Abraham - Learn to Wait - Part 2

Wait on the Lord. Just be patient. Wait on the Lord. Commit it all to him and you can be sure that he will bring his word to pass.

There is something very up-to-date about the word of God. When you read it, you know of course that what is recorded there is ancient history, but it is very practical for today. In fact, people haven't changed, have they? In Genesis 16, we find a husband and wife in conflict. We find an employer and employee in conflict. We find a Jew and an Egyptian in conflict. So what else is new?

Genesis 16: Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, 'See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please go into my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.' And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. 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.

So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. And 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.' 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.

Well, here we have a husband and wife in conflict—family problems. We have employer and employee in conflict—labor-management problems. And here we have a Jew and an Egyptian in conflict—racial problems, national problems. And of course, all these conflicts stem from the very same cause: the heart. The heart of every problem is the problem in the heart.

Now, what was the cause of this conflict? Not the causes. People complicate things so much today. An economist would come along and say, 'Well, you broke your contract and you need to do some negotiating; after all, she's one of your employees.' A psychologist would come along and say, 'Well, you know, Sarah has some hang-ups; she hasn't been able to bear any children, and now she’s jealous of this maid who is going to bear a child.' A lawyer comes along and says, 'Well, the real problem here is money, who's going to inherit things.' And God looks down at the situation and he laughs at the economist, and he laughs at the psychologist, and he laughs at the lawyer, and says the whole problem is unbelief on the inside.

We’ve talked about that before. In fact, when I read Genesis 16, there are three verses that come to my mind. Let me give you those three verses. Romans 14:23: 'For whatever is not of faith is sin.' That's Romans 14:23, that's the first verse that comes to my mind. The second is Romans 6:12: 'Let not sin therefore reign over you.' Romans 6:12. And the third is Romans 5:20, where sin abounds, grace does much more abound.

Let's look at Romans 14:23: 'Whatever is not of faith is sin.' The basic cause for all of this trouble in Abraham's household was unbelief. There was war on the inside and this created war on the outside. James 4:1-3 makes that very clear. 'Where do wars and fights come from among you?' And remember James was writing to believers, not to unbelievers. 'Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war,' and that word war there means battle, 'you fight and battle. You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.' Now, that’s where trouble comes from. The heart of every problem is the problem in the heart. Abraham and Sarah were doubting the word of God. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

Now you'll recall that we pointed out that there are four tests of faith. I'll just quickly go through them. Romans 4:20: He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith giving glory to God. Test number one: is this for the glory of God? Romans 4:20. Romans 10:11: For the scripture says, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. That's a quotation from Isaiah 28:16: whoever believes will not act hastily. There's the second test: am I willing to wait? And then we have Romans 10:17: faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Can I base it on the word of God? And finally Romans 15:13: Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Is there joy and peace in my heart as I obey the Lord?

Now here are four tests of Bible faith. And for me to be able to say I'm doing this by faith, I’ve got to be able to have my decision pass all of these tests. Was this for God’s glory? No, it was to please his wife. Now there’s nothing wrong with pleasing your wife, but if pleasing your wife means disobeying the Lord, that’s quite another story. Adam listened to Eve and plunged all of mankind into sin and death and judgment. Abraham listened to his wife and the result was the birth of Ishmael, and Ishmael and his descendants have been enemies of the Jewish people for centuries. Was it for God's glory? No, it was to keep peace in the household. Alas, it did not bring peace to the household.

Secondly, were they willing to wait? Of course not, that was the whole problem. Now Abraham being the spiritual leader in this home should have said, 'Now Sarah, I know that you are impatient, I know that we both would like to have a son, however, God had said it would be in his time. He’s in charge. We’re going to wait.' But it's hard to wait. Of course it's hard to wait. It's very difficult. Here they were getting older and older and that's the reason God wanted them to wait. When Abraham was ninety-nine years old and his wife was eighty-nine years old, God came and said, 'All right, next year you're going to have a son.' God had to wait until they were physically dead as it were, so that he could get all the glory. Were they willing to wait? No, they were in haste and the result was tragic.

