Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight, is study #3 of Genesis, chapter 16 and we are going to read Genesis 16:3-6:

And 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 Abram to be his wife. And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: JEHOVAH judge between me and thee. But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face.

This is turning out to be a very interesting historical account of happenings within a family that lived over four thousand years ago. God is giving us some details of events that took place at that time to teach us about two covenants, as Galatians, chapter 4 lays out. There was a covenant that had to do with being in bondage and there was a covenant that had to do with freedom. They are the two gospels the Bible declares. It is the Gospel of grace as compared to the gospel of works. Hagar identifies with mount Sanai and that is where the law was given. All who attempt to get right with God through keeping the law would be children of the bondservant or handmaiden Hagar. On the other hand, the elect of God are saved by the true Gospel of God’s grace, a gospel in which the sinner contributes nothing at all to obtain righteousness before God; righteousness is imputed to them through the faith and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That Gospel is typified by Sarai.

Here, God is beginning to lay out the historical picture based on true occurrences in the lives of Abram, his wife Sarai and the handmaiden Hagar. God has already emphasized that Hagar was an Egyptian. When Abram and Sarai went into Egypt earlier, Pharaoh took Sarai because she was very beautiful; Abram had said she was his sister and Pharaoh entreated Abram well for Sarai’s sake, as it says in Genesis 12:16:

And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels.

Pharaoh gave to Abram menservants and maidservants and Hagar was an Egyptian maidservant, so their relationship probably began when Pharaoh gave her and other servants to Abram and she entered in to Abram’s household and Abram and Sarai became her lord and mistress. That was the custom of that time. They were bondservants in bondage to their masters and mistresses and Hagar was this type of bondservant. That is why God used her as a picture of “Egypt” and the house of bondage. She was a woman who was in bondage herself and she would bring forth children that were also in bondage, as the point was made in Galatians, chapter 4. It said in Galatians 4:22-25:

For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

The one covenant “gendereth” or was “born” to bondage. Ishmael was born of his mother, a bondservant. Hagar would have had a special place among the servants because of her relationship with Abram and Sarai and bringing forth a child from her master, although it was counted as Sarai’s child, in a way. The child Ishmael was probably the “highest” of the children born to the other bondservants and, yet, he was still a bondservant himself. He was still a child of a bondservant and, therefore, born to be a bondservant himself. God’s point is that no one can become free from the bondage of sin and Satan unless they become born again by the Spirit of God. They are born from above, as represented by Sarai, and born by promise. We know the Bible lays out God’s salvation program as that which is accomplished by the Lord on behalf of His people and it is the only way to obtain spiritual freedom. Concerning freedom, this is the reason Christ said in John 8:33-36:

They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Jesus was talking to Jews who assumed that because they were physical descendants of Abraham it automatically meant they were “free” men. Maybe they were free in the world, but not spiritually, and that is the point of Galatians 4 and the “allegory.” Spiritually, unless they are born from above or born of the Spirit, they are still in the flesh and they are still a bondservant, spiritually. They are in servitude. Basically, Christ was telling the Jews that they were still in captivity and they had never come out of the house of bondage in Egypt, spiritually, even though they were not living in Egypt during the 400 years of affliction as slaves under cruel taskmasters. Christ said, “You think you are free because you are no longer in Egypt and no longer forced to make brick and build pyramids. You think you are free, but the spiritual truth and spiritual reality is that you are still a servant because you are a servant to sin. You are still spiritually serving Pharaoh (Satan) and in the house of bondage.”

This is why Christ said, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed,” but they did not understand it. It is just like people all over the world today that happen to live in free countries. The United States is a good example because we like to emphasize our freedom. We are free people. It is the same truth for Americans as it would be for a Jew: You may be free politically. You may be free physically. You may have every outward freedom imaginable and, yet, if you are not saved, you are a slave. You are a slave to sin and to Satan. God says this in a few places in the Bible. It says in Proverbs 5:22:

His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.

It is like someone that is captured. You tie him up and secure him so he cannot move his arms and he cannot escape. You now have a prisoner. That is what sin has done. An individual’s own iniquities enslave him and no one else’s iniquity. It is the sinner himself, because of pursuing his own lusts. And he will pursue his own lusts; he will follow them to the death. He will go after them and it will ensnare him. It says in 2Timothy:24-26:

And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

They are prisoners of sin and Satan – prisoners in a dungeon. This is the condition of unsaved mankind, the people that we see in the world that are laughing and smiling and going about their lives. They are thrilled with the sinful pleasures of this life. How wonderful these sins are and how great it is to go partying and drinking and drugging. No – it is not great at all. There is nothing great about being the lowest prisoner in a filthy pit of a dungeon, where it is dark and dreary. The bars are locked and they cannot get out. That is the state of unsaved individuals, as they are captive to their own sins. Sin has dominion over them. Sin rules over them. Sin is the authority of their lives and they must obey, submit and serve sin.

