Genesis 16, Abraham, Sarai, Hagar, and Ishmael. I'm going to read the passage. It's fairly brief, 16 verses. And then I'm going to touch briefly from the handout on some big observations by Lig and Duncan. That'll be on pages two through six. and then I'm going to work through the passage with you with applications along the way. So it'll be a little different in the way we approach it, but I'll guide you through it and we'll enjoy this time together. But let me read this passage first of all. 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 into my maid. Perhaps I will obtain children through her." And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. And after Abram had lived 10 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. He went into Hagar and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her sight. That's referring to Hagar relating to Sarai, the mistress's Sarai. And Sarai said to Abram, may the wrong done to 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. He said, "'Hagar, Sarai's maid, Have you come from and where are you going? And she said, I'm fleeing from the presence of my mistress, Sarai. Then the angel of the Lord said to her, return it 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 they will be too many to count. The angel of the Lord said to her further, behold, You are with child and you will bear a son and you will call his name Ishmael because the Lord has given heed to your affliction. 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 You are a God who sees, for she said, have I even remained alive here after seeing him? Therefore the well was called Bir Lahai Roi. Behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered. So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him." A very interesting story, narrative. And as we look at this, there's an abundance of applications that we will be drawing. But if you'll turn in your notes to page two, what... I'm indebted to Joel Beakey for an outline for this. He called this message, when he was working through it, the tragic effects of do-it-yourself religion. And that will become evident when we work through the passage, why does he call it do-it-yourself religion? In four parts, Sarai's plan, Abram's plan, Hagar's plan, and then God's sovereign plan. As I mentioned a little bit earlier, just some major points from Ligon Duncan on this, and this will be brief, but Derek Kidner, a noted commentator, a good solid commentator says this, this chapter marks another stage in eliminating every means but miracle towards the promised birth. It is ironical that after the heights attained in the last two chapters, Abram should capitulate to domestic pressure pliant under his wife's planning and scolding, and quick to wash his hands of the outcome. And that's a very salient, very accurate assessment. No one comes out looking good in this story. Abram doesn't come out looking good, Sarai doesn't look good, Hagar doesn't look good. Frankly, none of these folks are exemplary in the way that they've conducted themselves, but the scripture is refreshingly candid and transparent about the lives of major players in redemptive history. And so we find Abram who has been, he's had some downturns in previous chapters. Genesis 12 was not particularly helpful. That's when he and Sarai were in Egypt, you may remember. And Abram said to Sarai, I'm going to characterize you as my sister so that I can live. And you can go be with the Pharaoh. That's not an exemplary pattern for a husband to take with his wife. But then we have the episode where Abram puts together a a set of troops, 380 men, as I recall, and goes and liberates Lot. And then he turns away from all of the power and prestige and wealth of Sodom and says, I don't want any of this. You can feed the militia whatever they need and let them go on. But the Lord has enabled me to do this. That's clearly a high point. And today, we look at a passage where faithful Abraham, Abram at this point, is faithless. And so we find this oscillating pattern of obedience and disobedience, but it's not unique. And this won't be the last time that we'll see an episode where Abram disappoints and later on in Genesis we'll see another trip to Egypt and he does exactly the same thing. And so we look at this There might be a tendency, brothers and sisters, to look at this and say, boy, I'm sure glad I'm not like Abram. But the reality is that all of us are battling daily with the same dynamics, the same temptations, the same ups and downs in our spiritual lives that we see with Abram, we see with Sarai, and others. And it's easy to read a passage like the one we're looking at today and have a rather censorious or judgmental disposition and say, how could they do such a thing? I thought they were heroes of the faith. And indeed they are. But we need to be patient. We need to, to understand what we're seeing here is, is a refreshingly candid, honest treatment of how God uses fallen, redeemed men and women. to accomplish his purpose and it should encourage us along the way. I would remind us all that the scripture at the end of time in Hebrews 11 speaks of Abram and Sarai in glowing terms and I'm encouraged by that. The takeaway that I draw from this is that the scripture looks at what the Lord did in and through Abram and Sarai and applauds them for their faithful life. I thought there was Genesis 12, I thought there was Genesis 16, etc., and there is. But it's how we finish. It's the overall trajectory of our life. It's how God