Encounter the Truth

Jonathan Griffiths: You may cry out in distress and you may wonder, does anyone hear me? You may be in suffering and in deep need and you wonder, does anyone see what is going on? God is the God who hears when no one else hears. God is the God who sees when no one else sees.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths. Jonathan, there may be someone listening today who says, "Man, I do feel that way. I don't feel like anybody hears me. I don't feel like anybody cares. I feel like God is distant and could care less about what is going on in my life." But as we look back at the story of Abram in the early chapters of Genesis, we actually see in that account that we do have a God who does care.

Jonathan Griffiths: That’s one of the great lessons of the story of the life of Abram. Here in Genesis 16, we see it actually played out in the life of Sarai’s servant Hagar. As she is in a situation of great distress, terrible need, brought on really through the folly of Abram and Sarai themselves, we see within this that the Lord is extending his mercy to her. He is aware of her need, aware of her distress, and he meets her in that need. Within this account and within the Lord's kindness shown to her, I think there is huge encouragement for each one of us.

Steve Hiller: Well, if you feel like you need encouragement today, you feel like God is far from you, I hope that you will keep listening and that you will grab a Bible and join us in the book of Genesis, chapter 16, as we continue our message, "The Cost of Self-Reliance." Here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: This is a real area of temptation and danger for us who know the Lord. It’s a subtle temptation, of course; it is a subtle danger. Remember Abram and Sarai, they weren't saying that we don't have faith anymore. They weren't saying that the promises of God were not true. They were not wanting to walk away from the Lord or to stop serving the Lord. No, none of the above, not at all. They believed that the promises of God were true. They believed that his plans would come to fruition ultimately. They simply and wrongly assumed that if God seemed slow in working out his purposes, it was right now for them to take matters into their own hands. It was fine for them to employ a shortcut or two. It was appropriate to drive things through by human means.

But the results, as we all can see, the results were disastrous. One sin led to another, which led to another, which led to another, and there was carnage at every turn. Pursuing God's plan humanity's way, it highlights the domino effect of sin.

Next, it highlights for us the abundant grace of God. We see God’s grace poured out on everyone really within this very messy story, and the first of those people is Hagar herself. It’s hard for us, I think, to imagine how Hagar must have been feeling at this moment when she fled. She had been used, she had been abused. She wasn't blameless in any of her behavior, of course not. But now she is a homeless single mother who has fled a painful and an oppressive situation. She is alone in the wilderness. We can only imagine the weight of her heart, the anxiety of her mind. How is all this going to play out now? What will happen to me next? Is there any help or any hope to be found within all this?

But verse seven, it's quite lovely, notice it with me. The Angel of the Lord found her. The Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. This is the first time in the Bible, I think, that we encounter this interesting figure, the Angel of the Lord. This figure appears occasionally at key moments in the life of the people of God, and it has to be said that there is a bit of a mystery surrounding the Angel of the Lord.

He is not simply an ordinary angel. Those who meet with the Angel of the Lord feel that they have met with the Lord personally and they have heard his voice. That is what Hagar herself feels from what we read in verse 13. And so we begin to speculate, we begin to wonder, we begin to ask, is the Angel of the Lord really the Lord himself? Is this perhaps a pre-incarnate visitation from the second person of the Trinity as many have suggested?

Well, we don't know for sure. The scriptures don't address all our speculations, but we do know that in the person of the Angel of the Lord, the Lord comes to Hagar in a special way in that wilderness and meets with her. The Lord speaks to her and the Lord reassures her. He begins by asking her where has she come from and where is she going. Not that he didn't know the answer. She is fleeing from Sarai.

And in response to that, the Angel of the Lord gives her both an instruction and a promise. Verse 9, the Angel of the Lord said to her, "Return to your mistress and submit to her." And then he said, "I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude." The Lord sends Hagar back to Abram's household, which might seem like a pretty tough thing in a way.

