Let's turn this evening to Genesis
chapter 16, the birth of Ishmael, Genesis chapter 16. And I have
two points that I want to bring out from this chapter tonight.
The first is Abram's failure to act justly as the head of
his home. That's the first thing that we
should see. Abram's failure to act justly
as the head of his home. Verses one through six. Now,
Sarah, Abram's wife, bare him no children, and she had a handmaid,
an Egyptian whose name was Hagar. And Sarah said unto him, 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 10 years
in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband, Abram, to
be his wife. And he went in unto Hagar, and
she conceived. And when she saw that she had
conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. And Sarai said unto
Abram, my wrong be upon thee. I have given my maid into thy
bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised
in her eyes. The Lord judged between me and
thee. But Abram said unto Sarai, behold,
Thy maid is in thy hand. Do to her as it pleaseth thee."
And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face. Abram's failure to act justly
as the head of his home. Many of the writers point out
the different customs at that time to excuse Abram that he
allowed this to take place. And there is no doubt that customs
were very different at the time from our days and from our society,
but that doesn't excuse Abram's conduct. He failed. He failed to act justly as the
head of his home. He was the head of his house
like every man and therefore responsible. And it would be
easy to put all the blame of this episode on Sarai but we
know better. She played a part, but it all
came down to Abram as the head of the home. Robert Hawker points
out that Sarah had grace to see, if you notice in verse two, she
says that it was the Lord who restrained her from bearing.
She had grace to see that it was the Lord who had done this
But Robert Hawker said she did not have grace to act accordingly. There are two sins that stand
out to me in this passage. And both of them are bottomed
out, I suppose, on unbelief. But two sins especially. The
first is the sin of impatience. Impatience. Sarah was aware that
God had promised Abram an heir. Now they, as the scripture says,
had now been in the land of Canaan ten years, and God had given
them no heir. And as far as we know, and I
stress that, as far as we know, to this point, God had not specifically,
He had not specifically said that the heir would be given
through Sarah. But surely that would have been
assumed. If you look in the next chapter,
chapter 17 and verse 15, And God said unto
Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name
Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be, and I will bless her and
give thee a son also of her. Now this is the first time there
in chapter 17, where we read that God told Abram that the
air would come through Sarah. But that doesn't excuse their
actions, I don't think, because in the beginning, and the Lord
Jesus Christ, he pointed this out when some came and questioned
him in Matthew chapter 19, in the beginning, when God saw that
there was no animal that was meat to help Adam. Remember, all the animals came
before him and it is declared unto us that there was not one
of them that was meat to be a help meat to Adam, that God saw the
need and God created Eve. He didn't create two wives or
three wives. He created him one wife. That was from the beginning.
Now polygamy was practiced at this time. There's no question
about that, as it is today in some parts of the world. But
that doesn't make it right. There never was a precept. There's
no precept in the word of God that condones polygamy. in the beginning. And that's where we go. We go
to the beginning. And in the beginning, one man,
one woman. Not one man and several women
or several men and one woman or anything like that. You know,
today we live in a society that is just as pagan as it can possibly
be. And men and women today, they
hate the fact that God is God, God is the creator, and God is
sovereign. And we see this in society all
the time. More and more women are trying
to usurp and are usurping the place of the man. And it's just
a recipe for disaster in any place where it is practiced.
And much worse than that we know is going on today. But impatience. Impatience is a sin to which
all of us, I know, at times we are tempted to. I cannot help
but think about King Saul. If you want to look with me in
2 Samuel chapter 13, an excellent illustration, 2 Samuel chapter
13. When Samuel told Saul that he
would come on a certain day, Well, you know the story. 2 Samuel
chapter 13. He became impatient. And he became impatient, he said,
because the people were scattering away from him. That is, the people
of Israel. 2 Samuel chapter 13. So again,
I say that this sin is founded on unbelief, as most every sin
is. But here in 2 Samuel chapter
13 and beginning with verse 10, I think that must be 1 Samuel.