uses us in our lives. And it's encouraging to me that we need to see these types of episodes. But Hebrews 11 speaks very clearly about Abram in Hebrews 11 verse 8. By faith, Abram, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise, for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Verse 11, by faith even Sarai, Sarai herself received ability to conceive even beyond the proper time of life since she considered him faithful who had promised. That's God's assessment of Abram and Sarai. And I'm encouraged by that. That's an honest statement. That's where we end up. That's exactly where we end up. The path that was taken to get there is not a linear path, but it's not linear for any of us either. We look at our lives, and if we're honest, we'll see downturns, we'll see episodes. We look back at our lives and we'll say, how could I have done such and such a thing, or how could I not have been obedient in that particular episode? I wish I had handled that situation differently. I wish I hadn't struggled with sin for that period of time. I wish that I'd conducted myself in a way that was more honoring to the name of Christ. I'm sure Abraham and Sarah, at the end of their lives, in their minds, were looking at that. But the assessment of God is that they were faithful men and faithful women, and they honored Him. And they did. And they did. So let's work through the passage. But some major observations. Page two. These are takeaways from Ligon Duncan. Number one. It's in the middle of page two. God is sovereign, and we have a hard time accepting that. That's exactly how this starts off. They had been in Canaan for 10 years, and Abram was 75 when he left Haran. He'd been in Canaan with Sarai all this time, and no child. And yet we saw earlier a promise that he would have a great seed that would be coming from him. And matter of fact, God took him outside, remember, and showed him the stars. and said, so shall your descendants be. And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, Genesis 15, 6, a monumental verse in all of scripture. And here we are, no child. And so time has elapsed. Years are ticking by. None of them are young. And from a human perspective, the question is running through their minds, how can this be? God is sovereign, and men and women have a hard time accepting that. They have a hard time living, practically speaking, day-to-day lives, realizing that God is sovereign. So let's go over to page two, some of the corollaries down at the bottom of the page, and I'm just hitting the high points here for you because you can read this later. But God is sovereign. That's not the problem. The problem is when God's sovereignty conflicts with our desires. When the outworking of God's promises occur in a different time, in a different way, than we would have wished, than we would have expected. And so we look at the promises of God and we say, I thought you said, God, that you were going to do this. And we look at his word and he says this and yet it hasn't happened. in our time, in our way. But God is sovereign. And the problem is that God operates according to his own calendar. And he does what he does perfectly. He does it with infinite goodness, infinite wisdom, infinite justice. He's sovereign overall. The problem is that God's sovereignty conflicts with our sense of appropriate timing. Next page, top of the page. The problem is not God's sovereignty. The problem is our sinful propensity to take things into our own hands rather than waiting on God and resting in His promises. So principle number one is wrestling with the sovereignty of God, wrestling with the promises of God. An implication that we'll trace, I'm giving you a flyover and then we'll work through this passage in detail. Sin has consequences. It always does. Does God forgive? Absolutely He does. I was reading and meditating on Psalm 32 this morning. How blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Does God forgive? Absolutely He does. That's why Jesus came. Are there consequences that endure after forgiveness? Yes, there are often consequences that endure after forgiveness. That doesn't mean that we're not forgiven. it does mean that there are consequences to sin that sometimes endure in our lives and in the lives of others as a result of sin. Let me give you an example. Were Adam and Eve forgiven? Yes. He clothed them. Were there consequences to Adam and Eve's sin? You bet there were. Romans 5 says, As through one man sin into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned. How did we sin? We sinned in Adam. Are there consequences? Look at David's life. Was David forgiven? Yeah, David was forgiven. David committed some absolutely abominable things in terms of adultery, in terms of murder. consequences. His political life was laden with all sorts of trouble. Look at his son Absalom. Lots of consequences. Sin has consequences. That doesn't obviate the fact that God forgives, but there are consequences to sin. So number one, the problem of God's sovereignty. Number two, Roman numeral two, in the middle of the page, God's grace is magnified in contrast to the sinfulness of his people. We're going to see that in the passage that we have before us today in Genesis 16, we're going to see God's grace shown to Abram, to Sarai, and in a very poignant way to Hagar, the Egyptian handmaid. We're going to see the kindness of God. Big item number three, page five. God pursues, this is about two-thirds of the way down, God pursues the fleeing in grace to lead to