Faith Falters (Again?)

Take your Bibles this morning. Turn with me to Genesis chapter 16. Genesis 16, you follow as I read this chapter. Now Sarah, Abram'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 into my servant. It may be that I shall obtain children by her. And Abram listened to the voice of her, to the voice of Sarai. So after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar, the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram, her husband, as a wife. And he went in to 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. 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.

The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to shore. 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 the angel of the Lord said to her return to your mistress and submit to her the angel of the Lord also said to her I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude 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 hand against him and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her you are a God of seeing for she said truly here I have seen him who looks after me.

Therefore the well was called Be'er Lehi Roy, it lies between Kadesh and Bered. 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. Let's pray. Father, once more, we have opened the text of Scripture, not to study a book, but to hear your voice. Transform us now by the preaching of your word, and we will thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, the saga of Abraham and his faith continues in Genesis chapter 16. As the story of Abraham continues, Moses turns our attention to the promise of the seed. The promise to Abram of a son and descendants. Now the first part of Abram's story began in chapter 12. and focuses on God's promise to him of a land. And you remember in chapter 12 that that part of the story begins with Abram's faltering faith.

God had called Abram from his native country to another land. But when he arrived there, it seemed more like a cursed land than a promised land because of a famine. And so Abram's faith faltered and he left and went to Egypt. And because of his faith, his weak faith, and his doubts, all kinds of complications arise. But by the time you get to chapter 15, we see Abram believing God and being reckoned righteous and God enacting a covenant with promises with Abram.

Now in chapter 16, the writer turns our attention to the promise of the seed. And we find a parallel again to chapter 12. Because again, in chapter 16, Abram faith falters Here with the promise of an heir the narrative reminds us that Sarai has born no children And so, again, it appears that instead of a promise, there's a curse. Instead of God doing what he says, it seems like he's not doing what he says.

And it looks like curse has the last word. Once more, faith weakens and all kinds of complications arise. But as the story unfolds, we see Abram and Sarai's faith growing until we finally see in Genesis chapter 22 the ultimate test of Abram with his seed, that is his son Isaac. Well, with that in mind, let's see what God has for us in this text. By the way, just by way of introduction, can I tell you, I have been loving this study.

I have loved studying the book of Genesis. It is amazing what it has taught me about faith. I hope I can pass on to you in some kind of fashion that whole thing. It's just amazing. So let's see what's going on here in chapter 16. You can see that there are two scenes to this chapter.

First scene, verses 1-6. Second scene, verses 7-16. And in this first scene, you see what happens when faith falters. Now Sarai, Abram'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 into 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 ten years in the land of Canaan, And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram, her husband, as a wife. And he went in to 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. 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 as to her as you please. Then Sarah dealt harshly with her and she fled from her.

Right away the circumstances look opposed to the promise. God has promised a seed and it starts out right away with saying Sarah had borne no children Sarah had actually said the Lord has prevented me from having any children Now by my calculation Sarah by this time was 75 years old She's 75 years old. She's been married for decades. And the prime childbearing years are long gone in the rearview mirror.

Right? In spite of God's promise of numerous offspring, the nursery is still empty. This unalterable fact stands opposed to the promise. Right? Promise. I'm going to give you children.

Fact. I'm 75 and there's no child. Right? So she does what most of us would do. She starts to read the promise in light of her circumstances. Isn't that what we do?

When it doesn't seem to be turning out, our circumstances then become the lenses by which we interpret what God has promised. She reads the promise in light of her circumstances and those unalterable facts. Well, the Lord has made the promise, but he's kept me from having children, which means that I'm not supposed to be the one to have the child. They lived ten years already in the land of promise, and the seed of promise had not yet arrived.

So human wisdom says, It's time to act. We've been here for 10 years. Nothing has happened. So it's time to come up with a solution. Right? So Sarai proposes that solution.

A surrogate mother. Now, many of you here today recoil, are actually repulsed at the idea of one woman giving her husband another woman. But let me ask you something just real quickly. Are you as repelled by surrogate pregnancies in our culture today as you are that? What's the difference? What's the difference?

In fact, you know this whole idea of surrogate pregnancy and surrogate motherhood is not as modern as we think it is. They were doing it back then. In fact, you know that in the pagan culture surrounding Abram at that time, those cultures had very sophisticated laws and codes dealing with surrogate pregnancies. This was not uncommon. You know, we're not actually new.

