Well, let us turn to the Word
of God in that portion, that chapter that we read in Genesis
chapter 16 and I want to center your attention for a while tonight
on the words that we find here at verse 13. Genesis 16 and verse
13 concerning Hagar and she called the name
of the Lord that spake unto her thou God seest me for she said
have I also here looked after him that seeth me and then we're
told in the following verse how it was at the well and she called
it Beer Lahoy Roy And the margin tells us the Hebrew words literally
mean the well of him that liveth and seeth me. So she names the
place, the well, after what she had just experienced. She calls
the name of the Lord that spake unto her, thou God seest me.
For she said, have I also here looked after him that seeth me? And really the subject I want
to try to address is that of the faith of Hagar, the faith
of this woman Hagar. Those are remarkable words, the
name that she gives unto God, Thou God, see us, Lord. And is not the reference here
really to the Lord Jesus Christ? Because previously it was the
angel of the Lord that had spoken with her. and in the Old Testament
that angel is really a theophany, an appearance of Christ in some
human form before the incarnation in anticipation of that fullness
of the time when God would send forth his son made of a woman. Thou God seest me is the name
that she gives him and isn't that one of the names of the
Lord Jesus in the sense that he is spoken of, remember, in
Hebrews chapter 4. We read of the word of God that
is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, the joints and
marrow, and the discerner of the thoughts and the intents
of the heart. He sees into the heart now. I
know we've many times referred to those words in Hebrews chapter
4 and spoken in terms of that verse having to do with the Word
of God, the Scriptures, as being that sharp-edged sword that is
so piercing, so dividing, and so revealing. But in the context
It is primarily Christ, the Incarnate Word that is being spoken of
in these verses. The Word of God is quick and
powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints
and marrow, and is the discerner of the thoughts and the intents
of the heart. And he continues, neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight. But all things are naked and
opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Seeing then
that we have a great high priest, that he's passed into the heavens,
Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. The
person who is being spoken of then in this passage is really
the Lord Jesus Christ, that one out of whose mouth there goes
that two-edged sword. And there is of course that association
between the word incarnate and the word of God as we find it
here in Holy Scripture. And how as the sword of the Spirit
proceeds from his mouth, so also those eyes of the Lord are so
piercing and so penetrating. When John describes that vision
that he was favoured with on the Isle of Patmos in Revelation
1.14, he says of Christ his eyes were as a flame of fire. Well this is the one then that
Hagar is speaking of when she calls him by this name she called
the name of the Lord that spake unto her thou God seest me and
thou the Lord does indeed see us as he saw her so he is that
one who is observant of all things we see it in the language of
the Psalmist there in the 139th Psalm speak so much of God's omniscience? O Lord, thou hast searched me
and known me, thou knowest my down-sitting and my not rising,
thou understandest my thoughts afar off, there is never a word
upon my lips, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it all together. This is Hagar then, and Hagar's
dealings with the Lord's, even with Christ, and the Lord's dealing
with this woman. Now what of this woman? Well
we have to acknowledge that in Scripture she is a type of the
church, the type of the church in bondage, or even worse we
might say she is a type of the false church. Remember how in
the New Testament again, and there in Galatians chapter 4,
Paul speaks of this woman, and he takes up her name in terms
of an allegory. There in Galatians 4, in verse
22, Paul writes, It is written that Abraham had two sons, one
by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. And he who was of the
bondwoman was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman
was by promise. Which things are an allegory?
For these are the two covenants, the one from the Mount Sinai,
which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is Mount
Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, which now is, and
is in bondage with her children, speaking of the Jews. But Jerusalem,
which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all. Speaking
of the church, for it is written, Rejoice, thou barren, that bearest
not. Break forth, and cry thou, that prevailest not. For the
desolate hath many more children than she which hath a husband.
Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him
that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless,
what saith the Scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her
son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son
of the free woman. So then, brethren, we are not
children of the bondwoman, but of the free. Or use his analogy,
he explains the significance. He's using this incidents, as
it were, to illustrate the two covenants. One from Mount Sinai,
the law that genders to bondage, the other from Mount Zion, which
he identifies with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Hagar's son, Ishmael, was
the firstborn. Though the firstborn he was cast
out for the sake of Isaac, who is truly the promised seed. And that's brought out subsequently
here in chapter 21, and there in verses 9 through to 13, chapter 21, verse 9 through to
verse 13, you can read that passage, but there at verse 10, We find
Sarah, as she now is, saying to Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman
and her son, for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with
my son, even with Isaac. These are the passages that are
being referred to by the Apostle there in Galatians chapter 4. And the language is is interesting,
because the allegory sets forth these two things, as it were,
the son of the bondwoman, and the son of the free woman, the
son of promise. And in some ways, we might say
it reminds us of something else that Paul says in the New Testament
with regards to Adam. There in 1 Corinthians 15, he
speaks of the first Adam and he speaks of the last Adam and
you will be familiar with that passage there in 1st Corinthians
15 45 as it is written he says, so it is written the first man
Adam was made a living soul and the last Adam was made a quickening
spirit how be it? that was not first which was
spiritual but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual.
