Sermon Tone Analysis

Genesis 16 & 18

 

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Introduction

            Which of these chairs would you be willing to sit on?

Why?

This one looks pretty flimsy.

The evidence of what your eyes tell you is that there is a pretty good chance that you would end up on the ground if you tried to sit on it.

This one, on the other hand, is solid.

If you would examine it, you would see that the joints are strong, the legs and seat are well made and you could sit on it with confidence that it would hold you.

We talk about faith in different things - chairs, people and so on - and when we do, it is not a blind faith that makes us trust something or someone.

There is reason to trust this chair and there is reason not to trust this chair.

The same can happen to people.

Would you trust a car salesman named Fast Eddy?

On the other hand, a friend who has proven faithful for many years is easy to trust.

Last week we talked about faith in God.

We saw how Abraham didn’t always act like a man of faith, but that at the core of his being he believed God.

When he did put his trust in God, why could he?

Why is God trustworthy?

What do we know about God that should encourage us to be confident and bold to trust Him in anything?

This morning, we will look at three stories from Genesis which give us reasons why we can put our hope in God.

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I. God Sees Genesis 16:6-16

!! A. She Was Outcast

            Last week we looked at the story of how Sarai suggested to Abram that he take her maid Hagar and have a child with her.

Abram agreed to this plan and Hagar became pregnant.

When she did, she let Sarai know that she was better because she could have a child and Sarai couldn’t.

As a result, Sarai became jealous and acted on her jealousy by abusing Hagar.

When Hagar had had enough abuse, she ran away.

She decided that she couldn’t stand it any more and, being an Egyptian, she headed towards home.

Hagar became an outcast, in a way that is somewhat unjust.

Although it was wrong of her to despise Sarai, it was also wrong of Sarai to act out her jealousy and abuse her and cause her to run away.

!! B.

She Was Downcast

            Not only was she an outcast, but there are many reasons why no one would really care about her.

If we look at the story of Hagar in the whole Bible, it is an interesting story which could lead us to care very little about her.

First of all, she was a slave.

At that time, slaves were simply property and so why would she be valued beyond what she could contribute to the one who owned her.

She had despised her owner and for a slave to mistreat her owner was not acceptable.

She didn’t know her place and stepped outside of the bounds of what was proper.

The child she would bear did not have a very good prophecy about him.

The text indicates that he would be a wild donkey of a man and that he would live in hostility toward all his brothers.

Ishmael is the ancestor of all the Arab people.

Someone said to me recently that the mistake of Sarai in letting Abram have a child with Hagar has ended up being a costly mistake because of all the trouble the Arab people are making in the Middle East and even for the whole world through terrorism.

I would be very careful about such a perspective, but it does explain reason why we would not look favourably on Hagar.

Later, God himself permitted Hagar and Ishmael to be sent away from the family of promise.

We have this story in Genesis 21 and it is referred to in Galatians 4:30 where Paul quotes, “Get rid of the slave woman and her child.”

So when we see the whole story of Hagar, we see that she can be looked at as not being worth very much, as one who is rejected.

!! C. God Was Interested In Her!

However, in Genesis 16:7 we discover a different perspective.

This outcast runaway is approached by the angel of the Lord.

God did not despise her or let her go or treat her as an outcast.

He came to her.

Although it puzzles us why God would send her back to submit to the abuse of Sarai, we are encouraged by the fact that He came to her.

We are further encouraged by the promises He gave her.

He promised that she would have a son and that this son would have many descendants, in fact the promise is the same as that made to Abram that he would have descendants “too numerous to count.”

The name of the child to be born would be Ishmael.

This name means “God has heard.”

Hagar was astonished at the encounter with the angel of God.

She responded by giving a name to God which arose out of her experience.

She called God “You are the God who sees me.”

She even named the well where she met the angel, giving it the name “well of the living one who sees me.”

What a wonderful thought to name the well as a reminder of her encounter with God.

After that whenever she saw or thought of this place, she would remember how God had helped her.

We need to mark places where God has helped us.

She had discovered that when God sees, He cares.

She discovered God looking after her.

He demonstrated that He is the one who knows when even a sparrow falls.

That he should see and care for this despised, downcast runaway speaks powerfully to us about what kind of a God He is.

It is for this reason that we can put our trust in God.

This story teaches us the nature of God.

He is a God who cares.

He does not only care for the perfect, the “in” crowd.

He also cares for the outcasts and those who are downcast.

When we look at the rest of the Bible, we see many similar reasons to have confidence in God.

Think about the New Testament words of Jesus who invites us to “consider the lilies” and realize God’s care for them.

Think about the thief on the cross who found forgiveness with Jesus just before he died.

Consider that God demonstrated His love towards us in this that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We can put our hope and confidence in God because He has demonstrated repeatedly that He cares.

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II.

God Is Able Genesis 18:1-15

!! A. It’s Impossible!

Last week when we looked at the story of Abraham, we saw that he became known as a man of faith because Genesis 15:6 says “Abraham believed God…” In spite of this faith, Abraham was willing to take matters into his own hands and in the very next chapter, we have the story of how Ishmael was conceived.

Nevertheless, it was Abraham’s understanding that this was the fulfillment of the promises made to him about descendants.

He believed that he would have many descendants through his son, Ishmael.

For 13 years, nothing happened to change this perspective.

Abraham got used to the idea that Ishmael was the promised descendant.

Then when Abraham was 99 years, which even by the standard of those days was old, God came to Abraham again.

Although Abram had his son, Ishmael, Sarai’s childlessness was still a pain to her and also to him.

But after all these years and in their old age, they had gotten used to the idea.

When God approached Abram He repeated the promises and changed his name to Abraham.

The name change was related to the promise of descendants and God let him know once again that he would be the father of many nations.

The promise to Abraham is powerful.

Whereas Adam was told to be fruitful, Abraham was promised that God would make him fruitful.

Then after establishing the covenant of circumcision, God told Abraham that he would have a child with Sarah.

When Abraham heard the promise in vs. 16, he didn’t exactly believe it.

He asked in amazement in verse 17, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old?

Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”

A little while later, God once again came to Abraham.

This time, there were two angels with him.

Abraham was a good host and quickly went about preparing a meal for these three messengers, at first not sure who they were.

It is interesting that after they had been well hosted, they asked about Sarah, suggesting that they wanted her to hear the conversation.

Abraham said that she was in the tent, implying that she could hear.