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Bob Davis: If we already know how to live in the world, we're now learning how to live in God's kingdom. It's an upside-down kingdom. God tells us to fight your way to the bottom. When I was growing up, they said fight your way to the top. Fight your way, you work your way up the charts, whatever you're doing. Work your way up from third string to second string to first string. Whatever you're doing, you're working your way up. And Jesus says you want to be great in God's kingdom? Of course we do. We want to, yes. Then learn to be the servant of everybody else.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Apply Within, a verse-by-verse study of the Word of God with Pastor Bob Davis of North Country Chapel. We invite you to join with us as we, by the power of God's Holy Spirit, apply what's within our own hearts as we study line upon line, precept upon precept, verse by verse through the Bible. Beginning in Genesis chapter 16, Sarai grows impatient and offers Hagar to Abram. Here's Pastor Bob.

Bob Davis: Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bore him no children. And she had a handmaid, an Egyptian whose name was Hagar. Some say Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, "Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing. He has kept me from having children. I pray thee, go in unto my maid. It may be that I may obtain children through her." And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. He did it. He listens and said, "Okay," or something to that effect.

And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian—that's twice now in just a few verses they're pointing out to you that this is not going to work well, she is an Egyptian. Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband to be his wife. It was called a concubine, that's kind of a second-class wife. Now Abram's got two wives. Oh, good.

And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. Did you hear that? Her mistress now, the one that is her boss, she's now looking down upon Sarai. And Sarai said to Abram, "My wrong be upon you." Let me say it in American: "This is your fault. I have given my maid to your bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes. The Lord judge between me and you." This is your fault, Abram.

But Abram said to Sarai—and this is the cop-out—"Behold, thy handmaid is in thy hand. Do to her as it pleaseth you." And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face. She ran away. Everybody should have run to the Lord because you got a big mess on your hands now. Instead of running to the Lord, what do they do? Point the finger, right? "It wasn't me, it was that woman you gave me. It wasn't me, it was the man you gave me. It's his fault. What? That servant girl? Never liked her anyway."

Everybody listen close. This is another test, just like you get regularly and so do I. God doesn't test me and you and Abram and Sarai because He wants to see what they'll do. The test is never for God to find out—He knows. He tests us so that we'll learn something about ourselves. Muffed that one, didn't you? But instead of saying that, Sarai is going to say, "You did it, not me." Right? And that's how we are, everybody. Don't laugh at Sarai, that's what we do. That's human nature.

Another test of Sarai and Abram's faith. Just to wait on the Lord. What did He say? "I'm going to give you a child. You will have so many children you can't count them all." Okay. And last chapter he says, "Thank you, but I'm just pointing out that we don't have one." I know I'm going to have as many as the sands of the sea, but the truth is we don't have one yet. How do you want to start that? He wasn't being rude, he was just pointing out the facts. We do that sometimes with God. "You said that they were mine, Lord, but I can't find it. Where is it?"

Listen, it's a test. It's a test of your faith, Sarai. Abram, this is a test of your faith. What are you going to do? God says wait on me. Wait. And the Psalmist writes, "Wait on the Lord and be of good courage. Wait, I say, wait upon the Lord." She's done waiting, she's not going to wait. She didn't wait that long. Maybe to her it seemed like a hundred years or so. To wait means to trust completely in the Lord. It doesn't mean to sit and go, "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, what time is it? Oh boy."

To wait means to put all your trust in Him and move on. All right, just move on now. We're walking with the Lord, we're walking with Jesus. God says He's going to do it. I got an idea to help. You've never done that, I know, but that's what Sarai just said, isn't it? I've got an idea. I am too old, and so we can get this, we'll do it. We'll give God a hand. How many of you tried to—don't raise your hand—how many try to help God out a little bit? "Well, God, all you need to do is turn this right here." Oh, never mind. "Lord, we're on fire. Could you help?" "I told you to wait." "I waited! I was, but I wanted to help."