For the first man is of the earth, earthly, and the second man is
the Lord from heaven." He's drawing in some ways a similar parallel
to what he says before us when he speaks of Hagar as the firstborn, and then
the the birth of Isaac who comes as the son of promise. But of course, although Paul
uses that sort of language when speaking of Adam in 1 Corinthians
15, we know that Adam was one who was actually saved by the
grace of God. Although Adam sins, And Adam
was the great representative head of the whole of his race. We were all in his loins. He
was our representative and he was a public person. In that
sense his sin is imputed to us and we receive sinful natures
from Adam and Eve. Yet Adam and Eve were wonderfully
saved by the grace of God. How God made unto Adam and his
wife coats of skins, it says, and clothed them. There's a sacrifice to make the
coats, coats of skins, skins of animals. The animals are slaughtered.
There's a shedding of blood. There's a covering. And what
we see there is the great truth of the forgiveness of sins and
justification. The sinner is free because of
sacrificial blood, the sinner is accounted righteous because
the sinner is clothed upon with a robe of righteousness. And
so even there in Genesis chapter 3 where we have the awful record
of the entrance of sin with Adam and Eve transgressing the commandment
of God, yet in that very chapter we see the salvation of God that
comes to those people. And what I'm saying tonight is
that from what we read here concerning Hagar, she also is one who by
the grace of God was saved. This is what she says here in
verse 13. She called the name of the Lord
that spake unto her, Thou God seest me. And she said, Have
I also looked after him that seeth me? And then previously,
look at what we're told concerning her in verse 11, where the angel
of the Lord speaks, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear
a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael, because the Lord hath
heard thy affliction. The Lord hath heard thy affliction. The Lord is mindful of this woman. So, to say something with regards
to Hagar and what we see here with regards to her faith. But
first of all, to say something with regards to her sin. What
was the sin that she was guilty of in particular? Well, it appears
to be the sin of pride. She knew that Sarai, as she is
here, was barren. What does she say? Or what does
it say? Verse 4, As the child is conceived,
when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in
her eyes. She looks down now upon her mistress,
that's Sarah, and she despises her. She's full of pride because
why? She has conceived a child. And Sarah has been barren now
these many, many years. And she knew it. She knew it.
This is the reason why she had been given to Abram as his wife. The opening words of the chapter
tell us quite clearly that Abram's wife bare him no children. And
she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar, and then
You will remember what we have just read as we read through
the chapter. She despises her mistress because
she's so proud of what has come to pass in her own case. And God is the one who sees her
pride. Thou God seest me is the name
that she gives to God. And God sees us. God sees into
our very hearts. God is aware of everything about
us. Man looks on the outward appearance.
The Lord looks upon the heart. And now it's brought out time
and time again by the wise man in the book of Proverbs. The
ways of man, it says, are before the eyes of the Lord, and he
pondereth all his doings. All that we do is before the
eye of God. His eyes behold, His eyelids
try, The children of men, says the Psalmist. Again in Proverbs
15 and verse 3, The eyes of the Lord are in every place, Beholding
the evil and the good. This is the truth of God being
that One who is so omniscient. His eyes run in two and throw
throughout the whole earth and As I've already said, it's the
139th Psalm, which is such a remarkable celebration of that attribute
in God, that He is the Omniscient One. He is the All-Knowing God. And He sees in what is transpiring
in the heart of this woman, the reason for her so despising her
mistress. All pride. And pride is that
we know that He's so bound up with the sin of unbelief. As
we see it there again in the Garden of Eden. The reason why
the woman was so ready to fall in with the temptation that comes
by the serpent, the instrument of Satan. Genesis 3.6 when the
woman saw that the tree was good for food. and that it was pleasant
to the eyes and a treat to be desired, to make one wise. She
took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her
husband with her, and he did eat." All she saw that it was
good for food, it was pleasant to the eyes, a treat to be desired,
to make one wise. It reminds us of the of the language
of John there in 1st John the first epistle of John chapter
2 and verse 15 where he says love not the world neither the
things that are in the world if any man love the world the
love of the Father is not in him for all that is in the world
the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride
of life that's what we see with the woman is it not? the lust
of the flesh the lust of the eyes, the pride of life And it's
not of the Father, it's of the world, and the world passeth
away, says John, and the lost thereof. There was sin here then. There's the sin of this woman
who has been, in a sense, favoured by her mistress, in that she's
given She's given this servant to Abram, to wife, that she might
conceive, and she has conceived, but now she despises her very
mistress. Now, of course, Sarah herself
was guilty here. There's sin in what Sarah had
done. Verse 2, when she says unto Abram,
Behold, now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing. I pray thee,
go in unto my maid. It may be that I may obtain children
by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice
of Sarai. And Sarai, Abram's wife, took
Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years
in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be
his wife. This is an act of unbelief. Instead of waiting upon God and
looking to God to grant the promised seed, she puts her hand to the
matter, and she does that that is contrary to God's word and
God's way, because this is an act of polygamy. And God had
made it quite clear at the beginning that a man should leave his father
