Genesis 15:6-17:7

Underlying this revelation of Jesus right throughout the Bible is Genesis 15 verse 6 because this is the only way that the revelation of Jesus and who He really is can be of any use to us. There’s no salvation, no eternal life, no final point to this life and no way we can live in the glorious light of God without this scripture. “And he (Abram) believed in the LORD, and he counted it to him for righteousness.” We become reborn spiritually and have eternal life the moment we simply believe what God said, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them.

Now, let me ask a question.

What is the single biggest mistake we make in our attempts to know and believe God?

I believe the biggest mistake we make is that we continually turn to our own, very limited, human understanding. We try and see the mechanics of HOW God will bring about a promise and we try and see those mechanics through our natural human understanding. Even Creation itself is impossible for many people to believe because they can’t concieve with their natural minds the awesome power of Almighty God. He’s just not explainable to our human minds that are locked into the see feel and touch world we currently live in. The world and its natural resources are in our faces 24 hours a day and it’s hard to see how those natural forces can be completely subject to God.

This is exactly what happened to Abram and Sarai after the great high point of the Bible, where Abram believed God. Abram and Sarai start to rationalise about what God had said. They can’t see the promise in human terms in a way that their natural minds could accept and so they decide to help God along.

In this episode we’re going to see the result of that rationalisation and we’re going to see ourselves in the same light.

Let’s start reading from Genesis 16 verse 6, but before we read, the background from the last episode is that Sarai has come up with an idea of how to help God bring about His promise to Abram. That promise is that Abram would bear an heir from his own body. Abrams old, Sarai’s old, she’s never been able to bear children and maybe God, who’s just revealed Himself to Abram as El Shaddai, the Almighty, All-Knowing, Omnipotent All Sufficient One just hasn’t realised this. So, she’s given Abram her Egyptian maid Hagar as a concubine whereby Abram can reproduce offspring and Abram agrees.

When Hagar conceives Sarai begins to despise Hagar and treats her harshly to the point where Hagar clears out.  She runs away. That’s where we’ll take up the story.

n fact, let’s start with verse 5 to get the full flavour. and we’ll read through to verse 7.

Genesis 16:5,  “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.” 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. Now the Angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. “

So Hagar took of, she ran away. This could well have meant death to her and certainly to the child she was carrying. It shows just how badly she must have been treated by Sarai.

Now, who was the “Angel of the Lord” who found her? By His nature, we can tell that this was none other than the pre-incarnate Christ. Christ in His pre-incarnate form will appear a number of times throughout the Old Testament. Remember He’s the “scripture that spoke to Abram” as told in Galatians 3:8. The living Word of God who has not yet been made flesh. He’s still always out looking for the lost and Hagar had travelled quite a distance from home. Imagine the despair that she must have felt, alone in the wilderness with nowhere to go and carrying a child but preferring that to the treatment she was getting back home.

Now to Genesis 16:8,  “And He (The Angel of the Lord) 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.” 

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

Verse 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.”

Now, the Apostle Paul is going to use these verses as an allegory in the fourth chapter of Galatians from verse 21. An allegory is a picture that has a deeper meaning behind it.

Paul is still rebuking or reprimanding the Galatian Christians for turning from the faith-based salvation he’d taught them back to the keeping of the Mosaic law.

He speaks there of Hagar and her offspring as being Mount Sinai where the law of Moses was given, and he speaks of the bondage of that law. Then he speaks of Sarai as being the one who is free.

Paul took it for granted that his readers knew the Bible. He explains his point from the story of Abraham, Hagar, and Sarah in Genesis 16 without a lot of detail from the story. He assumes that they knew the story.

It’s important that Paul refer back to the Scriptures again and again because the legalists among the Galatians presented themselves as the “know it all” bunch. Yet Paul shows them that they were not handling the Old Testament Scriptures correctly, and he’ll show that a true understanding of the Law of Moses will support the true gospel he preaches.

The first contrast Paul draws between real Christianity and legalism is the contrast between freedom and slavery. One son of Abraham was born by a freewoman, and one was born by a bondwoman. The real Christian life is marked by freedom.

It doesn’t look like it from the outside, but legalism is living according to the flesh. It denies God’s promise and tries to make our own way to God through the law, through our own self-righteousness. This is living like a descendant of Abraham – but the one born in bondage and born of the flesh. The one born of human effort.

Legalism or believing our salvation relies on our own works or keeping the law doesn’t mean the setting of good spiritual standards; it means worshipping these standards and thinking we are spiritual because we obey them. It also means judging other believers on the basis of these standards.

The point that Paul’s making in Galatians is that trying to keep the laws of Moses or trying to live the Sermon on the Mount and thinking that saves us is futile. They are there to show us how far we are away from those standards and how desperately we need a saviour to give us the righteousness we can never earn.

Friends, there’s nothing more sure in our lives than the chickens will always come home to roost. What we do in life has ramifications. In Galatians 6:7 to 9 we read, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”

Some people who profess faith in God become disillusioned when they experience hardship and trials in their lives. They get offended because they assume that faith in God ought to be the ticket to the “good life,” a life of blessing, ongoing prosperity and never-ending good health.