1 Samuel, I'm sorry. 1 Samuel. chapter 10 and verse, chapter
13. I'm gonna get it right here in
a minute, folks. I hope, Lord willing. 1 Samuel
chapter 13 and verse 10. And it came to pass that as soon
as he had made an end of offering, that is Saul, the burnt offering,
behold, Samuel came and Saul went out to meet him that he
might salute him. And Samuel said, what hast thou
done? And Saul said, because I saw
that the people were scattered from me, and that thou camest
not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered
themselves together at Michmash, therefore said I, the Philistines
will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication
unto the Lord. I forced myself, I forced myself,
therefore, and offered a burnt offering. And Samuel said to
Saul, now look what this impatience, this sin of impatience and unbelief
costs this man. Samuel said unto Saul, thou hast
done foolishly. Thou hast not kept the commandment
of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee. For now would
the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever. But now thy kingdom shall not
continue. The Lord hath sought him a man
after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be
captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which
the Lord commanded thee. And impatience, because he saw
the people leaving him. But who had put Saul over the
people? God gave him this office as king,
but now he usurps the office of a priest. And because of his impatience,
his unbelief, the kingdom was not established with him and
his family. You say, yes, but isn't there
a principle in the word of God where God always sets aside the
first and takes the second? But Saul didn't know that. He
wasn't acting because there was a principle, there is a principle
in the Word of God like that. He was doing what he did because
he was impatient and he was full of unbelief, no doubt. And like
we've said and you've said also, God is jealous for these types
in the Old Testament. He really is a type, a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ. When Moses, God told him, remember,
to speak to that rock, and he didn't speak to it, he struck
it. And because of that, he was not allowed to lead the nation
of Israel into the land of promise. That rock was Christ, picture
of Christ. Christ's only going to die one
time. Only one time was that rock to be struck, and it had
been struck, and out of that rock, the water came. And out
of Christ comes the water of life. But he's only sacrificed
one time. He's only afflicted, wounded,
and put to death one time, not twice. And there's other examples,
too. A king, I can't remember offhand,
the king that decided he was going to go in and burn incense. And God caused that leprosy to
come out on his face, and he ran out of there as fast as he
could. God's jealous for these types
of His son. But impatience here we see. In Isaiah chapter 28 and verse
16, the scripture says, he that believeth shall not make haste. He that believeth shall not make
haste. And the impatience here of Sarai
was founded, as I said, out of the sin of unbelief. And also
in the New Testament concerning patience, the Apostle James wrote,
knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience,
but let patience have her perfect work. Their faith, Abram and
Sarai's faith was being tried, no doubt, 10 years and still
no heir. It's being tried, but that still
did not call for the impatience. In Psalm 27 and verse 14, the
scripture says, wait on the Lord. That's hard to do sometimes,
isn't it? I've heard people say, well, do something. Even if it's
wrong, do something. No, no, no. Not at all. Wait on the Lord. Wait on the
Lord. Be of good courage, and he shall
strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. The second sin that I see especially
here is presumption. Presumption. To plan such a scheme
as this, as though the Lord needed man's help. As though the Lord
needed man's help in fulfilling his prophecy. That in thee, in
Abram, all the families of the earth, in thy seed, all the families
of the earth shall be blessed, and now They come up, Sarah at
least, it seems like is the one who thought of this, with a plan,
with a scheme, and it's presumption. That's all it is, presumption.
Another example, if you look in Numbers chapter 14, of the
sin of presumption. Numbers chapter 14 and verse
39. And this happened after the spies,
the 12 spies, had come back from spying out the land of promise.
And remember, 10 of those spies brought up an evil report and
discouraged the people. And they began to say, well,
it'd been better for us. You brought us out here for our
children. You brought us out here in the
wilderness for our children to be a prey to be destroyed. It would have been better for
us had we stayed in Egypt. Well, if it had not been for
Moses interceding for them, God would have destroyed them all
at that time. But notice in verse 39, and Moses
told these sayings unto all the children of Israel, and the people
mourned greatly. They rose up early in the morning
and got them up into the top of the mountain. You see, they
had been discouraged and they said, let's choose out a captain
and he can lead us back to Egypt. And as I said, if it had not
been for the intercession of Moses, God would have destroyed
all the Israelites and raised up another nation from Moses.
That's what he told him he would do. Moses interceded. What an intercessor Moses was
for the nation of Israel. You see it several times. But
after he told them, you know, they were all going to die. You
said your children are going to be praised. No, your children
are going to inherit the land. You're the ones who are going
to die in this wilderness. Well, then they decided, well,
let's just go up. Let's just go up, you know, we've
made a mistake and they mourned over that. Let's just go up and
fight and let's take the land of Canaan. That's what the situation
here is. They rose up, verse 40, rose
up early in the morning, get them up into the top of the mountain
saying, lo, we be here and we'll go up unto the place which the
Lord hath promised for we have sinned. And Moses said, wherefore
now, Do you transgress the commandment of the Lord? It shall not prosper. It's not going to work. You lost
your opportunity because of your unbelief. But notice, go not
up, verse 42, go not up, for the Lord is not among you, that
you be not smitten before your enemies. For the Amalekites and
the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the
sword. because you are turned away from the Lord, therefore
the Lord will not be with you. But, but, they presumed, they
presumed to go up under the hilltop. Nevertheless, the ark of the
covenant of the Lord and Moses departed not out of the camp.