repentance. You're going to see that when we look at what God does in the life of Hagar. God is a pursuing God. God has a long, long, long record of rescuing broken lives, and he's not finished yet. God has a long record of remarkably rescuing wayward lives, transforming them, molding them, using them, keeping them, preserving them, and ultimately taking them home to be with him, and he's not finished yet. But God is a gracious God and we need to always remember that we're going to see some remarkable things that God does in their lives. Another big item on page six down at the bottom. Where does this all end up? God calls Abram to wait. The punchline on this is 14 years later, Isaac is born. But after this episode that we read about in Genesis 16, we still don't have the child of promise. We have Ishmael, but Ishmael is not the child of promise. 14 years later, we'll see Isaac. So wait, wait, wait. The clock is ticking. Abram's getting older. Sarai's getting older. And yet God says, wait. And he's good. Everything he does is always good. So those are some major points for us to consider. Now, let's walk through the passage. Let's walk through it step by step. Genesis 16. The setting is that they have been in Canaan for 10 years, no child. The scripture says in Genesis 16 that Sarai's growing impatient. His wife is growing impatient. Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar. This likely occurred back in Genesis 12. You may remember, I mentioned this earlier, that in Genesis 12, there was a famine in the land, and Abram and Sarai went to Egypt for food. And while they were there, remember I mentioned this earlier, that the scripture tells us that Abram said, you're a very lovely lady and they love, they really enjoy lovely ladies here in Egypt. So what's going to happen is they're going to kill me. And so to save my life, we're going to call you my sister. And they did. And what happened? God intervened in a remarkable way. And it was really a very poor testimony for Abram. Remember, he was supposed to be a blessing. He was to not only receive a blessing, but to be a blessing. He was anything but a blessing to the Egyptians in Genesis 12. But that's just part of redemptive history. But the scripture says that Pharaoh bequeathed unto Abram all sorts of livestock and manservants and maidservants. We don't know for sure, but I think it's entirely likely that Hagar was one of the women that came into their lives in Genesis 12. So what is the plan? The plan is that Sarai comes to Abram and verse 2 and says, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. That's true. God is sovereign over the timing of children. whether we'll have to wait or not wait, how many children we'll have, all of these things. God is sovereign over all. Moses never contradicts that statement. He never says, no, that's a false theological observation that you've made. It is true that God had sovereignly kept Sarai from bearing children. No doubt that they had desired to have children. They expected to have children. They'd been promised to have children, and yet there was no child. And so this creates some dynamics. What are the dynamics? Number one is pressure. There's a conflict, there is a promise, and then there is real-time experience. And those are not syncing up very well. When I say there's a promise, Abraham, Sarah, you will have a child. Real-time experience, no child. There's a disconnect between God's timing and expectations on the part of Abram and Sarai, and there's pressure. Well, she comes and says that I have this handmaid, and I may obtain children through her, and that may seem like a really strange thing, but if you look at the literature in the ancient Near East, the Code of Hammurabi, the Newsy tablets and several major documents of that time, this was culturally very normative. Observation. We read things that are described that are not prescriptive. Solomon had 300 wives. He had 299 bad decisions. It was not God's plan to have multiple wives. Genesis 224 is very clear about God's pattern for marriage. One man, one woman for life, one flesh, concubines, multiple wives. It happens. David had multiple wives. Does that mean that it's something that is normative in that culture? It was normative in that culture. Is it biblical? It is not biblical. It violates God's pattern for marriage. But it was normative. It was not considered Unethical, it was not considered immoral. It was considered very normal for a barren woman to have another woman to be a surrogate mom, so to speak, and then the child would be adopted into the family. And that's where she's going. So think about this. There is this conflict between things that are culturally normative and biblically proper. Those don't always match up. And that's exactly what we have here. We have something that was entirely normative, considered ethical, considered moral. Is it biblical? No, it's not biblical. Does the scripture specifically prohibit concubines? No. The scriptures replete with instances with Solomon and David having concubines. Those were women that they would have in their lives that would be surrogate moms or for just personal pleasure, whatever the case may be. Is that God's plan for marriage? Absolutely not. Never was, never will be. So there's this conflict between things that we read, between things that are descriptive and things that are prescriptive. There's a lot that's described here that's not prescriptive. So it's important that we remember that. God is not condoning this