But we have to remember the blessing of God does still rest upon this household and upon this family. Going back to the family of promise was to go back to the place of blessing. And we have to remember as well that Hagar needed the protection of a home. She needed food and safety and security, and the Lord says, go back. But with that instruction comes this very, very great promise. Hagar is going to be the matriarch of a great family. This outcast slave woman will have innumerable children of her own, so many that they cannot be numbered for the multitude, we’re told.

Now, the promise there, it has some echoes, doesn't it, of the promise made to Abram himself? Which isn't all that surprising. This child is not going to be the child, the child through whom all the promises of God will come. Nonetheless, this is a son of Abram, and he is going to be the father of a huge family. He is going to be called Ishmael, and his name is going to have significance. Verse 11, "Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael because the Lord has listened to your affliction."

It’s rather wonderful that the Angel of the Lord breaks out into poetry at this point. That is why the format of the text changes. Often in the Bible when a baby is coming, when a child is born, there are often words of poetic celebration. Even when a baby comes in the midst of trying circumstances, hard circumstances, that baby's arrival is a cause for celebration. That baby comes as a gift. And that is true of course today; that is always true, whatever the circumstances.

But the name Ishmael, you see from the note at the bottom of the page there, it means God hears. You shall call his name Ishmael because the Lord has listened to your affliction. Now, isn't that reassuring? Isn't that good? God has heard. That’s going to be the meaning of the child's name. It’s going to be the symbolic significance of his life. His mother was a servant, a slave within a household where she was placed in an impossible situation, really an abusive situation. She was powerless within it. She had to flee. She was pregnant. She was alone with nowhere to turn. It’s a tragic story that’s been repeated, of course, in different guises, in one form or another, far too often.

You can imagine Hagar weeping and despairing by that spring of water in the wilderness. She probably imagined that no one heard her cries or cared about her distress. But the Lord came near to her and he came with a message, I’ve heard your cries. I’ve heard you in your distress. In fact, I am the God who hears. Hagar got the message, and so verse 13, she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, "You are a God of seeing," for she said, "Truly here I have seen him who looks after me." Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi, which means the well of the living one who sees me. God is the God who hears when no one else hears. God is the God who sees when no one else sees.

I wonder if you’ve ever been pushed into a situation, I wonder if you’ve ever got yourself into a situation, or through a complex mixture of your sin and the sin of other people. I wonder if you even today find yourself in a situation where you are helpless and alone. You may cry out in distress and you may wonder, does anyone hear me? You may be in suffering and in deep need and you wonder, does anyone see what is going on? You may resonate here with Hagar's wilderness experience because the wilderness is precisely where you feel you are today.

Well, if that's you, and that may be a number who are listening today, here is what you need to know about the God of grace. He is the God who hears the cries of the distressed. He is the God who sees those who no one else sees. That’s God's grace to Hagar. But also consider how his grace is extended now to Sarai and Abram. And this is just a simple observation, but I feel it's a significant one. Abram and Sarai, they really did make a very grand mess of things here in this saga.

I mentioned earlier that the story of Abram's life is a rollercoaster of ups and downs, and Genesis chapter 16, it is a major down. It’s a dramatic dip. It’s a deep valley, isn't it? And by any measure of reasonableness, God could well have given up on them at this point. I mean, they look like an unmitigated disaster, these two. They’re not waiting upon God as they should be. They’re not honoring their marriage as they should, and in their behavior towards Hagar, they hardly cover themselves in glory. And yet, and yet, God is going to reaffirm his covenant with Abram in the very next chapter. God is going to proceed with his plan to bless Abram and his family and through them to bless the world.

In fact, when we get to the New Testament, the New Testament writers look back on Abram and Sarai, and when they do so, this is what they have to say about this couple. They have to say about them that they were people who walked by faith. And we look at that here in Genesis chapter 16 and we think, have the New Testament writers, Paul and the writer to the Hebrews, have they read this story? Have they examined what happened here or did they just skim over Genesis chapter 16? Of course they have read the story. They know what happened. They know the failures. But the point is this: the whole story is bracketed by and covered with the grace of God. He takes a messy and he takes a sinful story. He takes flawed servants of faltering faith and he bears with them, and he walks with them, and he continues to use them despite everything. In fact, at the end of the day, here is what he calls them. He calls them people of faith. He calls them his very own people.

