The God Who Hears

It's a fabulous book, and as you go through the book of Genesis, and you deal with each of these characters, and how God deals in their lives, and how they respond to God, and how they rebel against God, and how they learn to receive from God those things that would help them come close to God, we can learn much from them. That's why Genesis is probably the most practical book in the Bible, as it deals with the characters that God is dealing with every single day as he draws them to himself. Let me read for you Genesis chapter 16, and then we'll spend some time looking at it together.

Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, Now behold, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Please go in to my maid. Perhaps I shall obtain children through her. And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. And after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Abram's wife Sarai took Hagar, the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife. And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived.

And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her sight. And Sarai said to Abram, May the wrong done me be upon you. I gave my maid into your arms. But when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her sight. May the Lord judge between you and me. But Abram said to Sarai, Behold, your maid is in your power. Do to her what is good in your sight. So Sarai treated her harshly, and she fled from her presence. Now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur.

And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, where have you come from, and where are you going? And she said, I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai. Then the angel of the Lord said to her, Return to your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority. Moreover, the angel of the Lord said to her, I will greatly multiply your descendants, so that there shall be too many to count. The angel of the Lord said to her, Further, behold, you are a child, and you shall bear a son, and you shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has given heed to your affliction.

And he will be a wild donkey of a man, his hand will be against everyone, and everyone's hand will be against him, and he will live to the east of all his brothers. Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, Thou art a God who sees. For she said, Have I even remained alive here after seeing him? Therefore the well was called Bir Laharoi. Behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered. So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of the son whom Hagar bore Ishmael. And Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.

Quite a story. And just by reading it, there are many things that you can come up with to talk about. This morning, I want you to look with me at four of them. One is the predicament. Number two, the proposal.

Number three, the problem. And number four, the provision. First of all, the predicament. Abraham and Sarah found themselves in the midst of a conjury. What to do? Number one was the infertility of Sarah, and number two was the longevity of seasons.

And as time was going by, she began to wonder when was this thing going to happen. I can't continue on much longer and still be healthy enough to bear any children. So there was a predicament. She was unable to conceive, but she moved from there to talk about the longevity of seasons. The Holy Spirit says it's been ten years. Now why did the Holy Spirit say that? It's been ten years. You would have figured it out at the end of the chapter when Abraham was eighty-six years of age when Ishmael was born.

So you would have figured out that he would have been eighty-five when she conceived. And evidently, Abraham was virile enough to still produce children, but yet there was a long time. It had been ten years since the promise had been given. And with that length of time, with the seasons that came and seasons that went, there were many questions that would arise in their minds, questions as to the purposes and plans of God. And Abraham had walked with God. It had not been like he was one who rebelled against God and didn't want to walk with Him.

He had kept up good communication with God, and there was a good relationship between God and Abraham. And God had told him much and taught him much, but God never told him when the child would be born. And so there was discouragement that would set in. There would be disappointment that would come the way of Abraham and Sarah. Waiting on God was not something people readily liked to do. And they began to lose perspective on what God was going to do and what God's plan was. So what was going to happen?

They found themselves in a predicament. They had to do something. Maybe you're here today and you find yourself in that same kind of situation. You have been waiting upon God to answer. You have been waiting on God to move. You have been waiting on God to do something that He has promised you through His Word, and yet you have not seen it come to fruition in your life. You find yourself in a predicament. And people will give you some advice as to what they think you should do. And maybe you begin to think of some things that you should do just based on your own wisdom.

And yet the Bible is very clear in Hebrews 11, verse number 12, as to why God would wait so long. You know, when we read this story, we read this encounter, we're able to look at the past and at the future of their lives.

They were not able to do that. Romans 4, 19 and Hebrews 11, 12 both tell us that the reason God waited was because He wanted their bodies to be as good as dead. He wanted them to be so old that no one would look at them and think, wow, you know, you're having a child.

This is a great thing. Can you imagine Abraham and Sarah in Lamaze classes at 99 and 90 years of age? I mean, can you think, I already get through the door together, let alone be able to sit down and go through the breathing exercises for fear of passing out because of their age. We move from the predicament to the proposal. Maybe someone has offered you a proposal today for your predicament. Maybe someone has come to you and said, you know what, this is what I think you need to do. If you do this, things will work out a lot easier for you.

That's what happened with Abraham. Except it wasn't counsel necessarily from the outside. It was counsel from his very own wife. As you recall in Genesis chapter 12, there was a famine in the land and Abraham exercised his manliness and his leadership and decided to leave the land in which he was in and go to Egypt, make a decision, seek to compromise the purity of his wife with the Pharaoh there in Egypt. And of course, we don't know the conversation between Abraham and Sarah, but you can imagine that the next time they found themselves in a predicament, that Sarah wasn't going to wait for Abraham to do any more leading.