practice. He established in Genesis 2, 24, the pattern for marriage, but this is, they're exceeding to what is culturally normative. They're resorting to human ingenuity, and that's why Joel Beeky called this the peril or the tragics of do-it-yourself religion. And when we say do-it-yourself religion, how often do we try to help God out with our plans? When we are seeing something that's not playing out in our lives and our experience according to our time, our expectations, And suddenly we become very ingenious in devising plans and strategies and how God needs a little help to bring this to pass. I'm not being flippant, it happens every day. Matter of fact, Paul, the Apostle Paul, uses this exact instance in Galatians 4 to describe work's righteousness as opposed to a child of promise. He describes Hagar as basically works righteousness, trying to be saved by the law. When people are trying to be saved by the law, they're relying upon what? God's grace or their own ability to perform, their own ability to perform. Isaac is the child of promise. He's the one that God brought in. Paul uses this as a very example. He describes it as an allegory, as a picture. And he uses Genesis 16 to illustrate the perils of trying to be saved by your own efforts as opposed to relying upon God's promises. And that's really why some people look at this and they say, how often in my own life am I resting in God's promises, patiently waiting, trusting, relying upon God to do what he says he's going to do in his way, in his time. And I'm just taking a deep breath and just relaxing. and setting aside my own calendar, my own expectations, and I know that whatever God does is right, and I'm good with that. Does that describe your experience? It doesn't describe mine all the time. If we're honest, I think we all struggle with that. And so that's why we can't be, we're not here to sit in judgment on Abram and Sarah, because they're mirrors of who we are at various points in our lives, if we're honest about ourselves. But this was the plan. So Sarah had a plan. It was not a good plan. And so then what happens in Genesis 2? Abram listened to the voice of Sarah. The language is uncannily similar to Genesis 3. What happened to Genesis 3? There was a command of God, you may eat of every tree of the garden except for one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Satan tempted who? Eve. Adam was present, by the way. And Eve took the fruit, and she ate it, and she handed it to her husband, and he acceded to this. And so we have, the language is very similar, that Abram listened to the voice of Sarah. And that's exactly what he did. Now, the tragedy here is Abram's plan was passivity. We'll see that. There's going to be two women that are going after each other and you see exactly the same thing. So, um, Hagar becomes pregnant and, and Sarah is at this point, barren. If you look at first Samuel one, uh, Hannah and Peninnah, uh, two wives, again, not a good, good thing to have. You should never have two wives, but, uh, but Hannah was not bearing children and Peninnah had children. And guess what? Panetta was sitting in judgment. The scripture describes her as Hannah's adversary. Women can be tough on each other. Men can be tough on each other. But here we have an example of two women going after each other. One of them says, see, I could have a child. That's why your husband gave me to him. Can you imagine? I can see that conversation taking place. So I get to be the one through whom the covenant is going to be fulfilled. Well, no, she had a child, but that was not the child of the covenant. But so we have Hagar sitting in judgment on Sarai, and Sarai is just livid. And she doesn't come out very good in this story either, by the way. But then what does she do? She blames Abram for all of this. She goes on and she says, Um, Abram lived 10 years, et cetera, and it takes all of this. And Sarah says to Abram, may the wrong done me be upon you. So it's your fault, Abram. And I gave my maid into your arms, but when she saw that she was conceived, I was despised. May the Lord judge between you and me." That same language, by the way, when we see that expression, may the Lord judge between you and me, that's exactly the same language in its language of suspicion, its language of hostility, its language of division. You see that with Jacob and Laban talking to each other. This was not a happy relationship. That's why I said this is Abram and Sarah need an ACBC counselor right now. They need the word of God spoken into their lives. And he does that. The Lord's going to work in their lives. But what does Abram do? So what should he have done? If you look at some of the commentators, Matthew Henry makes this point very specifically. Sometimes the most powerful temptations in our lives come from those that are closest to us. even from spiritually mature people who mean well, who mean well, but sometimes they give us really poor advice, really poor counsel. And that's what makes that temptation particularly powerful is because it's coming from a trusted source. And it happens all the time. Friends can give us counsel that isn't wise. And so what should Abram have done? live with his wife in an understanding way, taken her aside, and said, I understand the difficulty that we're both going through. As your husband, I have to say no. I have to honor you as the woman that I love, that God has given me. You're my wife. He knew the law. He knew Genesis 2. He knew what the pattern of marriage was. He