Friends, what an encouragement that is. What an encouragement for you and what an encouragement for me, for flawed and sinful people of faltering faith, for that is what we are, is it not? What encouragement that God does not give up on his failing servants, does not cast them off because of their sin. What hope that gives us despite all the ways in which we fail him as servants and as people of faith. What hope that gives us that he will continue to show us his grace despite it all, through it all. Pursuing God's plan humanity's way, it highlights the abundant grace of God. Grace to the weak and the needy, grace to the flawed and to the failing.

Steve Hiller: You’re listening to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths, a message called "The Cost of Self-Reliance." It’s part of our series entitled "The Blessing." We’re going to pause right here. I hope you'll stay with us because we'll get back to the message in just a moment.

If you ever miss a broadcast, you can always come and listen online. Our website is encounterthetruth.org. You can also listen through the Encounter the Truth app, which you'll find at your app store. But whether you listen on the radio, online, or through the app, it's made possible through your generosity. So thank you for giving to and supporting this ministry.

This is the last week to give a gift of any amount and receive as our thank-you gift back to you a copy of John Piper's book, "Don't Waste Your Life." In this book, Piper warns us of the dangers of an irrelevant life that counts for nothing and calls Christians to the deeper joys and risks that matter for eternity. Again, this book is our thank you as you give a financial gift of any amount this month. You can give online at encounterthetruth.org or when you call 1-833-99-TRUTH. That is 1-833-998-7884 or encounterthetruth.org. Back to the message. Here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: Finally, as we close, pursuing God's plan humanity's way highlights ultimately the choice between two ways to live. In Galatians chapter 4, Paul reflects on the whole saga of Hagar and Sarai and the two sons who are ultimately born to them. He sees that this story ultimately illustrates for us two approaches to life, two ways of relating to God himself.

Listen to what Paul says, Galatians 4 and verse 22: "For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise." The story of these two children, Ishmael the son of Hagar and Isaac the son of Sarai, the story of these two boys points us to two very different ways to live. One is the way of the flesh, one is humanity's way, and one is the way of promise.

Ishmael was born because Abraham and Sarai decided to take matters into their own hands, to find a solution on their own terms, and to deal with things in their own way. It was a very human thing; it was a very fleshly thing. Isaac, by utter contrast, would be born eventually on God's terms through God's miraculous work in accordance with his own promise.

And Paul wants us to see that the story of these two children, they symbolize two very different ways to approach God and to live before God. One is the "do it yourself" approach, and the other is the "trust in the promise" approach. Two ways to live.

The other day was kind of a significant day in our house, a banner day. My car went to the car wash for the first time in a very, very long time. All through the warmer months, I had refrained from taking it in, believing, hoping that I would get out the power washer on a quiet Saturday and wash it myself. But the good intention very rarely becomes a reality in our house. And so before we lost all memory of the true color of the car beneath the grime, I decided it's time we're going in.

Now, the car wash I like to go to, it's a kind of a fantastic place. It’s a sort of car washing emporium. You drive in and there are two ways you can go. You can veer left and head for the large "do it yourself" area where you can drive into a bay where there's all the equipment you need to wash the car. You can put on your Wellington boots and your rain gear and get thoroughly involved in the process if you want to. Or you can veer to the right and have the wonderful machine do it for you.

I opted to go to the right, and the experience was wonderful, actually. You line up the wheels in the little track without grinding your rims in the process—no small challenge for some of us. Then you kick the car into neutral and you just allow yourself to be wafted through while everything is done for you. As I wafted my way through the suds and the spray and the buffing wheels, I thought, this is just fantastic. I thought how luxurious it was simply to sit back and observe, much better than a Saturday with a power washer on the driveway.

At the end of the day, there are really only two religions in the world. Two ways to approach God, two ways to live. There is the "self-serve" approach where you seek to get things done in your own way and on your own terms. And there is the approach where you allow God to take care of things himself. One is the way of effort, the other is the way of belief. One is the way of works, the other is the way of faith.

