Helping God keep his promise

Our reading this morning is from the book of Genesis, starting in chapter 11 and verse 27.

Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor and Haran, and Haran fathered Lot.

Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred in Ur of the Chaldeans.

And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife,

Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah. Now Sarai was barren. She had no child.

Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son

Abram's wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan.

But when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in

Haran. Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house

to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make

your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors

you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abram went, as the Lord

had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran.

And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered,

and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan.

When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem,

to the oak of Morah. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram

and said, To your offspring I will give this land. So he built there an altar to the Lord who had

appeared to him. Hear the word of the Lord.

Good morning everyone. Now I need to confess to some poor planning on my part. When I sort of broke up

the book of Genesis for our next preaching series, I didn't realise that the first sermon from Genesis

16 would be given on Mother's Day. And I think if I had, I would have just pushed it back a week,

because I don't think, I can think of very few passages in the Bible less appropriate to preach

on Mother's Day than Genesis chapter 16. So that's entirely my fault. I'm sorry about that, but here we

Genesis 16 · chapter mention

are, and we're going to press on. Let me pray, and then we'll get into the Word of God together.

Heavenly Father, we thank you that we can gather here, and that we can sing your praises,

and hear your Word. Lord, we pray that this part of Scripture, even today,

might, you might make it precious to us, and teach it, and instruct us by it,

for the strengthening of our faith. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, before we get into chapter 16 itself, I want to kind of reorient us in the book of Genesis

more broadly. But first, by way of introduction, the word Christian occurs three times in the New

Testament, three times. And it began, the use of the word Christian, as a designation other people

would give to Christians. Christians weren't calling themselves Christians. Other people were

calling them Christians. In the first century, what Christians called themselves, well, they used other

words. The most common four ways Christians referred to themselves in the New Testament are firstly as

brothers and sisters, around 270 times. Secondly, as disciples, around 250 times. Then as believers,

around 80 times. And fourthly, as saints, around 70 times. Now, disciples is a bit of a special case,

because that really is just concentrated in the four Gospels. It's kind of the words that the Gospel

writers and Jesus used. So, outside the Gospels, Christian most commonly referred to themselves,

not as disciples, but as brothers and sisters, i.e. referring to our relationship with one another,

and as believers, a way of designating our relationship with God.

Who are we? We are believers. A Christian is someone who has faith. A Christian is someone who believes.

And so, the creeds in the early church, as they developed, creeds that would be declared by people

who were presenting for baptism, or by the whole church when gathered together, quickly took the form

of statements of faith. I believe in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

and in the Holy Spirit. Now, in the Bible, the supreme model of faith is the Old Testament figure of Abraham.

Galatians 3 verse 9 says,

Galatians 3:9

Those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

New Testament writers frequently refer to Abraham when they want to discuss

the need for faith, or the nature of faith.

And it's this foundational figure of Abraham, whom we're going to follow,

over the next few weeks, in this central part of the book of Genesis, from chapters 16 to 25.

Now, we have spoken on Genesis before at church, but we left off this series in chapter 24,

in 2024 at chapter 15.

So, if you've joined Grace since then, well, you missed out on those talks,

but even if you were around in 2024, you've probably forgotten them.

So, let me briefly summarise what's come in Genesis so far.

I mean, it's pretty familiar to most of us, so we'll keep it brief.

Genesis is the book of creation.

It tells us how God created the heavens and earth by his word,

making all things good,

with humans in a special place,

as his image bearers.

Genesis is the book of the fall.

It tells of the sin and rebellion of humanity

that plunged the world into disorder and misery

and brought God's curse upon the world.

And Genesis is the book of God's promises.

It tells of the promises God gives to reverse the curse

and undo the effects of the fall.

But the promises of God are placed within a narrative,

within a story.

Now, if we just had a list of God's promises,

you know, if the Bible were just a list of all the things God promised us,

well, that itself would be wonderful,

because God's promises are wonderful.

But God has given us more than that.

And we see God's promises play out in a story,

a true story,

an historical story, narrative.