God is seen as a gift-giver or our “servant” whose purpose is to make us happy.

This view of God is rooted in self-deception and when unexpected misfortune or tragedy comes, which it will, their faith in God is shaken and sometimes becomes broken altogether.

Let’s always remember that the Lord doesn’t exist for our sake, we exist for His. Genuine faith is always tested in the “school of suffering”. It’s our education for eternity.

Well, the chickens are coming home to roost now for Abram and Sarai.

This situation is going to cause great sorrow, not only to Sarai (it already has been to her), but it is going to be an even greater sorrow to Abram later on. Hagar now comes back to give birth to a boy, that boy is Abram’s son.

Now we come to Genesis 16:11-12, “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. 

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.” 

We need to look at these verses in light of about four thousand years of history in the Middle East. What’s going on there today? The descendants of Ishmael are wild men—that’s been the story of those Bedouin tribes of the desert down through the centuries, and it is a fulfilment of the prophecy that God gave. They’ll tell you that they are sons of Abraham, and they are, but they’re also sons of Ishmael. They’re related to Abraham through Ishmael.

Genesis 16:13-14, “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?” 

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

God is so gracious to Hagar!

It’s not her sin, so God deals with her gently and graciously.

Again we believe the Angel of the Lord here is the pre-incarnate Christ gone out to seek the lost again.

He’s the good and kind Shepherd, and He brings to her this good word.

“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 encounter with God is something new to her that she hadn’t experienced before.

The Egyptians had a very primitive idea and concept of God. “Have I also here seen Him who sees me?”

She’s overwhelmed by the fact that she personally is seen of God. He’s interested in her. She’s astonished!

That mightn’t seem very impressive to us today because we think we have a much higher understanding or view of God. But wait just a minute!

We probably come just as far short of really knowing about God as Hagar did. It’s difficult for a little, finite man to conceive of the infinite God, and every one of us comes short of understanding and knowing Him. Our abilities, our mind and our reasoning, our knowledge are just so many universes beneath God’s.

Throughout the endless ages of eternity, we’ll never stop learning of and just coming to know God.

It’s worthy of any man’s study to come to know God and it’s something that’ll be one of our main and most joyous pursuits throughout eternity.

Genesis 16:15-16, “So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 

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

Remember that Ishmael was Abram’s son. Abram was now eighty–six years old.
Before we go further, let’s take a quick look at the seven appearances of God to Abram. We’ve already seen five of these appearances.

Now, there were certain failures in Abram’s life, but also there were great successes. These appearances were also seven tests that God gave to him.

The first is when God called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees, his home, and Abram responded partially. His faith was weak and imperfect, but at least he moved out. Abram finally arrived safely in the land of Canaan, and God blessed him.

The second was when there was a famine in the land of Canaan, and Abram fled from the land of Canaan to Egypt. There he acquired riches and Hagar and both were stumbling blocks.The third is when Abram was given riches. Riches are real test. They’ve been a stumbling block to many a man. I know this first hand. I’ve always desired a degree of worldly wealth and it’s to my shame that I must admit to devoting a large chunk of my life to that pursuit. In my later years, I’ve seen that the Lord could not have trusted me with riches. My self-righteous arrogance would have made me even more impossible to accept than I am now. I truly see now how God has no problem with wealth but He has a great problem with a person relying on that wealth and their own ability to create it.

I now understand the mind of the writer of Proverbs 30:7-9. Speaking to the Lord he says, “Two things I request of You (Deprive me not before I die): Remove falsehood and lies far from me; Give me neither poverty nor riches—Feed me with the food allotted to me; Lest I be full and deny You, And say, “Who is the LORD?” Or lest I be poor and steal, And profane the name of my God.”

The fourth appearance or test was when Abram was given power through his defeat of the kings of the East.

In the fifth test, God delayed giving Abram a son through his wife Sarai. Abram became impatient, and through the suggestions of Sarai, he took matters into his own hands and moved outside the will of God. As a result, there was the birth of Ishmael. The Arabs of the desert today still plague the nation Israel, and they will keep on doing that until the Millennium.

Abram like a great number of wealthy Christians today, did not forget God, and he was generous and considerate especially toward his nephew Lot, even though his riches caused his separation from Lot. God appeared to him again after this event.

That was a real test. He was the conqueror. How many generals and dictators have gloried themselves in their conquests? Melchizedek met Abram, which strengthened him for the test, and so he refused the spoils of war. Afterwards, God appeared to Abram and encouraged him.

Abraham’s two final tests occur at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah which we’re coming to in chapter 18 and at the offering of his son Isaac in chapter 22.

Now we come to Genesis chapter 17.

Many people see the seventeenth chapter as the most outstanding chapter of the Book of Genesis. It’s where God makes a covenant with Abram and confirms His promise to him about a son and He lets Abram know that Ishmael is not the one He promised to him.

