Genesis 16

Genesis 16 (Sarai & Hagar)

Sarai grows impatient and has Hagar sleep with Abram to have a child. (Ishmael)
*We must remember "Gods delays are NOT Gods denials!"

They took a detour and suffered the consequences.
It is dangerous to depend on our own wisdom. Even if God has revealed something we must WAIT on Him to bring it into fulfillment.

**Whatever is truly done by faith, is done for the Glory of God, not praise of man.

One of my favorite quotes right now is the following...

"Faith that guards fear is faith in the WORD OF GOD, not Feelings!"

Evidence of biblical faith:

1. You are willing to wait.
2. You are concerned only for the glory of God!
3.You are obeying Gods word
4.You have Gods joy and peace within.

(16:1-2) Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; ² so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”

Sarai wavered, second guessed God, she knew Abram would "have descendants that outnumbered the stars" but allowed doubt to creep that she would not be the mother and needed to take matters into her own hands....That is when the trouble came...

Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”

⁶ “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.

⁷ The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. ⁸ And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.
⁹ Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” ¹⁰ The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”
¹¹ The angel of the Lord also said to her:

“You are now pregnant
    and you will give birth to a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,^[a]
    for the Lord has heard of your misery.
¹² He will be a wild donkey of a man;
    his hand will be against everyone
    and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
    toward^[b] all his brothers.”

¹³ She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen^[c] the One who sees me.” ¹⁴ That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi^[d]; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵ So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. ¹⁶ Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael, meaning 'God hears'.

**After Hagar fled she was met by the Angel of the Lord (Jesus) at

"Beer-lahai-roi" meaning, The well of the one who lives and sees me."

*He is a personal God, concerned about abused people & unborn babies!

**When God cannot rule, He overrules, and He ALWAYS accomplishes His purposes!