And so we see real people receive God's promises,

wrestle with God's promises,

trust God's promises,

and doubt God's promises,

all in the midst of their messy experiences of life.

Now, I love biblical narrative,

as we're coming to in Genesis,

but we do need to come to biblical narrative

with the right expectations.

Biblical narrative,

you know,

tells stories,

it engages in storytelling with an economy of words.

Now, in this modern era,

we're used to really lengthy, drawn-out stories.

You know, Harry Potter,

The Wheel of Time,

if anyone's ploughed through that, I haven't.

How many seasons of The Gilmore Girls were they?

And they're all the same.

I mean, that...

And you think about it,

like, if you're in the entertainment industry,

you know, if you're producing TV series for Netflix,

or something,

it's actually a win for you

if you can come up with something

that goes on for 10 seasons.

Because you make more money

if you can hook people on a long story

that just drags on and on and on.

But biblical narratives are concise.

Their literary power comes from conveying much,

much meaning with few words.

There's a simple elegance here

that gives room for our imagination to soar.

So what I want us to do

is step through Genesis chapter 16,

Genesis 16 · chapter mention

verse by verse,

and it would be really helpful

if you can have your Bibles open,

because I want you to see the power of this story.

In Genesis 16,

we're picking up the story of Abram

and his wife, Sarai,

which began in chapter 11.

Now in time,

soon God will change their names

to Abraham and Sarah,

the names by which we better remember them.

But for now,

they're still Abram and Sarai.

In chapter 12,

God called Abram to leave his homeland,

his father's household,

journey to the land of Canaan,

and God gave Abram promises.

There were several promises,

but they revolved around two main ideas.

The first idea in the promises God gave Abram

is the idea of nationhood,

that God would make Abram into a great nation,

give many descendants

who would inherit the land of Canaan

as their possession.

The second main idea

in the promises God gave Abram

is the idea of universal blessing.

In you,

all the families of the earth

shall be blessed,

God promised.

Through Abram's family,

the curse of sin would be reversed

and God's blessing would be restored.

But time had passed

and there was a problem.

Chapter 16, verse 1.

Now Sarai, Abram's wife,

had borne him no children.

How could Abram become a great nation

and how could he be a source

of universal blessing

for all the families of the earth

when he himself had not a single offspring?

For God's promises to have any hope of fulfilment,

Abram needed a son.

But Sarai, Abram's wife,

had borne him no children.

Indeed, that obstacle has been evident

from the very beginning,

before God even first called Abram,

from the reading that Sean read out,

Genesis chapter 11, verse 30,

Genesis 11:30

now Sarai was barren,

she had no child.

So the obstacle of Abram's

and Sarai's childlessness

has been ever-present

throughout their journeying.

But as the weeks and months

and years ticked by,

it weighed more and more heavily upon them.

And so when sometime after arriving in Canaan,

the Lord spoke again to Abram

in chapter 15,

Abram cut to the chase right away.

Just look back at chapter 15.

After these things,

the word of the Lord

came to Abram in a vision.

Fear not, Abram,

I am your shield,

your reward shall be very great.

But Abram said,

O Lord God,

what will you give me?

For I continue childless

and the heir of my house

is Eliezer of Damascus.

And Abram said,

Behold, you've given me no offspring

and a member of my household

will be my heir.

Now on that occasion,

God renewed his promise.

As he promised,

verse 4,

the word of the Lord came to him.

Chapter 15, verse 4,

This man shall not be your heir.

Your very own son shall be your heir.

And he brought him outside and said,

Look toward heaven

and the number of stars,

if you're able to number them.

Then he said to him,

So shall your offspring be.

And at that time,

Genesis 15, verse 6,

Genesis 15:6

Abram believed the Lord

and he counted it to him

as righteousness.

But still,

the years passed.

Still,

the promise was unfulfilled.

Still,

chapter 16,

Sarai,

Abram's wife,

had borne him no children.

The words of the promise receded into the past,

into memory.

Perhaps it was time to speed things up a bit.

Perhaps it was time to help God keep his promise.

So,

Sarai came up with a plan.

Chapter 16, verse 1,

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.