knew that there was a conflict between these cultural norms and the Bible. And he should have said, I understand. Is there any indication that any of them sought the Lord in this? And the answer is no, none of them did. They defaulted to their own plans. And one commentator has said that frantic action and fearful frustration come easier to us than faith. Let me repeat that. Frantic action and fearful frustration often come easier to us than faith. And that is really true when we're in the pressure situation. And God is not delivering on His promises as we would expect Him to deliver. And we're facing disappointment. And what do we do? We take things into our own hands. Sarah, let me sit down. Let's pray together. Let's go to the Lord. And maybe you should have taken his wife outside. Let me show you the stars. Instead of looking at yourself, let's look up. Let me remind you what God had said. Take her to the Word of God. Not in a harsh way, in a loving way. I understand the difficulty. Let's spend some time together. I can't allow you to go down this path because this would not be God's best for you, for me, for our marriage. And the fact that the culture says it's a good thing doesn't mean it's a good thing. And there's consequences for violating God's law. Let's pray about it. He didn't do any of those things. There's an example here for us men who are husbands and for those guys that ultimately want to be husbands. When you're faced with a situation where your wife comes up with a desire that is an understandable desire, we hopefully can understand this, and it's not a godly desire, not a godly plan, our obligation, men, is to speak to our wives' truth and say, no, we can't do that. Here's what we should do. and let's pray about it, let's work through this together, not simply to exceed. And then the worst thing is that when this wagon is rapidly falling apart, we have two women fighting each other, we have Sarah very unhappy with the handmaid, we have the handmaid sitting in judgment and derision on Sarah, and so Sarah's blaming Abram, and Abram's saying, I thought this was your idea, And so, what does he do? He says, whatever you want to do. Whatever you want to do with Hagar, it's up to you. She's your handmaid. Is that a biblical response? That is not a biblical response. That is passivity. He abdicates his responsibility as a man, as a husband, to sit with his wife and say, we can't go down that path. We can't go down that path. But that's what he does. Abram said to Sarai, Behold, your maid, verse 6, is in your hand, your power, pardon me, due to her what is good, what, in your sight. How about let's do what would be good in God's sight. But let's do what is good in your sight. So he completely abdicates his responsibility as a man, as a husband. And so we have this Egyptian handmaid who has become pregnant and she is full of pride, and we have Sarai who is bitter, and we have Abram who is passive, and that's not a good mix. And that's why I somewhat seriously said they need an ACBC counselor at this point in time. They need to go to the Word of God and say, what will God do? There's consequences to sin, and that's what we're gonna see here. So what happens? Sarai, in verse six, treats Hagar harshly. very roughly. She was a handmaid, and Sarah legally could do with her pretty much anything she wanted. So Hagar is carrying a child, and I don't know what it meant that Sarah was treating her harshly, but it was really rough, whatever it was. And so what does Hagar do? She flees. Verse 7, the angel of the Lord, that expression, the angel of the Lord, is an expression that almost always means a pre-incarnate manifestation of the second person of the Trinity, a Christophany, a theophany. A theophany is an appearance of God. A Christophany is specifically the second person of the Godhead. The angel of the Lord is an expression that almost always means a pre-incarnate manifestation of Christ. And it's appropriate to look at it that way here. The angel of the Lord found her. If I can say this, Jesus pursued her. He did. And found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. Shur is close to Egypt. Where was Hagar going? She was going back home. She was going back home. She was going back to Egypt. And so that's where Jesus finds her. That's where the angel of the Lord finds her. God is chasing her down. God is a pursuing God. There's all sorts of examples in scripture of God pursuing wayward people. And we have the example of the lost coin, and then ultimately in Luke 15, the lost son. And it's just, these are wonderful stories about redemption and God pursuing sinners and bringing them back to himself. And that's exactly what's happening here. By the way, there is a fairly good reason to except the proposition that Hagar may have been a believer. How did I come up to that conclusion? Number one, it's unlikely that Sarah wouldn't have chosen a pagan, a person who was engaged in some type of immoral life, pagan worship, to be the mother of the child. Number two, Abram was known to be instructing his family in the Word of God. You see that in Genesis 18. Number three, you have Hagar actually giving a name to the Lord, the God who sees El Roy, and she responds. The angel of the Lord says you need to do two things. You need to return and submit. Brothers and sisters, that is God's pattern for repentance, return and submit. If you look at Hosea 14, The counsel in Hosea 14 for a wayward child of God, for someone who's backslidden, is to do exactly