An Unfaithful Man and a Faithful God | Genesis 16:1-6

Last week we were reminded of God’s blessing on His people.  In Genesis 15; we are introduced to the Abrahamic covenant which contains a special promise for God’s chosen people, the Israelites. 

 

1. God is faithful to His people.

 

Faithful: “To remain loyal, to be steadfast.”

 

“Now it happened that the sun had set, and it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces.  On that day Yahweh cut a covenant with Abram, saying ‘To your seed I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates’”

--Genesis 15:17-18

 

God’s people, the Jews/ Israel, has never fully occupied this full border outlined in Genesis 15:17-18.  Abraham’s descendants lived and occupied much of the central land called Canaan and modern Israel still hasn’t occupied the full land either (West bank / Palestine—river to river up until the board of Saudi Arabia). 

 

King David fulfilled this border spread for a short time as he led God’s people to victory and prosperity—this was a mere shadow of the eternal border change that is still to come.  If you look at verse 17, the flaming torched passed in between the cut animals, not Abram.  The lesser person or the person with penalty would have to walk in between the pieces—this foreshadows what is to come under the Kingship of the perfect Jesus Christ. 

 

“Then it will be in that day, that the Lord will again acquire the second time with His hand
The remnant of His people, who will remain, From Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Ethiopia, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, And from the coastlands of the sea. And He will lift up a standard for the nations and assemble the banished ones of Israel and will gather the scattered of Judah From the four corners of the earth.”

--Isaiah 11:11-12

 

“In the Day of the Lord, God will “reclaim the surviving remnant of his people” (Isaiah 11:11). Jesus Christ will return and destroy the armies gathered against Him in rebellion (Revelation 19). Sinners will be judged, and the faithful remnant of Israel will be set apart forever as God’s holy people (Zechariah 13:8—14:21). Isaiah 12 is their song of deliverance; Zion will rule over all the nations under the banner of Messiah the King.”

--Gotquestions.org

 

“Then you will say in that day, ‘I will give thanks to You, O Yahweh; For although You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, And You comfort me.   Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not dread; For Yah—Yahweh Himself—is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation’…Give thanks to Yahweh, call on His name. Make known His deeds among the peoples; Make them remember that His name is exalted... Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, For great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.’”

--Isaiah 12:1-2, 4, 6

 

God will gather His family.  He will deliver His people from death to salvation.  The promise for God’s people and their deliverance in Ezekiel 37 is both a spiritual awakening and a geographical promise of a home.

 

“’And I will put My Spirit within you, and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken and done it,’ declares Yahweh.’”

--Ezekiel 37:14

 

How do we know this is going to happen in the future?  Because Israel receives all of her land in the second coming of Jesus, the day of the Lord, and also because of God’s prophecy He gives Abram while Abram is sleeping.

 

“Then God said to Abram, ‘Know for certain that your seed will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will also judge the nation to whom they are enslaved, and afterward they will come out with many possessions…Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.’”

--Genesis 15:14,16

 

“Now I want to remind you, though you know all things, that Jesus, having once saved a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.”

--Jude 1:5

 

What I love about his translation is that early manuscripts of Jude 1:5 said “Jesus” and not “Lord”.  Most of our modern English translations will say “though you know all things, that the Lord, having once saved a people out of the land…” (NASB 1995) because the majority

 

This is a reminder of God’s faithfulness; that God’s promises are true, and they do come true.  Everything God says will happen.  His prophecy if the Israelites Egyptian captivity was true and their deliverance from that captivity was true—just like Jesus will save humanity from our captivity to our sin.

 

 

2. Abram’s unfaithfulness grieves God and leads to devastating consequences

 

Even though Abram saw these amazing things and the LORD cut this covenant with him; he still rebels against God—he remains unfaithful as he walks with God. 

 

“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian servant-woman whose name was Hagar.  So Sarai said to Abram, “Now behold, Yahweh has shut my womb from bearing children.”

--Genesis 16:1-2

 

Sarai recognizes her barren nature which was first revealed in Genesis 11:30. Sarai is incapable of having kids (she has had trouble having children and hasn’t given Abram a biological child).  The house of Abram has been made up of servants from Pharaoh, Lot’s family, and Sarai.  Abram and Sarai are 86 and 76 when Ishmael is born so they are roughly 85-86/75-76 here, they are old!  There is reason to doubt God.

 

-Ancient customs contained surrogacy methods (if a woman couldn’t continue a bloodline, then they gave their husband a maid servant/ concubine to continue that bloodline).  This idea would have been a custom that was commonly practiced.