Now,

there are several things we might notice about Sarai's plan.

Let's start with the personal.

It's no surprise

that Sarai deeply feels

the grief of her childlessness.

Not just grief,

but probably some shame too,

given the cultural expectations of her day.

She feels this.

It is painful for her.

A deep grief.

Notice in Sarai's words,

she doesn't mention God's promise.

She doesn't mention God's blessing.

Rather,

she bitterly dwells on what God had withheld.

The Lord has prevented me from bearing children.

I don't think we should judge Sarai too harshly here.

Someone,

whether they're married or unmarried,

who longs for children

and whose longing for children is unfulfilled,

someone in that position like Sarai

will feel the passing of years

in an acutely painful way.

And the Scriptures,

as a whole,

are tender

toward those who experience

the grief of childlessness.

that said,

it's worth noting that everything that follows in chapter 16

begins with Sarai's sense

that God is a miser.

It begins with Sarai's sense

that God has withheld something good from her,

something which she strongly,

and indeed rightly,

desires.

And with this sense

that God has held back

this good thing from her,

Sarai takes matters into her own hands.

I wonder how many of our own

sinful behaviours,

actions,

habits

begin in the same way.

God hasn't given me this,

so I need to get it for myself.

But what about Sarai's plan itself,

this plan she comes up with?

Well, there were no fertility clinics

in the year 2000 BC

or thereabouts,

so Sarai proposes

a rather extreme form of surrogacy.

Abram would take Sarai's maid servant

as a concubine

or as a second and junior wife

and Hagar's children

would be counted as Sarai's children.

That's Sarai's plan.

Now, this strikes us as extreme.

It's worth realising, though,

this kind of surrogacy

was practised at times

in the ancient world,

at least among the nations.

For ancient people

of this time

and in this part of the world,

what Sarai proposes here

was an option.

It was an option.

However, it's an option

that the Bible never endorses,

never endorses using a slave girl

as a surrogate mother,

and it certainly was using her.

And there are a couple of clues

in the text

that Sarai's plan

is not such a good one.

The first red flag

is just that little detail

that Hagar is an Egyptian servant,

an Egyptian servant girl.

It might just trigger a memory

for readers of Genesis

to back in chapter 12,

where there was another episode

where an Egyptian came between

Abram and Sarai in their marriage.

On that occasion,

it was an Egyptian man,

Pharaoh,

and God opposed Pharaoh

by striking Pharaoh's household

with plagues

so that he couldn't insert himself

between Abram and Sarai

in their marriage.

Well, now we find another Egyptian,

a servant girl,

about to be placed in between them.

There's a second warning sign, perhaps,

and that is when Sarai says,

it may be that I shall obtain children by her,

the expression obtain children

is literally the verb to be built.

It may be that I will be built through her.

And it's the same verb

that's used in Genesis chapter 2, verse 22,

Genesis 2:22

when the Lord God literally built a woman

from the rib taken from Adam.

If Sarai is to be built

in terms of bearing children,

well, it is the Lord who will build her,

not Sarai's scheme.

In any case, this is Sarai's plan,

and you might notice that Abram doesn't argue,

he doesn't put up a fight at all.

Verse 2,

and Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

Just as another husband

had been at a critical earlier moment in Genesis,

Abram is passive

and silent

and entirely complicit.

Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

So after Abram had lived 10 years

in the land of Canaan,

Sarai, Abram's wife,

took Hagar, the Egyptian, her servant,

and gave her to Abram, her husband,

as a wife.

10 years.

I mean, we can understand

why Sarai was tired of waiting.

But notice in verse 3

that the words Abram's wife

and her husband

tell us no new information.

I mean, you could have,

you could cross those words out of verse 3,

it wouldn't change the sense of it at all,

except that,

what are those words doing?

They're just there to draw attention

to what is relevant,

the information that's relevant.

Sarai, Abram's wife,

gave Hagar to Abram,

her husband.

Can you feel

the text's horror

at what is taking place here?

Likewise,

the Egyptian,

her servant,

adds no new information.

It just tells us

the things we need

to know about Hagar.