You're helping God all the time, aren't you? If you're not careful, aren't we all? "Well, the Lord says He's going to do this. I got an idea. This will speed this thing up. Watch, hey y'all, watch this." Right? And then we just do it ourselves. Why? We want what we want instead of what God wants for us. They could be the same thing, notice, but we have to wait. And it was a custom in those days, in Abram and Sarai's day, that if a wife could not have children, she could give a servant girl to her husband as a concubine, and if they had a child, it would be considered that wife's child.

That's her plan. You see, God says I'm going to do it and she goes, "All right, you know what? If you're going to do it, we'll help you. I got an idea. Let's do it ourselves. God will bless that. That's what He wants anyway. He said we're going to do it. We'll just speed Him up some. Take a few tests, do a this, do a little that." Right? Here we go. The detour is always worse than the main road. So it was customary, so there was nothing wrong with it in Abram's eyes. There was nothing wrong with it in Sarai's eyes. There was nothing wrong with it in Hagar's eyes.

Everybody's on board. But nobody checked with God. Do you think it's going to cause them trouble? Guaranteed. It was a custom, completely acceptable to everyone. But remember this: God is not into the customs of this world. The servant Hagar, pointed twice out to us, at least twice, is an Egyptian. She was given to them when they had that little lying incident down there in Egypt, remember, a few years back? Abram had been in the land now ten years.

Hagar conceived, and as soon as she knew she was pregnant, she began to look down on her mistress, on the lady that owns her. To look down on means with disdain. She despised Sarai. Now this little Egyptian kid, compared to Sarai, now she thinks she's better, a better woman than Sarai. Could have knocked you over with a feather. Are you surprised that that happened? That something that went wrong almost instantly? How could you be surprised? You're on a detour.

What do you expect is coming? Big potholes, alligators, and things because you're out in the swamps. "How did I get here? It looked like a shortcut." What did you think would happen, Sarai? What did you think would happen? Nothing. "I wasn't thinking about that. I just thought it's the custom and people are doing it and it's okay and let's help." Hagar, feeling like she's something special, sees Sarai as not as much of a woman. What were you expecting, Sarai? That she'd have all kinds of respect for you now because that was an...

Sarai is now what? Angry. Isn't that what you wanted? "Yes, but now she's mistreating me. That's so rude. It was my idea." And she's hurt and she's embarrassed. You pick the emotion. Probably all kinds of them running around there in Sarai, right? Or pick what you might feel. She puts all the blame on Abram. All the blame. "This is your problem, this is your fault." And kind of, in part, it was. In part it was, but it was still her idea. She's guilty, everyone. Mark this down.

But she blames someone else. "Well, I'm a nice guy, it's just those people are weasels. Well, they're judgmental, they're this, they're that, they're blah, blah, blah, we're great." Something's gone wrong inside Sarai. She blames someone else and then she is mean and mistreats her servant Hagar. What did Hagar do wrong? Nothing, she did what she was told to do. Nothing, she did nothing wrong. Why are you mad at her? "Because I am." Oh, good. I feel better.

Abram is guilty because he listened to his wife. That's what God will say later on. Right here we read he listened to his wife. You say, "Shouldn't you?" Sometimes you should. But he should have spoken up when she said, "I've got a detour, I got a plan." And Abram knew better, and he's guilty because he listened and he should have spoken up and said, "No, Sarai, I understand that we want children and I want them too, and God promised us that He would do it. Let's leave it to God. God promised us a child, and we should in faith believe. Don't try and do it, let's wait on the Lord."

That's what he should have said and he didn't. He goes, "All right." He's probably just trying to make her happy. And now she's miserable and mad at him, too. Isn't that how it goes? Sarai treated Hagar so cruelly Hagar could not take it and she ran away from home. Ran away from home, she's running to home in Egypt. She's going back down to Egypt. Now she's pregnant and going to be all alone by herself. Everybody's got a problem here, everybody's in trouble.

Everybody should have just stuck with trusting God. But instead look at us all, we're out in the big middle and we don't know how we're supposed to now get down to Egypt. We don't know what we're supposed to do. What do we do? We got this Hagar thing now, she's got a baby coming and what are we going to do now? Well, verse seven says the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water, a pool of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur down south, just leaving the land of Canaan and just about ready to cross over the border of Egypt, right there.

The angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness by the fountain on the way to Shur. And he said, "Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence comest thou and whither wilt thou go?" Two questions: where are you coming from and where are you going? Easy questions to answer. She said, "I flee, I ran away from the face of my mistress Sarai. I'm her slave." Well, notice what he calls her: "Hagar, Sarai's maid, Sarai's servant. I'm running from the face of my mistress Sarai."

And the angel of the Lord said to her, "Turn back. Return to your mistress." And every Christian, everybody hear it: submit yourself into her hands. No matter how she treats you, no matter how ugly, no matter how yucky, no matter anything, you go back. That's interesting, I think. And the angel of the Lord said to her, "I will multiply thy seed exceedingly that it shall not be numbered for multitude." Who's that promise to? Hagar, the Egyptian concubine of Abram.

And the angel of the Lord said to her, "Behold, you are with child and you shall bear a son. You're going to have a baby boy. You shall call his name Ishmael because the Lord hath heard thy affliction." What's your affliction? Your suffering, your pain, your sorrow, your hurt. God sees it and He's heard it. He sees it and He's heard it. "I understand. What I'm telling you to do is trust me, go back." Ishmael means God hears. That's what the word means. Ishmael, God hears.

You could say God is listening. "Your son will be a wild man." If you translate it literally, your son will be a wild donkey of a man. He's going to be a fighter. He's going to live out there in the wilderness and he's going to fight. And the language says he will fight everyone and everyone will fight with him, literally living in hostility even with your own family, your own brothers, literally living in hostility. Think the Jews and the Arabs. You see, the Jews from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; the Arabs from Ishmael on down.

Got it? They're still fighting today, everybody. They haven't stopped. And that's how they've been since Ishmael and since Isaac. Does that describe the Middle East or what? There is a war going on right now, right this moment, brother fighting brother. That's God's promise to her. She's got a decision to make, doesn't she? Listen to what she decides. Verse 13: she called the name of the Lord that spoke to her, the One who sees me, the God that sees me. For she said, "Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?"

Wherefore, verse 14: the well was called Beer Lahai Roi. And behold, it's between Kadesh and Bered. Hagar bore Abram a son, she went back on home. She did what God called her to do. Do you think that was easy? I don't think so. I don't think that when He calls you and me to do anything it's easy. I think we just trust Him. I think we just walk, and that's what He wants us to do—walk. Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called his son's name which Hagar bore, Ishmael.

She told him, "That's what the Lord wants him named," and they named him that. And Abram was four-score and six years—86—when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram. She called the Lord "the God that sees me." She was saying, "You've been watching me. I thought I ran away, I thought I was all alone. I wasn't sure I was going to make it, but you are the God who sees me." You know God sees you, right? You know that, right? He knows right where you're at. The God that sees me.

The idea in the language—and maybe you want to mark it down and get it in your head—the idea in the language is He sees me and He looks after me. He came to find me. He sought me and He bought me. And she named the place Beer Lahai Roi, the Well of the Living One who Sees Me. That's what that means. The Well of the Living One who Sees Me. When the time came, she had a baby boy. God said she would, and she did. Abram named him Ishmael as the Lord had said they should, and he did.

Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born. If you do the math, that means he was 14 when Isaac is born because Abraham was 100. When we take a detour instead of waiting on the Lord, we need to stop and do like Hagar was told: turn back. Repent. Turn back. Go back. Get back on the main road. You're going to go back to where you need to be. I'll take care of you, I'm with you. You're headed for more danger if you continue on this detour.

Abram had to turn back to God. Notice, Sarai had to turn back to God, and Hagar had to turn back to God. And you know what? I'm no better than them, so do I. How about you? So do you. So the lesson is simple: turn back. You say, "I'm with the Lord." Good. Turn back now and just say, "Lord, here I am. Show me the way. Make it clear, Lord. And when I come up with a great idea, Lord, help me to remember to mention it to you, too."

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to Apply Within with Pastor Bob Davis. Apply Within is the radio outreach ministry of North Country Chapel. Our Sunday morning Bible studies are at 9:00 and 11:00 AM. We also have a Friday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM and a Monday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM. You can download today's message in its entirety at northcountrychapel.com/studies. That's northcountrychapel.com/studies.

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