In one sense this chapter is the key to the Book of Genesis, and it may be a key to the entire Bible. God’s covenant with Abram concerns two important aspects: a seed and a land. God reveals Himself to Abram by a new name—El Shaddai, the Almighty God—and He also gives Abram a new name. Up to this point, his name was Abram; now it’s changed to Abraham. Abram means “high father,” and Abraham means “father of a multitude.”

The thing that this chapter makes very clear is that Ishmael was not the son God promised to Abraham.

So, we start Genesis 17:1-2,  “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” 

Abram was eighty six years old when Ishmael was born, and this appearance was not until thirteen years later when Abram is 99. Then it would be another year until Issac the promised son is born. “The LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.” God says, “I am El Shaddai, the Almighty God”. This is actually the first time God has revealed Himself in this way.

The word “covenant” appears thirteen times in this chapter. For it to appear thirteen times in twenty–seven verses obviously means that God’s obviously placing great importance on the covenant.

This is God’s fifth appearance to Abram. He comes to Abram not only to make the covenant but to also reaffirm the promise of a son that He’s made, which, as we’ve already seen, absolutely rules out the child with Hagar Ishmael.

Let’s divert for a moment to the 4th chapter of Romans verse 19 and I’m reading, “And not being weak in faith, he (that’s Abraham) did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.”

You see Sarah’s womb was dead. It was actually was a tomb, a place of death.

And out of death came life: Isaac was born.

In the next few verses of Romans 4, Paul explains the relationship between these verses in Genesis 17 and Our Lord Jesus Christ. And again I read. Verse 20, “He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore “IT WAS ACCOUNTED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offences, and was raised because of our justification.”

Here it is again. The Lord Jesus Christ revealed in the Old Testament. The account of God’s promise to Abram, is for us today, for our learning. How wonderful God and His Word are.

Life out of death—that’s the promise God is now making to this man. Abram is 99 years old, and that means that Sarai is 89 years old. When Isaac was born, Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah 90. Only El Shaddai Almighty God could bring about such a wonder. Just as God bought life out of the tomb that was Sarah’s dead womb, He bought life out of tomb of death that held the dead body of Our Lord Jesus Christ 2000 years ago. He also raised us from the tomb of death that is this world and bought us into life and that is life eternal. Our part is simply to beleive.

Genesis 17:3-4, “Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. “

God says to Abram that he will be a father of many nations.

Abrams probably had more children than any other man that’s ever lived on the earth.

For the last four thousand years, there’ve been two great lines, the line of Ishmael and the line of Isaac—and there have been millions in each line. Now that’s a family! That’s certainly the father of many nations! Now add to that the spiritual see. Christians are called the children of Abraham by faith in Christ.

In Romans 4:16, Paul, speaking of Abraham, says, “Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law (that’s the Jewish nation), but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. ”

The father, of believers, of the nation Israel, and also, by the way, of the Arab nations.

Think of the millions of people! God says here, “I am going to make you a father of many nations,” and boy He’s made good on that promise.

Genesis 17:5 now, “No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.” 

Abram means “high father” or “father of the height” or “exalted father.” Abraham means “father of a multitude.”

Now let’s look at a sort of homely scenario here that may well have happened something like this.

Abram or “High father” is sitting on the porch of his tent one day and a stranger happens along. The stranger and High Father start shootin the breeze and eventually, the stranger introduces himself.

“By the way,” he says, “my name’s Omar, what’s yours?”

“High Father”, Abram says.

“Oh, how many kids have you got High Father?” says Omar.

“Ahh, None yet,” says Abram.

“OOOK,” says Omar, inwardly smiling as he thinks, “High Father with no kids? Here’s an odd one!”

So off Omar finally goes but a while later he passes by again.

“Gidday High Father,” say’s Omar as he spots Abram.

“Gidday Omar, my name’s not High Father anymore, it’s been changed to Father of a Multitude”.

“That’s wonderful that you’ve had kids at your age, how many?” says Omar.

“Ahh, None yet,” says Abraham.

“So let me get this straight,” says Omar, “You’re 99 years old, your wife is 89 and can’t bear children yet you’re the Father of a Multitude?”

“That’s about right,” says Abraham.

Omar disappears into the desert and you can hear him laughing from a mile away.

Folks, it’s not easy to hold fast to faith in a world that openly rejects God and His Word.

However, here was a man who was a father before he had any children. Abraham was Abraham, father of a multitude, by faith at that time. But four thousand years later, we have no choice but to say that God has made good on His promise. Abraham is still the father of a multitude.

Genesis 17:6 -7 and I’ll read,  “I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.”

What kind of covenant did God make with Abraham?

An everlasting covenant. If it is everlasting, is it good today? It certainly is.

God promised you and me everlasting life if we will trust Christ. That’s an unbreakable covenant God Himself has made. My friends, God is still going to make good every word of this covenant that He made with Abraham.

And, the greatest news of all is that He’s going to make our covenant good because we share in that covenant with Abraham.

Now we’re going to see this covenant in the next episode and how it’s impossible for the covenant to be broken by God but it is possible for an individual to be separated from it. Until then my friends I pray that The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”