Thirdly, was it based on the word of God? You will notice in the life of Abraham that often God speaks to Abraham. The word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision saying, the word of the Lord said this, the word of the Lord said that. We don’t find that in Genesis 16. We don’t find it written here: 'Now the word of the Lord came to Abraham saying, "You shall marry the Egyptian maid Hagar and I will give you a son."' No, this was all human scheming. Faith is living without scheming. It was legal, but it was not biblical. There are many things you can do today that they won't arrest you for, but God won't bless you for it. It was not based on the word of God. Did it bring joy and peace? Quite the contrary. It brought sorrow and division and dispute, and finally Sarah says to Hagar, 'You get out of here.'

Can you imagine that? The selfishness of these people? Here they are creating a problem for one of their servants, and then they turn around and try to send her away. By the way, when you make a mistake you just can't send it away, you have to learn to live with it. We’re going to see that God met Hagar and said, 'You go back home and you stay with those people. I'll take care of you. They’re going to have to learn to live with their mistakes.' Well, they failed on all counts. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

Now Romans 6:12 says, 'Let not sin reign over you.' Sin began to take hold in this family. God was not ruling in Abraham's life. He was not praying. We don’t read about his altar. We don’t read that he went to God and said, 'Lord, should we do this?' Abraham listened to his wife the way Adam listened to his wife, and he got himself into trouble. And so Abraham really forfeited the lordship, the headship, that God had given him in the home. He was the spiritual leader in the home. By the way, I wish that men would realize what a privilege it is to be the spiritual leader in your home. It’s so heartbreaking when children say, 'I’ve never heard my father pray.' When children say, 'I can't go to my father for spiritual counsel, he's just not a spiritual man.' That’s tragic. It’s tragic when we men forfeit the headship, the spiritual leadership, that God wants us to have in our home.

So Abraham listened to Sarah. Sarah did not respect Abraham's leadership. Abraham did not use his leadership. Sarah was harsh on Hagar. Hagar did not respect Sarah. She was walking around proudly saying, 'I’m going to have a baby, my mistress can't have one.' Here you have all of the works of the flesh that are coming out: pride and criticism and all of these things. And so Sarah said, 'Well, let’s send the problem away, let's just get rid of her.' Oh no, God doesn't do it that way. You reap what you sow. And they had to learn how to live with their sin. And when their own boy came along later on, when Isaac was born, Ishmael created problems for them. Let not sin reign over you. When we walk by faith, then we are going to have victory over sin.

Now Romans 5:20 says where sin abounds, grace much more abounds. What was God's solution to this problem? Well, it wasn't the same as their solution. They blamed each other. Sarah blamed Abraham. First she blamed God. 'God didn't give me a baby.' And then she blamed Abraham. And then Abraham blamed Hagar. And Hagar blamed Sarah. And finally Hagar is sent away. You don’t solve problems by blaming people. You don’t solve problems by giving in. Abraham gave in. You don’t solve problems by harsh discipline. Yes, we do need discipline, but not like Sarah did to Hagar. And you don’t send your problems away. They always have a way of coming back. God's cure was not the same as their cure.

Let's begin at Genesis 16:7. Now the Angel of the Lord found her, Hagar, by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. The Angel of the Lord is our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the first reference in the Old Testament to the Angel of the Lord, who is a pre-incarnate appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so here we have Jesus Christ coming down to meet Hagar by a spring of water. She was on her way back to Egypt. That's the logical thing for her to do; she had family back there.

And he said, 'Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from and where are you going?' Interesting statement. He didn't say, 'Hagar, Abraham's wife.' God never recognized that marriage. Now it was a legal marriage, and he had to give her her legal rights, and he had to take care of the son. It was a legal marriage. She could not go back to the camp and say, 'Well, God didn't recognize this marriage, so it’s over with.' It's just that God said, 'I can't bless this thing; it’s out of my will.'

Where have you come from and where are you going? Those are good questions, aren't they? Where have you come from and where are you going? And she said, 'I'm fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.' So the Angel of the Lord said to her, 'Return to your mistress and submit yourself under her hand.' You can't run away. Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, and here he was answering the problems in her mind and heart—she said, 'Oh, if I go back, what about my son? What’s going to happen to him?'—'I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.' Similar to what he said about the descendants of Abraham.