The two things

we need to know about her,

that she's an Egyptian,

an outsider,

and that she was a slave girl,

she was powerless.

This is something done to her,

not by her.

But do you notice

something else about verse 3?

Let me just read part of it together

and see if you can pick up

an echo here.

Abram's wife

took Hagar

and gave her

to her husband.

Does that remind you

of anything?

You know,

just as with the expression,

Abram,

listen to the voice

of Sarai,

we have another echo

of Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

Genesis chapter 3,

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

the woman

took some of the fruit

and gave it

to her husband.

Do you hear it?

Abram's wife

took

Hagar

and gave her

to her husband.

With just a few words,

Genesis 16

has been framed

as a parallel

to the fall

in Genesis 3.

And once we realise

that,

the similarities

are striking.

There's the same

suspicion

on the part

of the woman

that God

has withheld

something good.

There's the same

passive capitulation

on the part

of the man.

There's the same

taking of matters

into their own hands.

The only thing

missing

is the serpent.

The faith

of Genesis 15

is immediately

followed

by the faithlessness

of Genesis 16.

And Genesis 16

is to Genesis 15

what Genesis 3

is to Genesis 2.

We know

how badly

things turned out

in Genesis 3.

Well,

what's the outcome

here?

Verse 4,

and he,

Abram,

went into Hagar

and she conceived.

Immediately,

Hagar

becomes pregnant.

It seems

almost effortless

after all

the waiting

Abram and Sarai

had had

to that point.

This would,

you think,

be what Sarai

had hoped for.

She wanted

Hagar

to bear children

so that those

children could

be Sarai's.

And Sarai's

grief and shame

would come

to an end

as Hagar

bore children

for her.

But when we

rely on ourselves

and our plans,

we never

make things

better

and quickly

things turn

sour in

Abram's

household.

Verse 4 again,

and when she,

that's Hagar,

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.

And 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.

Notice

the progression

in verses

4 to 6,

from Hagar

to Sarai

to Abram,

then back

to Sarai,

then back

to Hagar.

First Hagar

looked with

contempt

on her

mistress.

The servant

girl

understandably

starts to

imagine that

her rank

in the

household

has increased.

Her status

has risen

because she's

the one

who's been

able to

fall pregnant

to Abram

and bear

a conceiver

child for

him.

Rather

than relieve

Sarai's

torment,

Hagar's

pregnancy

has only

increased

it.

Sarai

then,

feeling

tormented

by Hagar,

blames

everything

on her

husband.

You know,

this is

your fault,

the Lord

judged

between

you and

me.

And Abram

is once

again

completely

passive,

he refuses

to accept

any

responsibility,

he just

tries to

appease

his wife

and he

says,

well,

you go

and do

whatever

you want.

so

Sarai

treats

Hagar

so

harshly

that she

runs

away.

I mean,

Genesis

Genesis 16:1–6

16

verses 1

to 6

is an

absolute

train wreck.

Abram and

Sarai blow

it big

time.

Everything

they say

and

everything

they do

is

deplorable.

Doubting

and

forgetting

God's

promises

or

tiring

of

waiting

on

them,

they

take

matters

into

their

own

hands.

They

try

to do

for

themselves

by

very

dubious

means

what

God

had

already

promised.

Galatians

Galatians 5:6

chapter 5

verse 6

says that

faith

works

through

love.

In

Genesis

Genesis 16 · chapter mention

chapter 16

when faith

fails,

love

goes

with

it.

Not

once

do

Abram

or

Sarai

pause

to

consider

Hagar

her

needs,

her

well-being,

her

dignity.

She

is

used,

abused

and

abandoned.

After

the

magnificent

sweeping

promises

of

Genesis

12

and

15,

Abram

and

Sarai

quickly

proved

themselves

to be

utterly

unworthy

of the

promises

they

had

received.

And as

we read

this chapter

it is

plain as

day to

us

that the

greater

obstacle

to the

promises

of God

would not

be their

childlessness

but their

faithlessness.

And the

questions these

verses raise

for us

are

can the

plans of

men

derail

the plan

of God?

does

our

faithlessness

nullify

God's

faithfulness?

