Sermon notes October 26th, 2025

GENESIS 16

Genesis 15:15-16

15   Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. 

16   But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

• This is a very interesting scripture. God loves them. The Amorites were not completely or immediately "abolished," but their kingdoms were eventually destroyed, their power was broken, and their surviving population was eventually absorbed into other cultures or reduced to servitude under the Israelites. God eventually wanted the Amorites destroyed primarily because their extreme moral and religious corruption had reached a point that warranted divine judgment. God had been patient with them for centuries, but their "iniquity was not yet complete" until the time of the Israelite conquest of Canaan. This shows God’s longsuffering and patience with people living in their sinful behavior.  Remember the guys at the end of chapter 14 that Abram wanted them to receive their spoils. Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre were Amorite brothers who were allies of Abram, they joined Abram in his rescue of Lot from the coalition of kings, and Abram insisted that they receive their share of the spoils as a reward for their loyalty. Their name is linked to a location near Hebron, where they camped with Abram. There is a so much of what God was saying that Abram could not understand. Then I also missed the last scripture of chapter 15.

Genesis 15:19-21

19   the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, 

20   the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 

21   the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”                                                       This is a list of ancient peoples or tribes mentioned here, specifically in the book of Genesis, who were said to inhabit the land promised to Abram.

Genesis 16                                                     New King James Version

1   Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. 

• In Sarai's culture, being unable to have children was an extremely serious matter with significant social, cultural, and personal consequences. It was not only a source of personal pain but also a cause for public shame and societal reproach. This was rooted in the belief that children were essential for family continuation, social standing, and some believed even the afterlife.
• A woman's primary value was often tied to her ability to bear children, particularly sons, to carry on the family line. Being childless meant being considered "without worth" and a failure as a wife.
• Childlessness was commonly viewed as a sign of divine disfavor or even as a punishment for sin. Sarai's barrenness would have been perceived as a result of having angered a god and being unable to fulfill her societal role.
• Children were vital for the family's future, as they were the "ancient equivalent of a retirement plan" who would care for their parents in old age. Descendants were also believed to sustain the deceased in the afterlife.

Does this help you to see into Sarai’s thinking. Before we judge her harshly understand she already feels she has been judged by the gods or God and the people in her community. It’s been more than 10 years sense God’s first promise to Abram that he would have a descendant, (a son).  

Genesis 16:2

2   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. 

• Sarai understood that God was sovereign over the womb. He had promised descendants to Abram. 
• But Sarai wasn’t sure this promise included her. There was a lot of pain in these words.

• The pain of prayers not yet answered.

• The pain of arms that had never yet held her own child.

• The pain of public shame.

• The pain of blaming God for one's problems; unbelief is a sin, but it is also a sickness, one that carries a lot of pain.

Proverbs 13:12:                                                                                                        12   Hope deferred makes the heart sick,                                                                    But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.

To address this issue, it was a common and accepted cultural practice for a barren wife to offer her maidservant as a surrogate to her husband. The child born from this union would be legally considered the child of the wife, a way to "build a family" and undo the shame of childlessness. Sarai's decision to offer her servant Hagar to Abram was a reflection of this cultural norm and her deep desire to have a child and fulfill the promise of descendants,             if Sarai could only handle it. You will see some mistakes she makes.

Genesis 16:3

3   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. 

• Sarai encouraged Abram to take part in what was in that day, essentially a surrogate mother arrangement. According to custom, the child would be considered to be the child of Abram and Sarai, not Abram and Hagar.

1. Sarai could justify this to fulfill God's promise. "Abram, God promised that you would be the father of many nations and He didn't specifically mention me. Maybe you're the father of many nations, but I'm not the mother."
2. Nevertheless, this was against God's will for many reasons.
3. It was a sin of unbelief in God and His promise: Sarai believed in God's sovereignty over the womb, then acted against it.
4. It was a sin against God's plan for marriage: that one man and one woman come together in a one-flesh relationship.
5. It was a sin against Abram and Sarai's marriage: this surrogacy wasn't done in a doctor's office, but in a bedroom.

• Abram should have said something like this: "Sarai, bless your heart but you're my wife and we're in this together. Difficult as it is, let's believe God all over again for a miracle. I don't want to sin against God and our marriage with this Egyptian servant girl."

Genesis 16:4

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

• From Sarai’s perspective, this was a terrible thing — Abram succeeded in making Hagar pregnant. This proved beyond all doubt the failure to provide a son to Abram was the fault of Sarai, not her husband. In a culture that so highly valued childbearing, mothering the child of a wealthy and influential man like Abram gave a servant girl like Hagar greater status, and made her appear to be more blessed than Sarai.
• This is a good reminder that results are not enough to justify what we do before God. It's not right to say, "Well, they got a baby out of it. It must have been God's will." The flesh profits nothing but it can produce something. Doing things in the flesh may get results, and we may be sorry we got them.
• Whatever a man or woman attempts to do without God will be a miserable failure — or an even more, a miserable success.

Genesis 16:5-6

5   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.”

6   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. 

