Genesis 16
McGeeCHAPTER 16THEME: Sarai’s suggestion; Hagar flees; the tests of AbrahamAs we come to this chapter, I must confess that I almost wish it were not in the Bible. After Abram rose to the heights in chapter 15, you would say that he certainly is treading on high placesbut he is not perfect. In chapter 16 we see the lapse of this man’s faith relative to Sarai and Hagar, the Egyptian maid. We have here the unbelief of both Sarai and Abram, and the birth of Ishmael. This is certainly a letdown after the wonder of the previous chapter.
Genesis 16:1
SARAI’S SUGGESTIONAbram got two things down in the land of Egypt which really caused him trouble: one was wealth, and the other was this little Egyptian maid.
Genesis 16:2
The thing that Sarai suggested was the common practice of that day. When a wife could not bear a child, there was the concubine. Now don’t say that God approved it. God did not approve of this at all. This was Sarai’s idea, and Abram listened to her. It looks like he is surrendering his position as head of the home here, and he followed her suggestion.
Genesis 16:3
This little Egyptian maid becomes a concubine, and this is not according to God’s will. God is not going to accept the offspring at allHe didn’t; He wouldn’t. Why? Because it was wrong. Don’t say that God approved this. All you can say is that this is in the record because it is an historical fact.
Genesis 16:4
Hagar said, “I’ve mothered a child of Abram, and Sarai couldn’t do it.” She looked down on Sarai, you see.
Genesis 16:5
Don’t pass this verse by. Don’t assume that God approved of this. God says that it is wrong, and now Sarai sees that she has done wrong. “My wrong be upon thee"she is wrong, my friend. God will not accept this, and it is going to be a real heartbreak to old Abram. But, you see, Abram and Sarai are not really trusting God as they should. After all, Abram at this time is nearly ninety years old and Sarai eighty.
I think they have come to the conclusion that they are not going to have a child. Sarai could probably rationalize and say, “I think maybe this is the way God wants us to do it, for this is the custom of the day.” It was the custom of that day, but it was contrary to God’s way of doing things. We get the wrong impression if we think that just because something is recorded in the Bible God approves of it. The Bible is inspired in that it is an accurate record, but there are many things God does not approve of that are recorded in His Word. The moral implications that you and I read into this are not quite here in the historical record. Abram and Sarai were brought up in Ur of the Chaldees where this was a common practice, and the moral angle is not the thing that for them was so wrong. The terrible thing was that they just did not believe God. The wrong that they committed by Abram taking Sarai’s maid Hagar was a sin, and God treated it as such. But today we reverse the emphasis and say that taking a concubine is a sin, but we do not pay too much attention to the unbelief. Yet the unbelief was the major sin here; that is, it was lots blacker than the other.
Genesis 16:6
HAGAR FLEESHagar took offshe ran awayand this would probably have meant death to her and certainly to the child she was carrying.
Genesis 16:7
I am inclined to believe that the Angel of the Lord is none other than the preincarnate Christ. This is characteristic of Him: He is always out looking for the lost. Hagar had traveled quite a distance from home.
Genesis 16:8
In the fourth chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians, Paul uses this as an allegory. He speaks there of Hagar and her offspring as being Mount Sinai where the Mosaic law was given, and he speaks of the legality and the bondage of that law. Then he speaks of Sarai as being the one who is free. The point is that the one who belonged to Abram was Saraishe was his wife. Many people today want to take on something different; they want to get under the law. But, my friend, as believers we have been joined to Christ.
The church has been espoused to Christ, Paul says, as a chaste virgin and will someday be the bride of Christ. Therefore may I say to you, you do not want to take on the law. The law is another one that you and I just don’t need; it is like Hagar, and that is the point that Paul is making in Galatians. This is going to be a 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 who happens to be Abram’s son.
Genesis 16:11
Have you looked at this verse in light of about four thousand years of history in the Middle East? What is going on out there today? The descendants of Ishmael are wild menthat has been the story of those Bedouin tribes of the desert down through the centuries, and it is a fulfillment of the prophecy that God gave. They will tell you that they are sons of Abraham, but they are also sons of Ishmael. They are related to Abraham through Ishmael.
Genesis 16:13
How gracious God is to Hagar! It is not her sin, so God very graciously deals with her. Let me repeat that I believe the Angel of the Lord here is none other than the preincarnate Christ gone out to seek the lost again. He’s that kind of Shepherd, and He brings to her this good word. “And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me.” This is something new to her that she did not realize before. The Egyptians did have a very primitive idea and conception of God. “For she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?” She is overwhelmed by the fact that she is seen of God. That doesn’t seem to be very impressive to us today because we have a higher view of God than that. But wait just a minute! We probably come just as far short of really knowing about God as Hagar did. It is difficult for a little, finite man to conceive of the infinite God, and all of us come short of understanding and of knowing HIm.
I think that a theme which will engage us throughout the endless ages of eternity is just coming to know God. That is worthy of any man’s study. To come to know God is something that will dignify a man’s position throughout eternity.
Genesis 16:15
Remember that Ishmael was Abram’s son. Abram was now eighty-six years old. THE TESTS OF ABRAHAMBefore we go farther, I would like to make a recapitulation of the seven appearances of God to Abram, five of which we have already seen. There were certain failures in the life of Abram, but also there were successes. Actually, there were seven tests which God gave to him: (1) 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. (2) Then there was a famine in the land of Canaan, and Abram fled from the land of Canaan to Egypt. There he acquired riches and Hagarand both were stumbling blocks. (3) Abram was given riches which are a real test. They have been a stumbling block to many a man, by the way. Frankly, I have always wished that the Lord would have let me have that kind of test rather than some of the others I’ve had! But nevertheless, I’m of the opinion that He could not have trusted me with riches. Abram did not forget God, and he was certainly generous and magnanimous toward his nephew Lot. Riches resulted in his separation from Lot, and God appeared to him again. (4) Abram was given power through his defeat of the kings of the east. That was a real test, for he happened to be the conqueror. This man Melchizedek met him, which I think strengthened Abram for the test, and so he refused the spoils of war. Afterwards, God appeared to Abram and encouraged him. (5) God delayed giving Abram a son by his wife Sarai. Abram became impatient, and through the prompting 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 right on doing that, I think, until the Millennium. Abraham’s two final tests occur (6) at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in chapter 18 and (7) at the offering of his son Isaac in chapter 22.