When

we

wobble

in

faith

as

Abram

and

Sarai

wobbled

does

God

wobble

in

his

commitment?

In

one sense

Genesis

16

leaves

those

questions

hanging

unanswered.

In

another

sense

though

they'd

already

been

answered.

In

Genesis

Genesis 15 · chapter mention

chapter

15

when

God

renewed

his

promise

to

Abram

when

God

Genesis

Genesis 15:18

15

verse

18

made

a

covenant

with

Abram

the

Lord

bound

no

one

but

himself

he

gave

an

unconditional

promise

promise

that would

not be

revoked

that could

not be

undermined

not even

by the

faltering

faith

of those

who

received

the

promise

what

God

had

promised

he

would

do

and

friends

brothers

sisters

I don't

know about

you but

I actually

find the

betrayal of

Abram

and Sarai

in this

chapter

something

of a

comfort

to me

I mean

here is

the

Bible's

great

hero

of

faith

the

one

the

New

Testament

will

hold

up

as

the

example

of

faith

committing

this

complete

blunder

this

catastrophic

failure

God

and

what

we're

going

to

see

in

Genesis

in

the

weeks

to

come

is

we

are

going

to

see

Abram

Abraham

as he

will

be

grow

in

faith

he

often

gets

things

wrong

but

gradually

over the

course

of his

life

he

learns

that

God

is

trustworthy

and

he

learns

what

it

means

to

trust

a

trustworthy

God

all

of

us

every

single

one

of

us

who

believes

in

Jesus

we're

like

the

man

in

the

gospels

who

exclaims

to

Jesus

I

do

believe

help

my

unbelief

like

Abram

and

Sarai

we

who

believe

are

believers

who

still

have

a

lot

of

growing

in

faith

to

do

but

when

we

wobble

in

our

faith

in

God

he

never

wobbles

in

his

commitment

to

us

what

secures

our

future

is

not

the

strength

of

our

imperfect

faith

but

the

unbreakable

might

of

his

unfailing

word

Jesus

said

all

that

the

father

gives

me

will

come

to

me

and

whoever

comes

to

me

I

will

never

cast

out

God

does

not

need

our

help

to

keep

his

promises

God

keeps

his

promises

so

take

heart

take

heart

brothers

and

sisters

take

heart

believers

in

the

unfailing

promise

of

God

but

what

of

Hagar

Hagar

who'd

been

abandoned

by

Abraham

who'd

been

mistreated

by

Abraham

who'd

been

mistreated

by

Sarai

forced

to

flee

what

would

become

of

Hagar

well

let's

let's

briefly

consider

in the

second

half

of

this

chapter

what

becomes

of

Hagar

verse 7

chapter 16

verse 7

the angel

of the

Lord

found her

by a

spring

of water

in the

wilderness

the spring

on the

way

to

Shur

now

Shur

is in

the

northern

end

of the

Sinai

peninsula

it

stands

between

Canaan

and

Egypt

so

Hagar

it seems

is

fleeing

back

to her

homeland

back

to

Egypt

if

Abram's

still

living

in

Hebron

which is

the last

place

that he'd

been

sort of

given

that we've

been told

he's living

in

Genesis

if he's

still

living

there

she may

already

have

covered

around

about

110

kilometres

on her

journey

back

to

Egypt

she's

pregnant

she's

vulnerable

she's

alone

and she's

been

travelling

through

inhospitable

terrain

but she's

not

forgotten

not

by

God

the

angel

of the

Lord

found

her

by a

spring

of

water

in the

wilderness

in

verse

8

and he

said

Hagar

servant

of

Sarai

where

have

you

come

from

and

where

are

you

going

she

said

I'm

fleeing

from

my

mistress

Sarai

now

the

angel

of

the

Lord

presumably

knows

exactly

where

she's

come

from

and

exactly

where

she's

going

he

addresses

her

for

starters

as

Hagar

servant

of

Sarai

he

knows

who

she

is

he

came

looking

for

her

he

found

her

the

Lord

found

her

so

he

knows

the

answer

to

the

question

before

he

asks

it

but

by

asking

!