This isn't anything new. This is something that went on quite commonly back then and was regulated quite tightly by the law. Anyway, Sarai proposes her Egyptian servant Hagar to be the surrogate mother, which back then meant taking her as a concubine. The word is translated wife here, but she becomes a concubine, which is a kind of wife, but without the status of my original kind of wife.

Okay? So, she gives her Egyptian slave as a surrogate mother to Abram. Now, you remember in chapter 12 that part of the deal that Pharaoh made with Abram when he took Sarai was he gave him all kinds of stuff. And some of that stuff were, it actually says female slaves if you look back at chapter 12. this is probably where Hagar came from. It's probably how she became part of their household.

And this is where Abram faith weakens and falters. Instead of holding fast to the promise, he gives in to Sarai's interpretation of the promise and he goes along with her proposal. Hagar becomes pregnant with a child. Do you remember the first time? Remember the first time your wife said to you, honey, I think I'm pregnant. And it's like, yes!

Wow! That is great! And you're walking on air and you're calling everybody you can think of, we're going to have a kid! And you're doing all this kind of stuff. There's all kinds of joy at the good news. Talk about joy!

Look at this household, right? Yeah, wow. Hagar starts gloating, right? She starts gloating. Like she's serving Sarah and she's standing there just rubbing her stomach, right? And maybe even mocking.

Wow, whoever thought I'd be carrying Abram's child? And maybe even insubordinate. What, clean up this room? Are you kidding? My back is killing me. You know how it is when you're pregnant, oh, guess maybe you don't.

Right? In some way, in some way, she is showing contempt towards Sarai right Her mistress Well you know what happens then Sarai blames Abram for the whole mess It all your fault There's a whole sermon in that one. Hey, it's your fault, Abram. And she starts saying, aren't you going to do anything about this? Do you like the way your wife is being treated? right if you don't do something then i appeal to god because then he'll deal with it you know what abram does hey what do you expect me to do it's your problem you do something with it right and then what happens well my guess is sarai deals with it she takes out her anger on the girl She starts beating her probably.

She starts overloading her with work. And in every way returning contempt for contempt. It gets so bad that Hagar makes her escape and runs away. Do you see what happens when your faith falters? Do you remember what we've learned so far with Abram as our teacher? I'm going to etch this in my Bible because this is I think a lesson that I see over and over in the life of Abraham it is this the lack of faith leads to the birth of sin you don't have to be I'm really going to do some sinful stuff today the only thing you need to do to have the noxious weeds of sin start growing is start not believing the promises of God that's all it takes for sin to start growing every time abram falters in his faith what happens he harvests a boatload of sin listen the only thing that you need to do to start harvesting a bunch of evil consequences is not to believe the promises of god sin will start growing those noxious weeds will start growing because they did not believe in God's promise look at what happened in this household it starts out with this they're not believing the promise of God so corrupt human wisdom starts interpreting the situation right you start seeing things wrongly you start interpreting things the wrong way You begin to follow the ways of the world That what they did They took what the world had to offer and used that as a solution.

You have Abram abdicating his leadership position. He refuses to shoulder his responsibility. When you look at this passage, what do you see? You see a guy who's not leading. all because he lacks faith. He starts abdicating his responsibility to lead in his family. In fact, I think Moses wants you to see a parallel between this and Eden.

You know how? He's using the exact same terminology. And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai, just like in Eden. And Adam listened to the voice of his wife, right? And then notice the phrase that's used. She took and gave to her husband.

Just exactly the same phraseology that's used with Eve, who took and gave to her husband. All of it to show us that Abram is abdicating his responsibility as a leader. You have powerful people in authority exploiting someone who has no authority and no power. Right? You have insubordination and mockery. Certainly, Hagar is suffering, but remember, sufferers also sin.

And so she responds with insubordination and mockery. Contempt now forms the atmosphere of this household. Blameshifting and finger-pointing starts. It's your fault that all this is going on. harsh words and physical cruelty now become common in that household you see all of all of these things happen why because abram lacks faith learn the lesson the lack of faith gives birth to sin what about you do you not see what happens when faith falters when faith falters what happens do you really believe the promise that god makes when he says in two places in the scripture never will i leave you never will I forsake you do you believe that promise when you alone remember the lack of faith gives birth to sin I remember I was a pastor for two weeks two weeks you talk about wet behind the ears I was soaking wet and a woman who'd been attending the congregation here came to me she was a single mom with two kids.

And she came to me to tell me that she was in love with a married guy and he was in love with her. And that he was going to get a divorce and she was going to marry him. And of course, even as a very wet behind the ears pastor, I said, you can't do that. Why not? Because God says that's wrong. That's adultery.

You can't do that. And her response was, but we love each other. And God wants us to experience that love together. See what happened? She doesn't believe the promise of God that he's never going to leave her alone. And as a result, got lots of room for the growth of sin.

Do you believe these promises? They come from 1 Peter. But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. And another, if you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. Do you believe those promises? This last summer, I had an opportunity to go to a missions place.

It's Interact Missions. They're Canadian missionaries all gathered together, and they asked me to come and teach on counseling and then to do their Bible conference. And so in August, I was with this missions group. And always when I go to speak at places like this, you end up sitting at tables with different people, and you're the guy that's come to teach counseling, and so they're always asking you questions.

I have a friend who, you know, that sort of thing. And all this is going on. I remember sitting at the table with a woman who was helping a friend, and her friend was really suffering. There's no doubt about it. She described a woman who was suffering and so I started to tell her, you know, this is what she needs to do, she needs to respond with blessing when that person insults her. and says terrible things to her.

She shouldn't hang up the phone. She shouldn't just say, oh, that's... She shouldn't get angry about that. She should return blessing. And when bad things happen to her, she should return good. Because that's what God commands.

And He promises that if you suffer for righteousness' sake, you'll be blessed. And He promises that if you're insulted for the name of Christ, the Spirit of God and of glory rests on you. And so I started to tell her these things. And her response was, Well, you can only take so much. Right? How many of you have said that?

Well, I know what God says. But you can only take so much. Fertile ground for sin to grow now. Fertile ground for sin. Because you don't believe His promises. Do you believe the promise of Jesus?

These commands I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. Jesus says, if you obey his commands, you will have joy. What about his commands for forgiveness to those who mistreat you? What about that? Recently a guy is very angry with his wife. She spent too much money.

And he is furious. And she's weeping and asking for his forgiveness. And he stands there and he says, Hey, I've got to look out for myself. He doesn't believe the promise of joy when it comes with forgiveness. Fertile ground for great sin. You see, you need to believe the promises of God.

When your faith falters, sin grows. Sin grows. See what happens when faith falters. See what happens when your faith falters. Well, the story continues now with Hagar on the run. Let's pick it up in verse 7.

The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to shore. 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. The angel of the Lord said to her, return to your mistress and submit to her. The angel of the Lord also said to her, I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude 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.

So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You are a God of seeing. for she said truly here I have seen him who sees me. Therefore the well was called Be'er Lehoiroi Lehoiroi. It lies between Kadesh and Bered. 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.

As we join Hagar she's sitting next to a spring on the way to shore. Now this geographical note tells us something. Shur is near Egypt. She's headed home. She's headed home to Egypt, to the only security she's ever known. At this point, this poor, beaten, pregnant woman rests near a spring, probably out of energy, wondering if she'll make it home.

At least as I read this, I tend to think that's where she is. She's worn out. Frankly, if you were running away and doing it by foot and you're pregnant, I think you'd be worn out just on that alone. Right? And so here she is next to the spring. But then, please note, the angel of the Lord what?

Found her. Don't miss that. The angel. It's not like God didn't know where she was. All right? It's not like he sent the angel of the Lord and he's just going to, nope, she's not there.

Not there. That's not what it means. It means He went out looking for her. And He found her. This is to tell us something very clearly. Here is the mercy and compassion of God for the downtrodden.

Whether they're His people or not, He has mercy and compassion on even those who aren't the elect. Right? He has mercy. This is our God. And He rescues her. Now, I believe it is God here.

It says three times the angel of the Lord but then when you come to verse 13 what does it say So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her And the Lord that God personal name Yahweh And she called the name of Yahweh who spoke to her. And by the way, we're going to see this later in Genesis. In fact, you see it multitude times in the Old Testament that it starts out saying the angel of the Lord and ends up saying the Lord Himself. now this isn't in my notes this is just this is a freebie okay whenever that happens i believe the angel of the lord who is god is the second person of the trinity now he doesn't have a body it's not doesn't he doesn't have a human body yet but in some way he makes himself known he appears somehow this is God this is Yahuwah this is he who is talking to her and a most interesting conversation begins just like Eden he asks a question as if he didn't know the answer he knows the answer but he wants to elicit it from her Hagar, servant of Sarah where have you come from and where are you going and she said I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai she responds with the truth and now the angel says three things to her Three things to her.