• Sarai blamed the whole situation on Abram, and for good cause. He should have acted as the spiritual leader and told his wife that God was able to perform what He promised, and they didn’t need to try to perform God’s promise by disobeying Him and relying on man’s strength and wisdom. 
• It may have been Hagar’s contempt for Sarai that started the problem. She probably couldn’t resist displaying an inappropriate haughtiness, thinking her pregnancy somehow showed her to be better than Sarai.
• Abram made a bad situation worse by turning the situation over to Sarai and not taking care of the child he was father to. 
• Yet in this, he also put his relationship with Sarai first, and that was good.
• These terribly complicated and difficult family situations often arise out of our disobedience. All things considered, it is much easier to live life trusting in and obedient unto the LORD. God wants to spare us from these complications and difficulties.
• Sarai's cruelty collided with Hagar's pride, and all Hagar could think to do was to run. Even with nowhere to go, she fled from her presence — probably headed back to Egypt, her original home.

Genesi 16:7-8

7   Now the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. 

• Now the Angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water: Hagar's escape led her to a spring. Perhaps she was afraid to go further and leave this supply of water. In her difficulty, the Angel of the LORD met her.
• And He said: Seemingly, the Angel of the LORD was a physical presence who spoke with Hagar as one person speaks to another. We don't have the sense that this was a mere spiritual impression or a voice in the wind. There was a person physically present with Hagar, and that person was the Angel of the LORD.
• We understand this because of God the Father it says: No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him (John 1:18), and no man has ever seen God in the Person of the Father (1 Timothy 6:16). Therefore, if God physically appeared and spoke as one Person to another in the Old Testament, we understand this as an appearance of the eternal Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, before His incarnation in Bethlehem. This is the first time.

Genesis 16:8-11

8   And He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.”

• The Angel of the LORD asked an important and insightful question. In Hagar’s pride and misery, she acted without thinking, "Where have I come from?" "Where am I going?"
• Remembering those two questions would save us from a lot of trouble.
• Hagar thought she knew: I come from the most terrible place ever. I'm going nowhere. The Angel of the LORD told her, I've got a plan for you — let's move forward on it.

9   The Angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand.” 

• The Angel of the Lord told her to repent. If she changed her direction, there was an inherent promise — obey Me and I will protect you. Jesus didn't exactly tell Hagar to go back to an abusive household; He made an implied promise of protection.

10   Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, “I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.” 

• God not only implied a promise of protection, He also gave a clear promise of staggering blessing. The unborn son of Hagar would be the father of uncountable descendants.

11   And the Angel of the Lord said to her:                                                             “Behold, you are with child,                                                                                       And you shall bear a son.                                                                                                   You shall call his name Ishmael,                                                                                       Because the Lord has heard your affliction. ("God will hear")

• As the promise was fulfilled, Ishmael became the ancestor of the Arab people, just as his later half-brother Isaac would become the ancestor of the Jewish people. This makes the conflict between Arab and Jew even more tragic: they are brothers and share a common father in Abraham.

Many Christians today think they know God’s plan for the descendants of Ishmael, the Arabic people: Thay think God wants to wipe them out because of their hatred of Jews and their persecution of Christians. This reaction is not rooted in the Bible, especially in this passage of Genesis 16. Consider:

• God could have allowed Hagar and her unborn child to die in the wilderness — He didn’t allow it. God specifically intervened so that wouldn’t happen.
• God could have allowed Hagar to live, but to disappear from the life and household of Abraham and Sarah, but He didn’t allow that.
• One may argue that Ishmael's conception was because of sin and unbelief; but God could have erased him from the story, and God chose not to. This part of the story is God's doing, not man's doing.
• God specifically commanded Hagar to go back, to stay in the story. We can know that God's story for the Arabic people is not finished.

We should also remember that angelic visitations, Jesus visitations, continue to this day among the descendants of Ishmael. The Angel of the LORD was not and is not done visiting the family of Ishmael.

Genesis 16:12-13

12   He shall be a wild 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.”

• Other translations say “He will be a wild donkey of a man”
• Biblical references: The book of Job includes a passage that directly references the freedom and wildness of the donkey: "Who has let the wild donkey go free?" (Job 39:5). 
• Cultural significance: The wild donkey was used in biblical metaphors to symbolize freedom, stubbornness, and life in the wilderness, independent of human control

13   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?” 

14   Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; observe, it is between Kadesh and Bered.

• After meeting with Christ she said, (You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees), Hagar knew that if God could be with her in the wilderness, He would be with her in having to submit to Sarai also. It's as if Hagar said to God, "You have looked upon me, and now I can look upon You." That face-to-face relationship with God transforms.

15   So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 

16   Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.

Ishmael was the first son of Abraham and his wife Sarah's maidservant, Hagar. According to the book of Genesis, he was born when Abraham was 86 years old. He is considered a significant figure in both Judaism and Islam. Ishmael is best known for his relationship with his half-brother, Isaac, who was born to Abraham and Sarah when they were both elderly. In the biblical narrative, God promised Abraham that his descendants would become a great nation, and that through Isaac, his wife Sarah's son, this promise will be fulfilled. 

This caused tension between the two half-brothers and eventually led to Hagar and Ishmael being cast out of Abraham's household. Despite this, Ishmael went on to become the father of twelve sons, who are considered the ancestors of the Arab people. According to Islamic tradition, he is also the father of Prophet Muhammad. The place of Ishmael's birth is not specified in the Bible, but it is believed to be in Mesopotamia, in what is now modern-day Iraq. The exact location of his death is also not recorded, but it is believed to have taken place in the wilderness of Paran.