APRIL 17, 2016
THE POINT
God’s plans are always better than our own.
GET INTO THE STUDY
• We are beginning a six week study on how God redeems our broken moments in life.
• All of us have made choices that didn’t turn out the way we expected.
• Sometimes we start on the downward slide, and because we are slow to see the mess that’s coming, we try to make adjustments that just makes things worse.
• It can be very time consuming to realize that somewhere we left God out of the equation, ask His forgiveness, and return to Him and let Him show us how to clean up the mess and begin to move forward again.
• This process sometimes involves a lot of waiting! And waiting. And waiting.
THE PASSAGE
Genesis 15:1-6; 16:1-5; 17:18-19
THE SETTING
• God called Abram to leave his relatives and his homeland for a land that God would show him.
• In addition to God giving Abram the land, God promised to bless Abram, make his name great, and to make him into a great nation.
• So Abram left his homeland and settled in the land of Canaan.
• God made a covenant with Abram, promising him that he would have a son, from whom would come countless descendants.
• But Abram and his wife Sarai were advanced in years, and Sarai remained childless.
• Abram struggled with the tension between God’s promises for the future and his present reality.
Genesis 15:1-6.
1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great."
2 Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"
3 And Abram said, "Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir."
• God called Abram to leave his relatives and his homeland for a land that God would show him.
• In addition to God giving Abram the land, God promised to bless Abram, make his name great, and to make him into a great nation.
• So Abram left his homeland and settled in the land of Canaan.
• God made a covenant with Abram, promising him that he would have a son, from whom would come countless descendants.
• But Abram and his wife Sarai were advanced in years, and Sarai remained childless.
• Abram struggled with the tension between God’s promises for the future and his present reality.
Genesis 15:1-6.
1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great."
2 Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"
3 And Abram said, "Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir."
4 Then behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir."
5 And He took him outside and said, "Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be."
6 Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. NASB
KEY WORD: CREDITED (V.6)
The Hebrew word translated credited means “to reckon,” or “to count.” In God’s estimation, Abraham’s faith had the value of righteousness—right standing with Him.
VERSE 1:
“After these things,.... The battle of the kings, the captivity of Lot, the rescue of him and his goods, and of those of Sodom and Gomorrah by Abram, and the conversation that passed between him, and the kings of Sodom and Salem:” John Gill
“fear not, Abram; calling him by his name, the more to encourage him, and to dissipate his fears to which he was subject; which might be, lest the nations that belonged to the four kings he had conquered and slain should recruit their armies, and come against him with greater force;” John Gill
• It is most likely that this word of encouragement was referring to Sarai being able to have a child, as the next verse seems to bear this out.
Genesis 13:14-17
14 The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, "Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward;
15 for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever.
16 "I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered.
17 "Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you." NASB
• Note that God did not specify that Sarai was to be the mother.
VERSES 2-3:
• Abram began cautiously, with respect, to get more information concerning his descendants.
• Obviously this was very much on his mind; about 10 years had already passed since God’s promise.
VERSE 4:
• God clarified that Abram would indeed be the father of this great multitude.
• But, note the God did not yet clarify who the mother was to be.
VERSE 5:
• God again uses imagery to convey that Abram’s descendants would be too many to count.
VERSE 6:
• Abram believed God so wholeheartedly that God counted it as righteousness.
• Since the serpent in the garden man has doubted the word of God, and now we see Abram who did not doubt.
TRANSITION: “Trusting God requires us to be patient and to refrain from taking matters into our own hands.”
GENESIS 16:1-5
1 Now Sarai, Abram's wife had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar.
2 So Sarai said to Abram, "Now behold, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go in to my maid; perhaps I will obtain children through her." And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
3 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.
4 He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her sight.
5 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." NASB
KEYWORDS: THROUGH HER (V2.)
According to the custom of the time, Sarai would adopt a son born of Abraham’s union with Hagar and that son would become the family’s heir, replacing Eliezer.
VERSE 1:
She had a handmaid, an Egyptian - As Hagar was an Egyptian, St. Chrysostom’s conjecture is very probable. that she was one of those female slaves which Pharaoh gave to Abram when he sojourned in Egypt; see Genesis 12:16. Her name הגר hagar signifies a stranger or sojourner, and it is likely she got this name in the family of Abram, as the word is pure Hebrew.
VERSE 2:
• Since Abram had no idea who the mother was to be and this custom existed where they were; it is easy to see that this may well be the intended path to the fulfillment of God’s promise.
• It also appears that God intended for Abram to take this route in order for God’s purpose in the latter days to be fulfilled.
VERSE 3:
• With Abram’s approval, Sarai gave Hagar to him as his second wife.
• The Hebrew words translated took and gave make clear that Abram and Hagar were married; she was his wife , not a concubine,
• She would have been second in rank to Sarai.
• This was a marriage for the practical purpose of producing a son.
VERSE 4:
• Trouble begins immediately on conception, Hagar begins to treat Sarai with contempt and disrespect.
• Hagar despised felt superior to Sarai.
VERSE 5:
• Sarai had her self image stomped on and with considerable hurt and embarrassment she looked to Abram to reign in Hagar and lashed out at him for failing to do so.
TRANSITION: “When we realize we have fouled things up, it’s time to refocus on God’s plan.”
GENESIS 17:18-19
18 And Abraham said to God, "Oh that Ishmael might live before You!"
19 But God said, "No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. NASB
KEY WORD: COVENANT (V. 19)
The Hebrew term means “treaty,” “alliance,” or “agreement.” Parity covenants were made between equals; others, called suzerainty covenants, were made by a superior with binding obligations placed on an inferior party
VERSE 18:
• In verses 15-16 just prior these verses Abraham first learns that it is Sarai that shall be the mother of the promised child.
“The very existence of Ishmael was a memorial of Abraham’s failure in faith and patience.…Then all at once comes the divine message, ‘This is not the son of the Covenant; this is not the heir of the Promise. Sarah shall have a child, and from him shall come the blessings that have been foretold.’ And what does Abraham do?... “. He pleads to God, “‘O that Ishmael might live before Thee. Why cannot he do? Why may he not be the chosen child, the heir of the Promise? Take him, O God!’” Alexander MacLaren
• It is more likely that Abraham wants the assurance that Ishmael may also have blessings from God.
VERSE 19:
Again, patiently but firmly rejecting Abraham's alternative solution, God emphatically settled the matter by bracketing His gracious bestowal of much posterity to Ishmael (see Genesis 25:12-18) with affirmations that, indeed, Sarah's son would be the heir of the "everlasting covenant." For the first time, God named the son. John MacArthur
WRAP IT UP.
Even when we are impatient, God remains patient with us.
Ask God for the strength to trust Him in all things and to resist the temptation to run ahead of Him with our own plans.
No comments:
Post a Comment