A command, a promise, and an oracle. Or a prophecy. First he says, he gives her a command. You must return to your mistress and submit to her. Is that what she would have told her? That's what God told her.

What? Yes, that's what he says. It's not good enough to return, but to submit to her. well the child is Abram's after all isn't it that's I don't think that's the real point most importantly there's no blessing to be found apart from Abram and his household and his seed these are God's people and blessing will be found with them go back to the place of blessing painful though the submission may be there was no other way for Hagar to receive the blessing of God but isn't that the way of christ doesn't jesus promise us suffering as well as salvation doesn he absolutely jesus makes no bones about it this ought to be the way we witness by the way Oh yeah by the way if you follow Jesus your life going to get harder It'll be better, but it's going to get hard.

Okay? So you need to know that before you trust Jesus. But this is the way of Christ. Painful though submission may be, the way of blessing is back there. The way of blessing is there. And then the angel of the Lord gives her a promise.

That Abram will also be the father of many descendants through her. She's going to have a son. And he's going to bless her with many descendants through that son. Isn't it interesting that God blesses even those who are not clearly identified with Him? This is our God. He doesn't just make the rain fall and the sun shine on His people.

He is kind to all men. And right here, He's blessing this woman. This rebel. He's blessing her. God has compassion on them and blesses them as well. And then comes an oracle from God which is a kind of prophecy describing the blessing.

You are going to have a son. Now, okay, don't accuse them of being sexist, all right? To have a son was a big deal. A son could take care of you. A son could do many things that a woman could not, a daughter could not. You are going to have a son, and you will call his name Ishmael, because the Lord listened to your affliction.

Ishmael, okay, is a compound Hebrew word that means God sees by the way if you have an ESV it should be in your I'm sorry God hears it should be in your text there's a little footnote Ishmael means God hears alright Ishmael means God hears and then he says look this Ishmael your son is going to be the kind of independent cuss that doesn't care anything for social conventions. He's going to be a freewheeling, independent, you-can't-tell-me-what-to-do kind of a person. you, Hagar. And because of that independent streak, he's going to be in conflict with just about everybody, including his family.

Isn't it interesting? By the way, you know who the descendants of Ishmael are? Arabs. They're the Arabs of today. And did you know then that Jews and Arabs are related? They're both a Semitic people.

They both came from Abraham. Uh-huh. Can't get along even with his family. Can't get along with just about anybody. That's Ishmael. That's his descendants.

Now look, in response to God naming her son, what does Hagar do? You know what she does? She names God. Now this is the only instance in the whole Bible where a human being gives God a name. Isn't that interesting? This name reflects how God has responded to her.

You are a God of seeing. That is, you are a God who sees people in trouble. That's the way you are, God. You're the one who sees people in trouble. And then she says, and I have seen the one who sees me. There's a little quibbling about what the translation should be in verse 13.

And again, if you look in your footnotes, it gives you an alternate translation. I think that's the true one because it fits the context better. Truly here I have seen him who sees me. You're the God of seeing. What do I mean by that? You see me and I see you.

You are the God who sees me and whom I have seen. And if that were not enough, she wants to make a memorial and she names the well that's there. She names it, again, this is in your footnotes, Ber-le-hai-roi. That is the well of the living one who sees me. Okay? And she must have believed God promise because when the boy is born they name him Ishmael God hears Now here a question you might be asking Here the question I was asking this week as I'm just running this text over and over in my mind.

This obviously, these two scenes belong together, but they don't seem to have anything to do with each other. They don't seem to be together. What does this have to do with faithless Abram and Sarai? And the writer doesn't just tell us stories to tell us stories. Okay? What is he trying to say here?

I believe the second scene of this story shouts loud and clear, see God reminding you of his faithfulness. See God reminding you of his faithfulness. In the light of your faithlessness, here is God's faithfulness. You say, How do you get that? When your faith falters, be reminded of the faithfulness of God. This whole story shouts of God's faithfulness.

What did Hagar find out? What did she find out in her experience? That the God who sees you is the one who sees you in your affliction. And as a result, He looks after you. He takes care of you. Do you see?

When faced with the lack of a child, what should Sarai and Abraham have known? God sees. He knows. He knows you're childless. He made the promise. He knows you're childless.

He sees. He hears. Cry out to Him. But they didn't. They came up with their own solution. And as a result, their servant daughter experiences God in a way that they didn't.