She now was going to lead. She now would have a solution. She now would be able to come up with the idea that would solve their problem. And so she does. She comes up with the ideal solution. And what is it? It was a rationalization. That's what it was. It was a rationalization that was rooted in society and therefore there was a violation that was a rebellion against God's standard. Let's look at it together.

It says, Sarah said to Abraham, behold the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. And that was a true statement. It's God who opens and closes the womb. The Bible's very clear upon that, about that. And so she says, you know, I have no children so please go into my maid, perhaps I shall obtain children through her. What I want you to do, Abraham, is take my maid servants, Hagar. Now where was she from? She was from Egypt, right? How did they get her? They got Hagar when Pharaoh gave to Abraham many female and male servants and slaves.

That's in Genesis chapter 12. And when Abraham had lied about Sarah and Pharaoh found out about it, Pharaoh still allowed him to keep all those slaves and all those servants and all the riches that he gave to Abraham, just wanted Abraham out of the way, get him out of Egypt. And Hagar was left over from Genesis chapter 12. Whenever we sin, whenever we sin, that one sin usually leads to more sins, doesn't it? And we find here that the effects of one man's sin way back in Genesis 12 is now going to come home to roost one more time in Genesis chapter 16 by way of temptation, by way of a rational on the part of Sarah.

Now it was culturally acceptable and culturally legal if a couple was infertile to use one of the slave girls to bear children to carry on the family name. That was a legal thing. That was a culturally acceptable thing in their society. So Sarah knew what was acceptable, but it was a violation. This is point number two under the proposal.

It was a violation of God's standard. It was a violation of God's standard. Just because something is legal doesn't mean it's right. I mean the society says that you can have sex outside of marriage. To society that's okay, but to God it's not okay. Society says that abortion is legal, but God says abortion is murder.

It's wrong. It's sin. So just because society accepts it and has legalized it doesn't mean it's right in God's eyes. Society accepts homosexuality, but in God's eyes that's wrong, and we'll get to that in Genesis chapter 19. Society says you can divorce for any cause, for irreconcilable differences, but God says no you can't do that.

You can only divorce for the cause of fornication, for unrepentant adultery, you see. So just because society legalizes something and society says that this is acceptable doesn't mean that God is going to accept it or that God thinks it's fine, and there was a violation of God's standard. You see Abraham and Sarah would forgo their loyalty to God and their commitment to marriage to usher in what they believed would be the promise of God. So therefore adultery can be rationalized because it brings in the promise of God in Sarah and Abraham's mind, but in reality that proposal would cause monumental problems, problems, monumental problems, and you'll notice that that Abraham never, never consulted the Lord on the situation.

So we've seen the predicament, whether it be the infertility of Sarah or the longevity of seasons, whatever might be in your situation. We've seen a proposal, a proposal that was rooted in society, a proposal that rebelled against God's standard, His standard of holiness, His standard of righteousness, His standard of purity. It leads us for number three to the problem, the problem.

I like what that old Scottish novelist George MacDonald said when he said this, in whatever a man does without God he must fail miserably or succeed miserably. Isn't that true? If you do anything without God you either fail miserably or you will succeed miserably. The problems for Abraham and Sarah were great. The scope of those problems were magnanimous. The span of those problems would last even till this very day between the Arab nations and the nation of Israel. The Arabs believed that the land of Palestine is theirs.

Why? Because the inheritance comes through the firstborn. The firstborn of Abraham was Ishmael. And so the Arab nations believe that the land of Palestine is there, where Israel would say no, it's through the line of Isaac, the line of the Messiah. And there's been a battle ever since the birth of Ishmael. I wonder if Abraham and Sarah would have taken some time to contemplate about the length of their problem and the consequences of their sin if they still would have done it. I mean it's lasting even till today.

But two things I want you to see, number one was the resentment that developed and number two the relationships that were devastated.

First of all the resentment that was developed. Abraham takes Hagar, she conceives. So Sarah, she's not a happy camper. And so we find what she says in verse number two, now behold the Lord has prevented me from bearing children.

There's a tone of bitterness there I think. It's God's fault. It's God's problem. God has brought me this far because God has put me in this situation. I must think of a way to get out of it. Of course Abraham would look at Sarah and say behold your maid is in your power.

Do to her what is good in your sights. Hey she's your problem Sarah. She's not my problem. I did my thing with her. We got the kid. It's your problem now Sarah. Great male leadership. Great male leadership. Hey I'm wiping my hands clean. You made your bed baby. You got to sleep in it now.

Don't be calling on me. How many times do we as men do that? Right? So there was a sense of resentment on his part as well and on the part of Hagar. Everybody resented everybody else. And then there was the fact that the relationships were were devastated. You have your original love triangle here in Genesis chapter 16 and nobody gets along with anybody else and everybody's upset and nobody's happy and the whole home is coming down because somebody decided to rationalize their sin. And Hagar I guess if there was an innocent party you could call her innocent.