When someone tries to stop smoking or drinking or overeating or whatever sin it is…and, you know, sin always brings negative consequences and it always brings trouble. And after a while, people realize it. A sinful pleasure of youth, like drinking, is so full of excitement and it is so great to be with your young friends and everyone is drinking and having a good time. But over the course of time, the excitement wears off and there may be arrests, DUI’s, accidents and maybe even injury to self or others and fights and loss of work. These are consequences of that specific sin. Of course, there are consequences of smoking, like disease and ill health. There are consequences to every sin, whether it be anger or a “loose tongue,” where you do not control what comes out of your mouth and you say whatever you think. It gets you in trouble, does it not? Sin naturally leads to trouble. And it leads to more and more wrongdoing and then more and more trouble. In truth, it is nothing more than a headache and some people come to realize that, but, typically, it is often too late regarding a specific sin. They may come to realize that they must stop drinking, smoking, doing drugs, cursing and putting tattoos in the strangest places. Or, they must stop just “speaking their mind” because they keep getting in fights over and over. It never helps them. It is never for their good or for their personal benefit.

That is why the declaration of the Gospel to the people of the world should always have been done in meekness because it was instruction to those that were opposing their own selves. Did you ever hear the saying, “I am my own worst enemy”? Or, someone might say, “That guy is his own worst enemy.” That is Biblical. When you look back on your life, who has caused you the most trouble? Who is that nemesis that has injured you and brought destruction, misery, pain and sorrow? It has been yourself. It has been myself. The way of the Bible and the Gospel message is to follow the scriptures and to follow the teachings of the Bible, doing things God’s way and keeping His commandments. Yes, there will arise up affliction for the Word’s sake. There will arise up persecution and other things. But, you see, it is much healthier and along with it are tremendous blessings of God because they are finally doing it God’s way. Finally, they are not feeling sick because they smoked a pack of cigarettes or drank a half a case of beer or they did whatever they did or said whatever they said. They do not have the waste of time and the hangover the next day that wastes more time and the constant repairing of relationships due to the breaches that sins bring. These benefits alone are a relief and tend to bring more joy and peace to some degree.

In addition, there is joy of obedience. There is this understanding: “Yes, things are hard and I have been suffering affliction because I continue to hold on to this Bible truth and people of the world and people around me do not like that, so there is affliction for the Word’s sake, but thank God.” Even that kind of affliction is thankworthy, we read in 1Peter. “Thank you, Lord, that you have brought me this way. Thank you that I am now suffering for something good, something right and proper. Thank you that the suffering in my life is an upright type of suffering for which I can thank you and not the type of suffering that comes because I sinned again. I did wrong again. I rebelled against you again. I went the opposite way of your commandment.”

You see, there is no way to avoid suffering as human being in this life. Either we are going to suffer as a servant to sin and Satan and suffer for our sins or we are going to suffer as someone who is doing things God’s way. We can walk along, by God’s grace, keeping His commandments because of His indwelling spirit and we can do so because we are already saved and not that we are trying to get ourselves saved. We are following the pathway that Christ established as He went the way of God’s commandments and, by the grace of God, we are following that narrow way. We are following the path that leads to the kingdom of heaven and this is the “freedom” that we have in Christ as Christ has set us free. We no longer bear the heavy burden of sin and that weight of sin upon us. Yes, there is a “yoke” of servitude to the Lord Jesus Christ, but His yoke is easy and His burden light because it is always easier this way. Yes, the child of God is condemned by the world, because the world is always watching us. Someone pours out all kinds of accusations and charges against you, but you know none of it is true – you are simply following the Bible. So, what? We do not care what they say. But if you have done wrong and they accuse you on that point of wrongdoing, it troubles us because we have given occasion to the enemy or adversary to speak reproachfully and it adds to the grief. And there is no thank worthiness in that.

Well, I have diverged from what I intended to talk about this time, but that is the nice thing about a verse-by-verse Bible study, because we can come back to it. Lord willing, in our next Bible study we will come back to Genesis 16 and look at this very interesting and unusual passage concerning the relationship of Sarai and Hagar.