Genesis 16
April 19, 2015
preached by Don Willeman
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Time of Reflection Quotations

“Every person needs at the center some sense of meaning about existence. It is life and death to us. It makes us who we are.”

~Richard Dawkins, Oxford professor and noted atheist

“We are different each of us; but I am sure there is one thing in which we are all brought to unite in times of deep sorrow, namely, in a sense of helplessness.”

~Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892), famed London preacher

“The soul can do without everything except the Word of God.”

~Martin Luther (1483-1546)

“Grace is not so poor a thing that it cannot present itself in any number of ways.”

~Marilyn Robinson in her novel Lila

“Tears have a tongue, and grammar, and language, that our Father knoweth. Babes have no prayer for the breast, but weeping: the mother can read hunger in weeping.”

~Samuel Rutherford (c. 1600-1661), Scottish thinker and theologian

“Christianity is not about me and what fits my preferences and my comforts. It’s about [God]. It’s about making his glory known in the world no matter what the costs, because I know that his reward is greater than anything this world has to offer.”

~David Platt, contemporary American pastor and author

“Whatever else it embraces, true Christian experience must always include a genuine encounter with God. Without this, religion is but a shadow…nothing more real than some synthetic god compounded of theology and logic, but having no eyes to see, no ears to hear and no heart to love.”

~A.W. Tozer (1897-1963), American pastor and author

Sermon Passage

Genesis 16 (NASB)

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.” ⁶ 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.

⁷ Now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. ⁸ He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from and where are you going?” And she said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.” ⁹ Then the angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority.” ¹⁰ Moreover, the angel of the Lord said to her, “I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count.” ¹¹ The angel of the Lord said to her further,

“Behold, you are with child,
And you will bear a son;
And you shall call his name Ishmael,
Because the Lord has given heed to your affliction.

¹² “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.”

¹³ 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?” ¹⁴ Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵ So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. ¹⁶ Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.

Galatians 4:22-28 (NASB)

²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman. ²³ But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise. ²⁴ This is allegorically speaking, for these women are two covenants: one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar. ²⁵ Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. ²⁶ But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother. ²⁷ For it is written,

“Rejoice, barren woman who does not bear;
Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor;
For more numerous are the children of the desolate
Than of the one who has a husband.”
²⁸ And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise.