrangements, just as technology today allows for an infertile woman to have a child through a surrogate. Any child born to Hagar would be
regarded as Sarah’s. This happens again later with Jacob and Rachael.
Gen 30:3 And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her.
The child born to Bilhah is regarded as Rachel’s, because she has the right to name the child. As we have seen, the naming of a child carries great significance.
I am sure that most men can understand this kind of weakness. V2 And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai.
The question is this. Was this a misunderstanding on both Abraham’s and Sarah’s part. Had they misunderstood God’s promise or should Abraham have continued to trust and wait on God?.
Abram at this time was 86 years old, this is now 11 years after the promises were reaffirmed by God.
Here we see impatience showing its head. Maybe God needs a helping hand!
V1 & 2 seems to suggest that Abram did not take much persuading in this.
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.
The statement “perhaps I shall obtain children by her." Suggests that Sarah and Abraham contemplated the idea that God would give them a child after their own flesh but after 11 years it had not happened, so maybe they should go to plan B. Perhaps this is the answer! After all, the child would be from his own loins.
Whilst this practice wasn’t abnormal for a servant girl to be a surrogate for a barren wife.
For Abraham and Sarah, it was an act that came from their own desires, God did not tell them to do this.
This was nothing more than impatience on the parts of both Abram and Sarai. For Abraham, it was his lack of trust in God.
4 So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived.
We also have to recognise God’s sovereignty in this situation. This was not something that happened outside of God’s control, the birth of Ishmael was ordained of God also. It wasn’t a case of God making good a bad job.
Although we know the scripture that says, “all things work together for good to them that love the Lord”. It wasn’t God’s plans gone wrong. This lack of trust by Abraham in God’s promise was also included in the purposes and plan of God.
However, there are always consequences of stepping out of the perfect will of God.
We now see the consequences of Sarai’s actions. As soon as Hagar found out she was with child, Hagar despised Sarai. Sarai was suffering the consequences of her own actions. There was a breakdown in the relationship.
Whether people are Christian or unbeliever, this kind of behaviour very often proves a bad move.
This is often the case with decisions or sins of this nature. Whether it be adultery, fornication or heterosexual or homosexual activity.
There are very often consequences, suffered by ourselves or by others as a result of our actions.
Breakup of marriages/relationships, unwanted pregnancies, venereal diseases, aids, etc.
In any decision we make in our lives, whether relationship or any other choice, walking close to Christ is the only way we can know that we are making good choices. The Bible does not give us direction on what decisions we are to make in life. Which career to take, who we should form a relationship with, where we should live, whether we should shop in Asda or Sainsbury etc.
What the Bible does tell us is to "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness" (Mt. 6:33)
Col 3:1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Col 3:2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
Col 3:23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;
Col 3:17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
All our decisions bring with them consequences.
For Sarai it was being detested, 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.
For Abram, it was blame from 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."
The one who catches the backlash is Hagar.
Now Hagar wasn’t blameless here. Once she became pregnant, Hagar tried to usurp the position of Sarah. She despised Sarah. Hebrew (despised - qâlal) meaning, held in contempt, curse.
She probably thought she was more important to Abraham than Sarah, after all Sarah gave Hagar to be Abraham’s “wife”.
V3 and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife,
Whilst she was still a maid, she was also Abraham’s wife.
Hagar was in the wrong by trying to heighten her status by belittling Sarah but she had no say in the matter of the surrogacy, she was just a servant and had to do what her mistress requested.
What did Abraham do? He threw the ball back into Sarah’s lap, as it were.
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.
At that time, it was the duty of a wife (and especially of the wife of a man of substance such as Abraham was) to provide her husband with a son and heir. If Sarah could not give Abraham a son, it was her duty to find a woman (her handmaiden, Hagar) who could perform that duty. The child born to the surrogate mother would be legally the child of her mistress/owner (in this case, Sarah).
Nevertheless, Sarah (being a wife and a human being who felt inadequate since she had failed to give her husband an heir) naturally felt resentful and jealous that Hagar had been blessed with a son and she herself had not. She felt jealous of Abraham's kindness to this "other woman" whom Sarah had been forced (at least in her own mind) by conventions of her society to give to Abraham. To compound Sarah's feelings, Hagar began to treat Sarah haughtily since Hagar had bourn a son to Abraham and Sarah had failed to do so.
Here we see a marital spat. Sarai blames Abram and Abram throws the ball back to Sarai.
Sarah said “It’s all your fault”, where Abraham said, “She’s your maid, you deal with it”.
How often have we seen this in relationships. We step out of line, say the wrong thing and then transfer the blame.
V5 "My wrong be upon you!
It is a case of “Now look what you have made me do”.
Very often, we know when we are in the wrong and out of guilt or embarrassment; we transfer our guilt to the closest person to us.
In the words of the secular song, “You always hurt the one you love, the one you shouldn’t hurt at all”.
Whilst we can understand why Sarah acted like this, it is no excuse.
Sarah may have thought she was giving God a helping hand. She knew the promise but she also knew she was incapable of bearing a child.
Did God need Sarah’s help? Of course not and God doesn’t need our help either. God is quite capable of fulfilling whatever He wants to do.
This often happens where the Gospel is concerned.
We have been told what we should do, God has given us our commission and that is to preach the Gospel, in season and out of season.
We cannot save anyone. It is God that adds to the church daily those that should be saved.
Very often we are impatient and want to give God a helping hand. He doesn’t need it!
The Holy Spirit is the one who convicts, convinces and converts.
John 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
We are to do what God has told us to do. One sows, one waters but it is God that gives the increase.
1 Corinthians 3:6,7 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
All Abraham and Sarah had to do was wait, be patient and God would act in His good time.
However Abraham and Sarah thought God needed a little help and so here we have the result.
We see that Hagar ran away. V6 And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence.
The Angel of the Lord speaks to Hagar.
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."
God holds the whole of the future in His hands. These acts are only a small portion of what God has purposed.
God tells Hagar, "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."
This son of Abraham and Hagar would grow up to be the father of all the Arab nations.
Sarah would eventually bear her son Isaac, by Abraham the father of the Jews.
Later in the history of the Arabs and the Jews, we see the conflict that emerges as a result of Abraham’s decision to fulfill God’s promise in man’s wisdom and strength, both when he agreed to inseminate Hagar, and when he went to Egypt to begin with, (this is the likely place where Sarah acquired Hagar as a servant).
The effects of our sin and disobedience may reach far beyond what we ever imagined.
Indeed, this could be a case of the sins of the fathers being visited on the sons. Not that a father passes his sins down to his son but that the results of a fathers sins maybe suffered by his sons and future generations.
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?"
Nothing takes God by surprise “You are the God who sees”. God is Sovereign,Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omnicient. All Powerful, All present and All Knowing.
Hagar must have returned as God told her to submit to her mistress Sarah and telling them how God had spoken to her. It must have been difficult for Hagar to return to Sarah but just as God had been with her in the wilderness, so He would be with her in Sarah’s household.
Sometimes, if we run away from circumstances, we may very well jump out of the frying pan into the fire.
We must submit ourselves to God’s charge in the situations we find ourselves in. It very often is not a change of scenery or a different place that we need to be but what we need is a change of heart.
In the flesh it is sometimes easier to hide or run away but God wants to
demonstrate His power in our lives exactly where we are, even amidst our
failures, our distress or our humiliation.
Abraham named this son Ishmael. At least in this, Abraham obeyed the word of God.