and his mother and should cleave to his wife. But we know how
that so soon, after the fall Polygamy becomes quite common
in those days. Men have more than one wife,
contrary to what God himself has said. It's not until we come
to the New Testament and the coming of Christ that these matters
are corrected and made right again. But how, in all these
things, it's not just Hagar who is seen to be sinful with a despising
of Sarah, but Sarah and Abram himself, all of them are involved,
implicated in these things. And now, we see Sarah acting
very cruelly towards Hagar. At the end of verse 6, when Sarai
dealt hardly with her. Again, the margin tells us the
Hebrew is literally, she afflicted her. Sarai afflicted Hagar, and
so she fled. She fled from her presence. She left her because she was
being dealt with so cruelly. And as I say, it's not just the
women, it's also Abram. Abram is at fault. He harkens
onto his wife. He does what she is suggesting. when she acts in that fashion
that is so contrary to God and the Word of God. At the end of
verse 2 she says, I pray thee, go in unto my maid. It may be
that I may obtain children by her. And Abraham hearkened to
the voice of Saraiah. He hearkened to the voice of
his wife, just as Adam had hearkened to the voice of his wife He,
in partaking of that forbidden fruit, he gave unto her husband,
and he did eat, it says. And yet, oh, these men are at
fault. Oh, these men are at fault. The
husband is the head of the wife. It's the teaching of the apostle
there in Ephesians chapter 5, and it's It's the woman who is
taking the lead here, contrary to what God says in His Word. Oh, but what a mercy it is when
God is pleased to deal with sinners, to correct sinners and to teach
sinners. It's a great mercy. And He certainly
acts here and deals with this woman Hagar and with her sin.
What does God command her in verse 9? The angel of the Lord said unto
her, return to thy mistress and submit thyself unto her hands. Return and submit. She's got
to be humble. She's got to go back and to acknowledge
her fault and to be reconciled to her mistress. Though the mistress
had dealt so harshly and so cruelly with her. She was guilty. She
had fled. She'd fled from the face, from
the presence of Sarah. And as it's the angel of the
Lord, so it's the Lord Jesus Christ himself who is so present
in this chapter, in the events that we have recorded. And now
it's the Lord Jesus Christ who himself has has dealt with that
great sin of pride. I like that verse in the hymn
287 along him, I know, but that verse it speaks of the garden
of Gethsemane and these words Thy garden is the place where
pride cannot intrude For would it dare to enter there, it would
soon be drowned in blood." The only one we can look to,
you see, to deal with the matter of our sin, whatever that sin
might be, the only one we can look to is the Lord Jesus Christ,
there's none other. And it's the Lord Jesus Christ,
I say again, who is so evident in what we have in this chapter.
And It is the Lord Jesus Christ himself who is the author and
finisher of faith. And any faith that this woman
Hagar has, that's where the faith has come from. And so I want
to turn in the second place to say something with regards to
her faith. And she called the name of the
Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me. For she said, Have
I also looked after him that seeth me? Now, the girl remarks
in his commentary that this verb called, she called the name of
the Lord that spake unto her. Well he reckons, does the commentator,
that this indicates that she actually called upon the Lord.
She called upon the name of the Lord. In other words, she prays. And the question that she puts
at the end of this verse, Have I also looked after him that
seeth me? emphasizes the reality and something
of the intensity of her praying. In a sense, this indicates that
she has something of the mark of God's true spiritual Israel. What does she call the child
that is to be born. Well she's told what to call
him by the angel in verse 11. Behold thou art with child and
shall bear a son and shall call his name Ishmael because the
Lord hath heard thy affliction. The name Ishmael literally means
God shall hear. God shall hear. And isn't it
a mark of God's true people that they are those that call upon
the Lord, and the Lord hears his people when they call. And she is calling in all of
her affliction. The Lord hath heard thy affliction,
it says at the end of verse 11. And wasn't this the way in which
God came to deliver the children of Israel when they were there
in cruel bondage in Egypt remember the end of Exodus chapter 2 how
the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage and
they cried and their cry came up unto God by reason of the
bondage and God heard their groaning and God remembered His covenant
with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob and God looked upon
the children of Israel and God had respect unto them all God
hears you see those sighings and those cryings and those groanings. And he hears the affliction of
this poor woman Hagar. We see it so often, we see it
again in the experience of that gracious man, that godly king
Hezekiah. and all that we read of his prayer
in Isaiah 38 how he turned his face toward the wall and prayed
unto the Lord when he is struck down and he's told by the prophet
he's not going to live he's going to die and the armies of the
Assyrians are there and Jerusalem is surrounded and Jerusalem is
about to fall it would appear And he is a man so sick he cannot
go to the temple to make his prayer, but he turns his face
toward the wall and cries unto his God, and God hears him. Then we have the record of his
prayer when God hears him. Isaiah 38, 14, he says, Like
as a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter. I did mourn as a dove. Mine eyes fail with looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed. Undertake
for me. And this woman, you see, she's
so afflicted. And as this king was heard by
God, so was Hagel. God tells the king there in Isaiah
38, 5, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears. And is
it not also the case in this chapter? It was the angel of
the Lord who found her. as she flees from her mistress. She's found of God. Verse 7,
the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the
wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. She's found.