 

“The custom of an infertile wife providing her husband with a concubine in order to bear children is well documented in the ancient Near East. The laws of Lipit-Ishtar (early 19th cent. B.C.E.) … An Old Assyrian marriage contract (19th cent. B.C.E) …the laws of Hammurabi.”

--Rabbi David J. Zucker

 

“’Please go in to my servant-woman; perhaps I will obtain children through her.’ And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.  And after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant-woman, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife. So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. Then she saw that she had conceived, so her mistress became contemptible (despised) in her sight.”

--Genesis 16:2-4

 

There is a Jewish tradition that informs a rabbi’s commentary on what is happening here.  It says that before they came to live in the promised land, Abram and Sarai regarded their childlessness as punishment for not living in the land. But after being in the land for ten years, they still had no children. Sarai probably felt it was time to do something.  Their impatience led to sin.  

 

“When a believer impatiently tries to fulfill God’s promises in their own effort, it accomplishes nothing and may even prolong the time until the promise is fulfilled. Jacob had to live as an exile for 25 years, because he thought he had to arrange the fulfillment of God’s promise to get his father’s blessing (Genesis 28:1-5; 33:17-20). Moses had to tend sheep for 40 years in the desert after he tried to arrange the fulfillment of God’s promise by murdering an Egyptian (Exodus 2:11-15; 3:1).”

--Enduring Word Commentary

 

Sin is destructive, relationship shattering, and we must live through the consequences of our sin as we commit them.  This is how God’s perfect justice works.

 

“And Sarai said to Abram, ‘May the violence done to me be upon you. I gave my servant-woman into your embrace, but she saw that she had conceived, so I became contemptible in her sight. May Yahweh judge between you and me.’  But Abram said to Sarai, ‘Behold, your servant-woman is in your hand; do to her what is good in your sight.’ So Sarai afflicted her, and she fled from her presence.”

--Genesis 16:5-6

 

This sin of sexual immorality came out of not trusting in God’s timing, of being impatient without child and then acting on it showing us the human thinking of Abram and Sarai.  They wanted to achieve a goal, they wanted a result, so the ends justified the means.  Whereas, God, His word teaches us not to do something in the first place because it goes against God’s commands or statutes. 

 

Two major immoralities in God’s word:  Money and Sex.  This is why Abram tithed a tenth of his assets to Melchizedek and this is why much of God’s family struggles with sexual immorality. 

 

This sin causes Sarai to hate or become displeasing to Hagar.  It splits up Abram’s house as Hagar would have been a servant from Egypt when Pharaoh gave them great wealth in Genesis 13:1-2.  It causes a rift in Abram and Sarai’s marriage—Sarai gets upset with Abram.  “May the violence done to me be upon you…May Yahweh judge between you and me’” Vs.5b

 

-This is just like Adam, who is given the rules of the garden and then Eve is created after him yet he allows Eve to eat from the tree AND he eats the fruit with her!

-Sarai recognizes the order in which God made, Adam first then Eve, Men know better and should lead with this special responsibility that God has given them—this is why she is upset with Abram.  He was not operating as a godly man should; he was unfaithful to God and to his wife. 

 

“A woman must learn in quietness, in all submission.  But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.  For it was Adam who was first formed, and then Eve.  And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into trespass.  But she will be saved through the bearing of children, if they continue in faith and love and sanctification with self-restraint.”

--1 Timothy 2:11-15

 

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies.”

--Ephesians 5:25-28

 

 

 

3. Sin and Immorality do not change God’s Redemptive promise for His people.

 

What is amazing about Genesis 16 is that God still works through unfaithful people.  Yes, they are judged for their sin, they must live through the consequences of their rebellious choices, of their practiced immorality—but we know how this story ends.   We know that a saviour will come for His people; will be born in a manger, and gives a simple command to all people on how to enter His family:  Repent. Turn to Christ and He will give you new life. 

 

 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.  For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.  He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

--John 3:16-18

 

Abraham is the father of Isaac, which continues that sinful bloodline, all the way to a woman named Mary who would become pregnant through the Holy Spirit.  God interrupting that tainted bloodline and intertwining it with His Holy and Sinless Blood in the person of Jesus Christ.  This is why our salvation is a gift of grace. 

 

“’Shout for joy, O barren woman, who has not given birth; Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor; For more numerous are the sons of the desolate one Than the sons of the married woman,’ says Yahweh. ‘Enlarge the place of your tent. Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, do not hold back; Lengthen your cords and strengthen your pegs.  For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left.  And your seed will possess nations and will resettle the desolate cities.’”

--Isaiah 54:1-3