Genesis 16

We won't take time for it, but I just want to show you the progression.

Genesis 16, the flesh attempts to produce the promise.

That's where Sarah and Abraham tried to have a child there with Hagar.

They were successful in that, but it did not bring about the promise of God.

sign.

And the clue I think is to realise that the sign of the covenant is given in Genesis 17, immediately after Genesis 16.

There we go again.

And what happens in Genesis 16, it's that story where Abram's faith begins to waver.

And he, together with Sarah, they concoct this plan that they're going to bring about the fulfilment of God's promise that they should have offspring by Abram sleeping with Sarah's maidservant Hagar.

Oh, yeah, that's how we'll bring God's promise about.

She had trouble believing the seed would come through her, so she offered Abraham her maidservant Hagar, but that turned out to be disastrous.

After that fiasco, Genesis 16 said that Abraham received no fresh word from God for 13 years.

And finally, God spoke saying Sarah would conceive a promised son.

The Holy Spirit uses the subject of soil here to describe the poverty of this seed being reproduced.

What's the first place that he appears with the title Angel of the Lord?

Gen- Genesis 16.

Mm-hmm.

Story-

Or, you know, you could trace it even later to, like, Zechariah.

But, but you have this in, this being who appears who seems to be spoken of as an angel sent from God, but is spoken of unlike any other angel.

And so you have these cer- definite places where the term Angel of the Lord appears, in Genesis 16, Genesis 22 with Abraham and Isaac up on the mountain.

Um-

Basically, you've won the battle.

Here in Galatians 4, this is what we're seeing Paul doing with the story of Hagar and Sarah from Genesis 16.

He states, essentially, the Judaizers' Torah-based argument better than they can.

He uses their own hero Abraham, their father, He uses their own story in Genesis 16.

He uses their own categories of children, inheritance, and covenant to dismantle their position kind of from the inside.

And he does all this in front of the watching Galatian church.

It's not Jesus plus any kind of human effort.

But the way he finishes this in today's passage is through this devastating metaphor, which I personally think is a bit of a masterstroke by him.

So let's review that for a moment so we can catch a glimpse of the process that has been at work in Sarah, a model for all women in the faith.

Let's look at Genesis 16 too.

Sarai said to Abram, behold, now the Lord has prevented me from bearing children.

Go into my servant and it may be that I shall obtain children by her.

Guys, that's really good.

Yeah.

The Sarai suggestion, if you will, found in Genesis 16 was not a good one.

And it was reminiscent of Genesis 3.17 where God charged Adam for having listened to his wife rather than God's word.

But he cites Genesis, and he specifically cites a story where God gives Abraham a son through Sarah, which was part of God's promise to Abraham.

Now, what verse does he quote? What does he say exactly, Paul? Well, he doesn't explicitly quote as much as references this part of Genesis 16 where something very volatile happened between Sarai, Abraham's wife, at the time her name was Sarai, and Hagar, her bondwoman or her maidservant.

What happened in the story that Paul is referencing here? What happened was Sarah, in her great love for Abraham, gave her handmaiden, Hagar, to Abraham as a second wife or as a concubine so that he could have an heir.

They'd been in the promised land at this point for many years.

The word has all these different senses.

In fact, sometimes it even means that she was emaciating her, like starving her.

Although I doubt it means that in this context, Genesis 16, because Hagar was pregnant with Abraham's son, But the point of this, the point of this, to quote William Congreve, the English playwright, hell has no fury like a woman scorned.

And Sarah was definitely scorned.

And, uh, and then you see Abraham's sons.

In fact, uh, Genesis chapter 16, it says here in, uh, Genesis 16, "Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bare him no children." We already read that she was barren when they married.

"And she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.

And Sarai said unto Abram, 'Behold now, the Lord has restrained me bearing, so I pray thee, go in unto my maid; and it may be, that I may obtain children by her.' And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai." Boy, I wanted to get into this.

And so just like Hagar, Yahweh sees Leah's plight and then comes to her.

I think this mirrors the story of Hagar that we found in Genesis 16.

You know, she even Hagar eventually goes out.

God finds her, goes after her and Hagar names Yahweh.

just talking physical.

I'm just, he's working hard.

I think what, I think what we're also supposed to see is we're supposed to make that connection back to Genesis 16 with Sarah and Hagar.

Even the way that the text is written, it's a repetition of the core phrases.