the

angel

of

the

angel

of

Sarai

to

share

her

own

mind

Hagar's

voice

is

heard

for

the

first

time

in

the

chapter

a

dignity

that

Abram

and

Sarai

never

afforded

her

but

the

angel's

next

response

might

surprise

us

verse

9

the

angel

of

the

Lord

said

to

her

return

to

your

mistress

and

submit

to

her

the

angel

sends

Hagar

back

to

Sarai

in

fact

the

language

here

is

even

more

striking

in

Hebrew

than

in

English

I

won't

go

into

the

details

but

verse

9

directly

echoes

a

couple

of

phrases

in

verse

6

where

Abram

says

to

Sarai

your

servant

is

in

your

power

and

where

the

narrator

tells

us

Sarai

dealt

harshly

with

her

well

the

language

here

is

echoing

those

phrases

!

He

makes

it

clear

that

what

he's

asking

Hagar

to

do

going

back

to

Sarai

to

submit

to

her

would

not

be

easy

so

what's

going

on

here

if

you

were

to

adopt

the

most

critical

stance

you

might

say

God

is

sending

her

back

to

a

potentially

abusive

household

enabling

her

mistreatment

but

if

we

don't

adopt

that

stance

and

I

want

to

be

very

very

clear

this

is

absolutely

not

a

general

command

that

women

fleeing

abusive

homes

should

be

sent

back

to

them

that's

not

what's

going

on

here

this

is

a

specific

situation

it's

descriptive

not

prescriptive

but

it's

still

surprising

even

unsettling

so

what

do

we

make

of

it

well

I

think

this

little

section

this

section

here

from

verse

9

to

12

of

chapter

16

vaguely

parallels

Genesis

Genesis 12:1–3

chapter

12

verses

1

to

3

so

you

remember

in

Genesis

Genesis 12:1

chapter

12

verse

1

the

Lord

sent

Abram

he

commands

him

to

go

out

from

his

country

his

people

his

father's

household

to

the

land

of

Canaan

well

now

here

in

chapter

16

verse

9

the

Lord

sends

Hagar

turns

her

back

from

her

native

country

from

the

people

of

Egypt

back

to

Canaan

back

to

rejoin

Abram's

household

both

sendings

that in

chapter

12

that in

chapter

16

were

difficult

to

obey

both

sendings

called

for

faith

and

in

both

chapter

12

and

chapter

16

the

sending

is

followed

by

a

promise

here

in

chapter

16

return

to your

mistress

and submit

to her

verse 10

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

and 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

before we

look at the

details of

the promise

notice in

passing

three times

verse 9

verse 10

verse 11

we read

the angel

of the Lord

said to her

again another

example of

repetition

that isn't

actually required

to make sense

of what's

taking place

here

but it's

it's repeated

three times

so that we

realize

that here

the Lord

who on

multiple

occasions

had spoken

to Abram

is speaking

to this

lowly

lonely

Egyptian

slave girl

but what

are the

promises

that the

Lord makes

to Hagar

here

some are

positive

some are

a bit

ambivalent

the positive

verse 10

offspring

that cannot

be numbered

for multitude

it sounds a bit

like the promise

given to Abram

in chapter 15

could it be

that God's

promises to

Abram

would be

fulfilled

through the

son of

Hagar

also positive

is verse 11

the name

that

Hagar

is to give

her son

Ishmael

means God

hears

and the

explanation

is because

the Lord

has listened

to your

affliction

the birth

of this

son

the promise

of

that he

would

become

a multitude

of

descendants

these

were

God's

kindness

and mercy

to Hagar

in the

midst of

her

hardship

he

listened

to her

affliction

this

son

would

turn out

you see

not to

be a

gift

for

Sarai

as

Sarai

had

planned

but rather

a gift

to her

slave

girl

Hagar

more

ambivalent

is the

promise

in verse 12

a wild

donkey

of a

man

hand

against

everyone

you remember

from chapter

12

that

Abram's

family

line

was to

be a

source

of

blessing

for all

the

families

of the

earth