that, to take words with you and to return and to submit, to obey. And she does that. She does exactly that. And she's astounded that she has seen God and been allowed to live. That's the same experience that we see when Jacob wrestled with the angel at Pineo. And that means the face of the Lord. And he says, can I believe that I have seen God and I live? Hagar knew that she had seen God. She knew that God had condescended to come and chase her down and to lead her to repentance. And she responded in a biblical way. She did exactly what she was told. She returned and she submitted. She pursued the path of repentance. So I don't know for sure, but a case can be made that Hagar was a spiritually sensitive woman, possibly a believer. But the angel asks her a question, and it's interesting. Notice how he addresses her in verse 8. Hagar calls her by name, Sarah's maid. He doesn't say Abram's wife. He says, Sarai's maid, he's reminding her of exactly who she was and the responsibility that she had. You were the maid of Sarai. And so there is a pattern of obedience and submission here. She was the handmaid of her mistress, Sarai. And so she owed Sarai a duty of obedience and respect. But I thought Sarah treated her harshly. She did. What's a child of God to do when your master treats you harshly? To submit and to trust God? She does exactly that. She returns. She's pursued a path of repentance. God has told her you need to repent, and she does that. She returns and she submits. She goes back. Return to your mistress, verse 9, and submit yourself to her authority. But there's a promise, and there's grace here. This is remarkable. There is a wonderful promise. I will greatly multiply your descendants so that there will be too many to count. And then there is this description about Ishmael. Ishmael, God hears. And we have in this passage two statements about God that are so refreshing, so encouraging. We have Hagar saying, there is a God who sees. And Ishmael is God hears. And I'm reminded of Psalm 139, where can I go from your presence, or where can I flee? If I ascend to heaven, you're there. If I descend to Sheol, you were there. You know my thoughts from afar. And Psalm 139 is all about the God who sees and the God who hears, the God who cares, the God who responds, the God who nurtures, the God who supports, the God who provides. And Hagar had only been abused. Hagar had been used as simply just a tool to have a child. And so now she's receiving a promise from God. And God himself chases her down and leads her to a path of repentance and restoration. It's a picture of grace, and it's an amazing story here with Hagar. And there is a promise here about Hagar that he's going to be a person of hostility. Which really, there are a number of ironies in all of this. One commentator has said, it's ironic that in Genesis 12, Abram takes his wife and gives her to an Egyptian pharaoh. And in Genesis 16, Sarah takes her husband and gives him to an Egyptian handmaid. The other irony that we see in this is, and it's the consequences of sin, is that the antipathy, the hostility between Sarai and Hagar continued in their descendants. You see that in Genesis 17, 20. There are consequences to sin. There is forgiveness, there is restoration, there is a path to restoration, but there are consequences. And so we can explore and we will explore, God willing, what happened with Ishmael, but it's not a happy situation between Israel and Ishmael. But here we have this story. So then, verse 13, she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, you are a God who sees Elroy. For she said, have I even remained alive here after seeing him? She knew what a privilege it was. And the thought was, if you see God, you surely will die. But she saw God and she knew what a privilege it was that she'd seen God. and she'd heard his voice, and she was living, and she was given a promise. Therefore, the well was called Be'er lehi roi, behold, it is between, and literally, it's talking about seeing God. So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son whom Hagar bore Ishmael, God hears. Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him. I want to ask a question. How much progress has there been in Genesis 16 with respect to God fulfilling his promises in Genesis 15? Nothing. They're not any further along right now than they were at the end of Genesis 15. Abram is still without the child of promise. Sarah is still barren. He's 86 years old, and Sarah is about the same age. It's gonna be 14 years before Isaac comes. So God's got him waiting, waiting, waiting. Is God slow to deliver on his promises? He's never slow. He always does things at exactly the right time and exactly the right way. But what a lesson for Abram and Sarai to go through this, to experience the difficulties of choosing paths. Anytime you choose a path that seems expedient, but it's not biblical, you can always be assured that the results will be confusion, disappointment, strife, and the results are never good. They're never good. So we can always ask ourselves, am I doing what I'm doing because it seems expedient, it seems wise, or am I doing it because I'm waiting on God? And so that's, Diane asked me, will you finish your lesson today? And I thought, surely I will. I'm not finishing my lesson. So we'll pick it up here because there are some points that I want to develop with you on the meaning of faith and how we can live while we're in the waiting room with God. But these are lessons that I think we can draw.