Now how did this turn out? How did this work out for them?
Going up presumptuously after God's man, God's prophet Moses
told them, don't go up. You're not going to prosper.
God's not with you. Verse 45, then the Amalekites
came down and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill and
smote them and discomfited them. even unto Hormah. They fled before
their enemies." You know, the psalmist David, he prayed in
Psalm 19, keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Keep back, that's a good prayer
for all of us, isn't it? Keep back thy servant from presumptuous
sins. Just as we pray, lead us not
into temptation, but deliver us from evil, from the evil one. It's a good petition all of us
should remember. Keep back thy servant also from
presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over
me. Now this plan, back in our text,
chapter 16 of Genesis, this plan appealed to Sarai as the solution
to obtain an heir. And it may have been a common
practice, no doubt. This may have been practiced
among the heathen, among the Canaanites. It may have been. Sarah has a plan and suggested
her plan to Abram that he take her her maid, Hagar, to be his
wife and in this way produce an heir. It would be her child. She would raise this child as
her child. Now, several weeks ago, back
several chapters, we saw that Abram went down into Egypt and
he told an untruth. Remember, he told Pharaoh, or
Pharaoh's men, that Sarai was his sister. And so, Pharaoh took
Sarai and put her in ward, I guess, and he entreated Abram well for
Sarai's sake. He gave unto Abram sheep, it
says, he gave him sheep, he gave him oxen, gave him asses, gave
him camels, men's servants, and maidservants. probable, very
possible, probable, that at the same time, Pharaoh gave this
Egyptian maid to Sarah. It was her maid, she was her
property, and listen, until she gave her to be Abram's wife,
she had full authority over Hagar. But once she gave her to be Abram's
wife, she lost that absolute authority over her. And you see,
that's the reason she comes to Abram. Because before she gave
Hagar to Abram to be his wife, she had full authority over her. She was her property. But once
she gave her to Abram, and he took her to be his wife, she
lost that authority. Well, Hagar conceived, and as
soon as she saw that she was with child, she began to despise
Sarai. She began to provoke Sarai, probably
thinking that she would now Because she's pregnant, this is something
Sarah never gave to her husband Abram, that is an heir. Now she's
pregnant, she's going to have an heir. She's probably not going
to continue being a secondary wife, but now, in her mind at
least, Abram is going to love her more. He's going to love
her more. And she will be the primary wife. Remember Samuel's mother, Hannah. Now, Elkanah, Samuel's father,
he had two wives. And Peninnah was the name of
one and Hannah was the name of the other. And Peninnah had children. She was having children, but
Hannah, she had no child. And the scripture says that Peninnah
provoked her sore. I mean, she provoked Hannah sore. for to make her fret. And the
same thing was happening here, no doubt. Well, when Sarah complained
to Abram, and she seems to put the blame on him, doesn't she?
She seems to put the blame on him. And he deserved the blame
because he listened to her. He hearkened to her plan, which
was not according to the truth, the word of God that they had
at that time. God never intended for a man
to have two or three wives. We know that. Well, this resulted
in Hagar running away from Sarah. And you can't blame her because
she was dealing harshly with her. Now, the second part of
the chapter, verses 7 through 16, the angel of the Lord found
her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain
in the way to Shur. And from what the writers say,
Shurah was on the way to Egypt, as though she was going to run
back to Egypt from which she came. And he said, Hagar, that
is the angel of the Lord, Hagar, Sarai's maid, which camest thou,
and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the
face of my mistress, Sarai. And the angel of the Lord said
unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself unto her hands. And the angel of the Lord said
unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall
not be numbered for multitude. And the angel of the Lord said
unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son,
and shalt call his name Ishmael, because the Lord hath heard thy
affliction. And he will be a wild man. His
hand will be against every man and every man's hand against
him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.