If there wasn't anybody who who should not be blamed as much it should be Hagar. But she was even cruel toward Sarah. Look what I have Sarah. Look what I have. You don't have it but I do. Look what Abraham gave me Sarah. He didn't give it to you. He gave it to me. And women can be kind of ferocious that way. And sure enough Hagar would treat Sarah with cruelty and despise her. And so you have relationships that are completely devastated. Whenever my relationship with God is barred by disobedience my relationship with other people will be devastated.

Could you please remember that? Sarah would blame God, her husband, become bitter towards Hagar. She wouldn't look at herself and say you know what I've sinned.

And Abraham he just would abdicate his spiritual responsibilities as the head of the home. And Hagar what'd she do? Text says she ran. She fled. She left. She didn't want to face the problems. So forget about the fact that it was illegal to throw her up. Didn't make any difference then. They wanted to preserve their own sanity. Kind of get rid of the guilt if you if you make it go away. And then you can hide it under the rug. Then there's no more guilt. There's no more problems. But that's not the case as we will see in a few moments.

This leads us to point number four the provision. Like I tell you we're we're sin amounts. Grace much more bounds. God is so good. God is so good to Hagar. I mean what is she going to do? Here she is left out in the wilderness by herself. Where's she going to go? Who's going to help her deliver her child? What's going to happen to her? Where's she going to eat? Who's going to take care of her? Look what it says. Now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness by the spring on the way to Shur.

God found her. God found her. God went after her. Here's the point when you find yourself in a situation all alone God wants you. And God will go after you. It's the first point you need to understand about the provision of God is that there was a manifestation of the Lord.

A manifestation of the Lord. The angel of the Lord. It's not an angel. It is the angel of the Lord. It is the manifestation of the pre-incarnate Christ. Several times throughout the Old Testament, Genesis 31, Judges 5, there is the revelation of Jesus Christ Himself. Hagar even calls Him God. And the angel of the Lord refers to Himself as Yahweh, as God. So we know that this is a manifestation of the pre-incarnate Christ. God comes to her. He comes to her and seeks to console her and seeks to find out where she's been and where she's going.

Not that He doesn't already know. But He tries to get her to realize where were you? And where on earth are you going, Hagar? What's for you in the wilderness, Hagar? There's nothing here for you. But there was a manifestation of the Lord. And number two, there was a consolation from the Lord.

It says, the angel of the Lord said to her in verse 10, I will greatly multiply your descendants, so that they shall be too many to count. In verse 11, behold, you are a child, and you shall bear a son, and you shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has given heed to your affliction. The Lord appears to this Egyptian slave girl and promises to take care of her offspring and to help her understand the plans and purposes of God. He says, Hagar, listen, I want you to name your son Ishmael. God hears.

Isn't that good? God hears. God hears the cries of His people. God hears the cry of your heart. And then thirdly, there was a realization of His love.

It says in verse number 12 that she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, thou art a God who sees. For she said, have I even remained alive here after seeing Him? I have seen God, and I'm still alive. This is a marvelous thing. I can't believe I'm still alive, and I've seen the living God. Therefore, the well was called Bir Laharoi, meaning it is the well of the living One who sees me. The well of the living One who sees me. She realized the love of God. I wonder this morning, has there been a realization of His love for you today?

Remember 1 John 3.1? Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God. So there was a manifestation of the Lord. There was a consolation from the Lord. There was a realization of His love, and fourthly, there was a submission to His leading. Submission to His leading. In verse number 9, the angel of the Lord said to her, return to your mistress and submit yourself to her authority. Not so sure I want to do that. Listen, whenever there's been a manifestation of God in your life through the Word of God, whenever there has been a consolation from God to you, and you've realized the love of God, are you ready for this?

You willingly submit yourself to situations that are completely out of your control, and are completely unreasonable to society and culture. It's amazing. God takes our messed up lives, our sinful lives, and no matter what we do, God is going to bring about His glory, isn't He? God's going to bring about His purposes because God is still in control. And the good news today is that no matter where you're at, no matter where your relationship with God, no matter what predicament you're in, no matter what proposal you have offered, no matter what problems have come about as that, as a result of that proposal, God's provision overrides it all.

God will do in your life more than you can ever dream of because that's the way God works. That's the God we serve, and God wants to rule over all and show you that no matter what happened in your past, no matter what you did, He can take it, and He can bring about His purposes for good. For all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose, right? So God can take the sin in your life and bring about His good purposes to demonstrate His glory to all around because it's all about God and His plan.

How about you? Where are you today in your walk with the Lord? Maybe learn from Genesis 16 not to make the mistakes that Abraham and Sarah made, that we might live the life God wants us to live in obedience to Him. Let's pray together.