Now, Abram, Sarah cry out to God He is faithful He will see you in your trouble and He will act but they didn't do that they didn't see God that way now remember the story of Hagar becomes part of the family tradition or it wouldn't be here why? because remember how this book Genesis is composed of 10 separate books remember we talked about that and we're right now in the middle of the book of Abram And whoever wrote Abram's story, whoever wrote the book of Abram, had this story in the family tradition to write down. They incorporated this into their family tradition Hagar returned with the story of God faithfulness to her It should have been an aha moment for them Oh God is the one who hears you in your affliction They should have gotten it. But God revealed it to their servant.

And she came back and tells the story. Now on top of all that, if that weren't enough, Abram and Sarai now have a little boy running around the household compound whose name is God Hears. A constant reminder to them. Hence, what do we find at the end of the chapter? When she gives birth, they name the child Ishmael. So, they have a constant reminder.

A boy, as he grows, running around. named God hears. When you're faithless, you remember God hears, God sees, and will help you in your affliction. You see, when we're faithless, we don't believe the promises of God, we're writing God off. We're saying he doesn't care. Yeah, I know what you're saying, but I don't believe it. Really?

God sees you in your trouble. He knows what he's talking about. Believe his promises. He's faithful. You know, we have a constant reminder of God's faithfulness. It's the Lord Jesus Christ who says to all, God is faithful to save.

There's Jesus held up before everybody. Wherever he's proclaimed, God is faithful to save. You know, it also begins with God's faithfulness to all mankind. He gives good things to everyone. He gives children. Does He only give the joy of children to believers?

No. Does He give unbelievers good things to enjoy in life? Absolutely. God is so good. He just pours on all the good stuff, not only to His people, but to those who will remain outside of His covenant blessings. He's compassionate, merciful, and kind to them.

And He looks on them that way. And as the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 2, He intends by His faithful kindness to lead you to repentance. And He presents to all Jesus the sin bearer the greatest expression of God kindness as the faithful Savior In Titus here how the Apostle Paul describes the coming of Jesus But when the kindness of God appeared, Titus chapter 3, but when the kindness of God appeared, what's he talking about?

He's talking about Jesus, the ultimate expression of his goodness, who says to all, God is faithful to save. Some of you here today have not ever trusted Jesus. Let me tell you something. This is the greatest promise that you must believe. I will save you and give you a wonderful life, an abundant life, if you only trust in me. You see, that's all.

And guess what? God is the one who hears you. He sees you in your affliction, brought about by the misery of sin, and He sends a Savior who will deliver you from your sin and your misery. It doesn't mean there won't be pain in life. It doesn't mean that it won't get hard. But it means you won't be miserable.

It means you'll have a good life. God sees you in the affliction of your miserable sin and says, I have a Savior who can save you. Christian, do you believe that God remained faithful to His promises even though it doesn't look like it? Listen, this is not just theoretical. This is not just a story from a long time ago. We have all kinds of promises of God.

I've mentioned a number of them earlier. Do you really believe those promises? Again, Jesus is the sign of His faithfulness. You remember what it says in Romans chapter 8? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him give us all things? There is right there.

The resurrected Jesus Christ is the sign that God will always remain faithful to his promises. He who did not spare his own son, if he didn't spare his son, what makes you think he's going to keep anything good from you? You see? God is faithful he hears you in your affliction and he calls for you to believe listen believe the promises of God in Christ Believe the promises.

Believe them for this reason. If you don't believe, if you falter, you're setting yourself up for the consequences of sin. That's all it takes, just not believing. Right? Believe the promises of Christ. Believing His promises is one great way of dealing with sin in your life.

Just believe the promises. Isn't that marvelous? I look at that and I think, that's incredible. Certainly, there are times of temptation where I've got to discipline myself and say no to that and yes to God. But listen, I want to ask this question. How often will I come to this point if I'm just believing the promises of God?

It's interesting to me that in 2 Peter 1, it says that he's given these great and precious promises that by believing in him we will escape the corruption of the world. Just by believing the promises of God Believe them Believe not just because of that but believe the promises because God is faithful. God is faithful. When He says He will do something, He will do it.

Don't let your faith falter. Believe. Father, thank You for Your Word. thank you that although this is centuries ago it is so real to us Father help us to be a people of faith people who believe your promises who step out and walk in faith help us we pray that your name will be glorified among all those among whom we walk and that, Father, we will experience the joy that You have promised.

Thank You for Your Word. In Jesus' name, Amen.