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? Wherefore, the well was called
Beelahairoa. Behold, it is between Kedash
and Beret. And Hagar bare Abram a son. And Abram called his son's name,
which Hagar bare Ishmael. And Abram was four score and
six years old, 86 years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram. I mentioned here a while back
that Genesis is a book of beginnings, and we have a lot of firsts in
the book of Genesis. And here is one. This is the
first mention of angels, the first mention of angels in the
Word of God. But this we recognize is not
an ordinary angel. He is not an angel like Gabriel. This is the angel of the Lord. Because you see in verse 10,
no ordinary angel could ever say what this angel said. He
said, I, I will. Now, an ordinary angel might
be sent with a message to someone like this and tell them the Lord
will. But an ordinary angel is not
going to say, I will. This is the angel of the Lord.
who said, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly that it shall
not be numbered for multitude. This is one of those many pre-incarnate
appearances of the Lord Jesus before He actually was made flesh
and dwelt among us. Theophany, that's what it's called,
a theophany. The word angel means messenger,
and the angel of the Lord we know is the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is the messenger of the new covenant. But notice with me
just a few things, what is said of him. First, the angel of the
Lord found her, and the angel of the Lord found her. Hagar
was found by the Lord. Hagar did not find the Lord. I was speaking with a man a few
months back, and we were at a place of business, and I think, if
I remember correctly, he had worked in the prison system at
one time. But he said, those who find Jesus,
he said that a couple of times to me, and I said, He said, those
that find Jesus in the sense that if they really find Jesus,
I said, really, if Jesus finds them, that's the key. It's not
them finding Jesus. The good shepherd finds his own
sheep. The son of man has come to seek
and to save that which is lost. And he's going to seek until
he finds every one of the lost sheep that the father gave unto
him. He's going to cross their path
somewhere between the cradle and the grave with the gospel,
with his gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation unto
everyone that believeth. So the good shepherd finds his
sheep. Second, the angel of the Lord
called her by her name, Hagar. This is another thing that we
read in John chapter 10. In our Lord's parable of the
shepherd and his sheep, he calleth his own sheep by name, And third,
the angel of the Lord knew her. Notice what it says. Hagar, Sarah's
maid. He knew her, he knew all about
her. I am the good shepherd and know my sheep and have known
of mine. Now the angel of the Lord sent
her back to her mistress, Sarah. It was not fitting, it was not
fitting that Abram's son, and this child was Abram's child,
it was Abram's son, it wasn't fitting that his son be born
out in the wilderness. And it was a dangerous place
where she was. There's no way that she could
have made her way back to Egypt. He sent her back with these assurances. Notice these three assurances
that the angel of the Lord gave her. You will have a son named Ishmael. They didn't have ultrasounds
back then. You shall have a son. It's not
going to be a girl. It's going to be a boy. You shall
have a son. And like Isaac, he was given
his name before his birth. You shall have a son who shall
be named Ishmael. He was like Isaac in the sense
that he was given his name before he was born, but he wasn't like
Isaac in the sense that Isaac was the son of promise, just
like every believer in this building tonight. We too are children
of promise. Read that in Galatians. His name
means God will hear, Ishmael, God will hear. The second assurance
she gave him, her son would be a wild man, verse 12. The Hebrew here for wild man
is a wild ass man. That if it was literally translated,
that's the way it would read. your son shall be a wild ass
man. And this is the description of
every person apart from the grace of God, the saving grace of God,
who was born in this world. A description of all men in general. Job chapter 11 and verse 12,
for vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass is
called. No one going to control a wild
ass, and that's the way every man is when he comes into this
world, and that's the way every man is when he leaves this world,
unless God's grace intervenes. I'll do it my way. Remember that
song a few years ago, I'll do it my way? That's a good theme
song for all men. I'll do it my way, not God's
way. We will not have this man to reign over us. And the third
assurance she was given, her son would be the father of unnumbered
multitudes. Verse 10. Notice the last words of verse
11. The Lord hath heard thy affliction. The Lord hath heard She named
him, thou God seest me, and no doubt, as God told Moses at the
burning bush, I have seen and heard the affliction of my people. God hears the affliction of his
people. You say, how does he hear? It
may be just a sigh, it may be just a groan in the heart, in
the spirit. But God hears the affliction
of his people. And so Hagar named the well in
verse 14. She named it after the name of
the Lord that spoke unto her. The name of the well is literally
the well of him that liveth and seeth me. And that's the God
that we worship, the God that liveth and seeth me, seeth you,
seeth every man. May the Lord bless this word
tonight to all of us. Brother Bill, let's sing a verse
or two of a hymn.