BOOK
BY BOOK BIBLE STUDY
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BIBLE
STUDY LESSON
For
the week beginning Sunday October 7, 2018
THE BIRTH
OF ISHMAEL
Genesis 16
In Genesis 16 we see a frustrated Abram and Sarai, giving in to
the pressures of their aging bodies, and an aging desire to bear children. As
their faith was being tested and developed by GOD, they became more and more
impatient waiting on GOD’s promise to begin to manifest itself into reality.
Here in this passage, we see one of their
moments of weakness being played out, as they attempt to take matters into their
own hands by ignoring GOD’s plan and promise to them, to give them a child of
their own conception. And so Sarai decides to employ her own “human ingenuity”
to acquire an offspring (not of her own body), by giving her servant Hagar to
her husband Abram to wed, in order that she might start a family of their own,
through them.
In those days, it was a legal custom that
women (the first wife), who were barren, could give their maidservants to their
husbands as a wife, and the children born of that union would be considered the
adopted children and heirs of the husband and the first wife. However, GOD does
not necessarily honor social customs, especially if they don’t align themselves
with HIS Word and plan.
Abram, being 85 years old at the time, did
cede his position of family leadership to his wife, agreeing to abandon GOD’s
plan, and to instead, comply to Sarai’ self-inspired wishes. Perhaps too, he gave
in to his own sexual lust, when he agreed to take young Hagar as his wife (at
his age, and based on his manly ego, Sarai did not exactly have to twist his
arm), and, lo and behold, she became pregnant with his child. Much to their
dismay, however, they would both later learn that GOD’s plan for them would not
be fulfilled their way, but rather, it would be fulfilled GOD’s way.
When Hagar knew for sure that she was pregnant,
she began to treat Sarai, who was her superior, with contempt. This angered
Sarai very much, and, as a result, she began to blame Abram for going along
with her stupid idea in the first place. Abram, once again ceding his
responsibility to deal with family problems to his squabbling wife, responded
by telling her, that, “since she (Hagar) is your servant, you can deal with her
in the way you see fit”. And so the problem worsens as Sarai begins to treat her
servant, Hagar, in a very ungodly, harsh manner, even to the point where Hagar
ultimately made the decision to run away from home.
In verse 7 of this chapter, after Hagar ran
away, we see an Angel of the LORD, finding her sitting beside a desert spring, a
short distance from home, along the road to Shur. After asking her two
questions, “Where have you come from?”, and, “Where are you going?”, the angel,
in an attempt to restore order back to the family, tells Hagar to return to
Sarai and submit herself to her authority.
Here, we see the angel delivering two
messages from GOD, one “hortatory” (he urgently appealed for her to return home
and submit to Sarai), and the other “promissory” (he extended to her a promise
from GOD that she would not only give birth to a son, but also to a nation of
people, who would live at odds with the rest of the world).
The angel also instructed Hagar to name her
first son “Ishmael”, which means “GOD sees, and GOD hears”. Oftentimes in Old
Testament scripture, names served as a mnemonic device for remembering divine
events and encounters by GOD, and their significant affects on people’s lives,
and, on world history.
In this passage we see two very important
etymologies unfolding. Here it is GOD HIMSELF WHO names Hagar’s and Abram’s
coming child, “Ishmael”, and it is here HE states the reason for which HE renders
this name. Here HE tells young Hagar that it is because HE has “heard” and
“seen” her misery, that was perpetrated upon her by Abram and Sarai, by way of
“their faithless deed”. Here GOD speaks a direct revelation to Hagar, and
unlike Abram and Sarai, who responded with “human ingenuity”, Hagar would
respond in faith.
Here, the lesson that should be learned is
that, GOD sees and hears our distress and affliction, no matter where we are.
It is something that Abram and Sarai should have already known because they had
experienced the goodness of GOD, as HE had been leading them for years, because
of their faithfulness to HIM. But because they sought to use their human
ingenuity to aid GOD’s plan (help GOD out), instead of trusting completely in
HIM, they ultimately brought more misery to their own lives, and, to the life
of Hagar, their servant.
When burdened down with distress and
sufferings, one should always turn to GOD, first and last. GOD always sees and
hears us, no matter where we are in our self-imposed circumstances in life. After
Hagar’s encounter with the angel, she refers to GOD as “the GOD WHO sees me”
and she also says, “I have seen the ONE WHO sees me”. Hagar then names the
place of the desert spring “Beer Lahai Roi”, which means “well of the living
ONE who sees me”. Then Hagar returned home, where she bore Abram a son, and she
called his name, just as GOD had instructed, “Ishmael”, because the LORD heard and
saw her misery.
Throughout Scripture, names provided GOD’s
people with a revelation, or message from HIM. Here, we see GOD speaking in
direct revelation to Hagar, and in return, she responds in faith by returning
home to a situation that was not a happy one when she left. However, she would
trust GOD to make that situation better, and not try to use her own human
ingenuity to make things right.
If we would only comply with, trust in, and
obey the Word of GOD, things will automatically and inevitably become better in
our lives. GOD sees our afflictions, and, HE also hears them through our
prayers. GOD answers us, whenever we seek HIS help in earnest, putting our
human ingenuity aside, with a desire to only accept HIM as our source of help
and strength. HE is the only wise, living GOD WHO can safely deliver us from
harm. Trusting in GOD is what I call “putting ourselves on a good path to the
future”, and that is the only way that we can successfully overcome this world
just as JESUS did, when HE sought to show us such, with HIS OWN life.
A
Sunday school lesson by,
Larry
D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER-
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