She doesn't find God, He finds her. Or the angel of the Lord,
that's Christ. And is it not true? Why is it
that any of us are saved? Well, in a sense, we know that
we did eventually find the Lord Jesus Christ, but He first found
us. We were not beforehand. He came first. He found us. Well,
this is the way of the Lord. He finds His people. Remember
the words of the Lord Jesus concerning Nathanael? John 1, 47, Jesus
saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith, Of him behold an Israelite
indeed, in whom is no guile. Nathanael saith unto him, Whence
knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto
him, Before that Philip call thee, When thou wast under the
tree I saw thee. or the Lord saw him first, before
ever Philip had spoken to him. And that's why he must come to
where the Lord is. This angel of the Lord, and he
comes time and time and time again to this woman. He found
her, we're told in verse 7. And he speaks to her in verse
8, and then again in verse 9. and the angel of the Lord said
unto her. Verse 10, and the angel of the
Lord said unto her. Verse 11, and the angel of the
Lord said unto her. There's an emphasis upon this
particular person. And it is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that is made clear later when we read of the Lord's dealings
with the children of Israel as they come forth out of Egypt. there in Exodus 23. Verse 20, here is the promise of God, Behold,
I send an angel before thee to keep thee in the way and to bring
thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him. Obey
his voice. Provoke him not, for he will
not pardon your transgressions. Now we can forgive sins, but
God over. What does God say concerning
the angel? He tells them how they must be
very careful. They must obey Him, not to provoke
Him. For He will not pardon your transgressions,
says God, for My Name is in Him. But if thou shalt indeed obey
his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy unto
thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries. For mine
angels shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites,
and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites,
and the Jebusites, and I will cut them off. Who is this angel? This is the
Lord. He goes on to say later here concerning this angel that
he is one to be feared. He repeats the promise you see,
verse 27, I will send my fear before them and will destroy
all the people to whom they shall come. He is called the fear of
God. This is the angel of the Lord.
that he's being spoken of and that one who deals here so graciously
with Hagar he speaks unto her and she acknowledges him she
called the name of the Lord that spake unto her she calls him
the Lord the name of the Lord the revelation of the Lord It's
Christ who comes as the image of the invisible God and she
calls him, Thou God seest me. For she was one so willing to
be seen of God. And again, is that not one of
the marks of those who are the Lord's people? What is the language
of the man after God's own heart? What is the language of of David
in that 139th psalm that we've already referred to as a celebration
of God's omniscience. When we come to the end of that
psalm, David's prayer, search me O God, know my heart, try
me and know my thoughts, see if there be any wicked way in
me, lead me in the way everlasting. And so this woman, she gives
the angel this name, thou God seest me. for he that doeth truth
cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that
they are wrought in God says Christ who are we those of such
a spirit delighting that the Lord would come to us by His
Spirit in His Word and constantly be searching us and sifting us
because we want to know that what we have in our heart is
something real a real religion not something that we've done
for ourselves, not some commitment we've made once upon a time or
some decision. But no, we want to know that
that work of God in our souls is the blessed ministry of the
Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Christ, revealing Christ to us. The experience then of Hegel,
we can so readily dismiss her and say, well look, we have this
allegory, He says salvation for the woman who can be spoken of
in that fashion in Galatians 4, but when we come back to read
something of her history. We're not to dismiss these things
lightly then. What faith we see here? The faith
of this woman. She called the name of the Lord
that spake unto her. Thou God seest me. For she said,
have I also here looked after him that seeth mine. May the Lord be pleased to bless
these things to us. Now before we do come to the
Lord in prayer let us sing God's praise in the hymn number 686
and the tune is Rycroft Hall 493 Jesus cast a look on me, give
me sweet simplicity, make me poor and keep me low, seeking
only thee to know. The hymn 686.