And the Angel of the Lord said to her, 'Behold, you are with child, and you shall bear a son. And you shall call his name Ishmael.' This is the first baby in the Bible to whom a name is given from heaven. Now there are a number of them in the Bible. John the Baptist was named by God, Jesus was named by God, and Ishmael was named by God. Ishmael means 'God hears.' Because the Lord has heard your affliction. He shall be a wild man. The Hebrew says a wild donkey of a 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. Literally against the faces of all his brethren. And this has been true of the descendants of Ishmael. They have had their own way of life off by themselves; however, they have on many occasions been a cause of conflict.

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?' This is a fascinating thing. She had a whole new view of God. Now I'm sure that Hagar was a believer. You couldn't be in Abraham's camp too long without being a believer. She was a believer, but now she had met God face to face. She thought that if she had seen God, she would die. Many people had that idea. Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi. That's a good Hebrew word which simply means the well of the one who lives and sees me. The well of the one who lives and sees me. There by the well she learned that number one, God saw her. There she was fleeing to go back to Egypt. God saw her. There certainly was no future for her in Egypt. Later on she did get a wife for her son from Egypt. God saw her. God came to her.

Now here's a remarkable thing. This is the grace of God. Would you have come to a slave girl, an Egyptian slave girl, running away? I doubt it. We may have, I don’t know. But God came to her. And God spoke to her. God told her to repent and go back home where she belonged and not to act so proudly. And God gave her a promise. That's a remarkable thing. He’s promising her that she’ll have a son and that he will be a certain kind of a character, and God will bless him and multiply him. And of course, he's doing this because of Abraham. He’s not doing it because of Hagar or Sarah. He's doing it because of Abraham. God blesses those who bless him; God curses those who curse him.

So Hagar bore Abram a son. This is Abraham’s firstborn now. And Abram named his son whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. She went back and said, 'I met God,' and Abraham believed her. God said the boy's name should be Ishmael, and so Abraham obeyed. And Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram. And then we don’t read of another communication from God for some thirteen years. Genesis 17, when he's ninety-nine years old, God comes to him. God saw Hagar. God came to Hagar. God spoke to her and gave her assurances and promises. She believed God and obeyed and went back home. Where sin abounds, grace much more abounds.

Now it's interesting to note that sin basically is unbelief, rebellious unbelief. Abraham did not believe God, he believed Sarah. Sarah did not believe God, she trusted Hagar. Hagar did what they told her to do; I think in many respects she was an innocent victim here, but she should not have been proud and gone around bragging about her pregnancy. God is saying here that sin is whatever is not of faith, and sin will rule over you and bring division and dissension and trouble. But where sin abounds, grace much more abounds.

Now how are we going to respond? That's the great question. How are we going to respond? God's final solution to this problem was to send another baby. He sent Isaac into the family. That was his solution. And then Ishmael and Hagar were asked to leave the camp. The Lord Jesus Christ knows where you are.

Suppose you've made some dumb mistake. Suppose we have done something we should not do. Suppose we've created a family problem of some kind. What does God do? He doesn't ignore us. He doesn't say, 'Well you've done this, you had better just live in your own problem. You’ve made your own bed, you lie in it.' No, he didn't say that at all. He came to Hagar and he said, 'Hagar, you've been a part of the problem, now I want you to be a part of the solution. I want you to go back home. I want you to submit yourself to Sarah. You're going to have a boy. I'm going to watch over you and I'm going to bless you.' And of course he did this out of his grace.

That's what you and I have to do. Abraham had to go back to the place of his tent and his altar. Genesis 13. We've got to go back to that place where we disobeyed, where we got away from God, straighten it out. Faith is living without scheming, and faith and patience go together. It's so important that you and I have faith in God's word and learn how to wait. That's the main lesson of Genesis 16. We've learned how to walk by faith and how to war by faith, now how to wait by faith. Wait on the Lord. Just be patient. Wait on the Lord. Commit it all to him and you can be sure that he will bring his word to pass.

Heavenly Father, our prayer is for patience. We do need your guidance and your help. Forgive us when we've taken situations into our own hands. We've tried to scheme our way through. Forgive us. Help us to have the courage and the honesty to go back, to make things right, and to trust your promise that you will indeed help us and bless us. We ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.