Ishmael, he was born according to that former approach. Abram and Sarai, they reckoned at that stage that they had to figure things out for themselves. Isaac, he would be born through the latter as God fulfilled his promise against all odds, doing all things necessary himself. Friends, it is fundamental to genuine Christian faith that we learn each one of us to take God at his word. That we learn each one of us to leave things in his hands. And we all need to learn that lesson and we need to learn it afresh time and time again.

If you don't yet know the Lord personally, and that may be a number listening, and you're wondering what do I need to do to get right with him? What effort do I need to go to here? What works do I need to do? Maybe you’re asking that question today. Please see from this story, please see from Genesis chapter 16 that God doesn't call you to sort things out yourself. He doesn't call you to deal with the sin and the mess of your life yourself. No, he calls you to come to him and to trust in him and allow him to do all things necessary.

And the promise of God through Jesus, through his death and resurrection, the promise of God is that he has done all things needed to make you right with him. And he calls you to believe him and to trust him, to take him at his word. Don’t try and fix things yourself. Don’t try and pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Don’t try and work your way to spiritual health or spiritual life. Simply believe the promises of God.

Many of us here will believe that we are justified by faith and not by works. We will understand that basic gospel truth. We know that salvation comes by believing the promises of God and not by anything that we do. But having been saved by faith in that way, many of us will easily imagine that we then go on to live the Christian life by our own efforts and our own ingenuity. Once we are saved into the kingdom by faith, we think it's now down to us to make a go of things in Christian life and Christian service.

But as we think along those lines, and we often do, don't we? As we think along those lines, we run the risk of making the mistake that Abram and Sarai made. The truth is that those who are saved by faith must go on living by faith each and every day. The way we begin the Christian life is the way in which we must continue in the Christian life.

And so, friends, let me ask you where are you and I, where are we in danger? Where are we in danger today of taking matters into our own hands? Where are we in danger of engaging in a do-it-yourself religion, doing things the human way, the fleshly way, rather than trusting in the promises of God and waiting upon him to do his work and to fulfill his purposes in his way, on his timeline, by his own powerful means?

Friends, let me simply urge you today as I urge myself, trust him. Trust him. Let him work out his plans and his purposes in his way, by his means, on his own timeline. And as you do that, in faith, wait expectantly to see what God might do.

Steve Hiller: Jonathan Griffiths here on Encounter the Truth, a message called "The Cost of Self-Reliance." As we've taken a look at Abram and Sarai, knowing the promises of God but growing impatient with God's timeline, not seeing how the promise could be fulfilled and would be fulfilled, taking matters into their own hands. Really taking a look at some of the highlights of this story, how that impacts us: the domino effect of sin, the abundance of God's grace, and the choice between these two ways to live.

You want to go back and hear this again? Come to our website encounterthetruth.org. Encounter the Truth is listener-supported. If you're a regular listener to this program, you know that to be the case. But we want to say thank you for your support this month by sending you John Piper's book, "Don't Waste Your Life." Jonathan, why did you pick this book from Piper?

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, I think I probably read this book about 20 years ago myself, Steve. I remember thinking what a help it was to me in clarifying my thinking and focusing my priorities in life. What do I really want to spend my life doing? What do I want to invest my time and energy in? John Piper's little book here was just such an encouragement to invest my life in the work of the kingdom and in serving the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ for his glory. I was helped, I was inspired, and I’ve given this book and recommended this book to quite a number of people over the years, particularly young adults, hoping that it might be an inspiration to them to invest their lives in something useful and something of eternal value.

Steve Hiller: Well, we want to send you a copy of this book, John Piper's "Don't Waste Your Life," as our way of saying thank you for your financial support this month. You can give online at encounterthetruth.org or call us at 1-833-99-TRUTH. That’s encounterthetruth.org or 1-833-998-7884. You can also write us at Encounter the Truth, 2176 Prince of Wales Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K2E 0A1, or in the US at Encounter the Truth, 215 North Arlington Heights Road, Number 102, Arlington Heights, Illinois, 60004. For Jonathan Griffiths, I’m Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening and I hope you'll join us next time.