Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight is study #6 of Genesis, chapter 16 and we are going to read Genesis 16:5-7:

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. And the angel of JEHOVAH found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.

I will stop reading there. In our last study, we were discussing how these two women, Sarai and Hagar, represent two gospels, the Gospel of grace and the gospel of works. We saw how both gospels can produce “offspring.” To understand this idea better, just look at all the care we must take to differentiate between Christian and true Christian or believer and true believer.

I am trying not to use the term “true believer” any longer because even that term has come to identify with a good number of people that are not truly “true believers.” It is almost like we are carrying it out a step further each time. Now I tend to identify God’s elect as an “elect child of God,” when trying to comply with what it says in the Bible. And a good way to express it seems to be “an elect child of God,” because there are so many professed Christians, professed believers or even professed true believers. They are in the churches and outside of the churches. How is this possible? It is because there are two covenants. There have been two gospels at work throughout history and, especially, at the time of the end we see the gospel that identifies with Hagar or mount Sanai or the law of God all over the church world and “Christendom.” There are tremendous numbers of people and hundreds of millions would not be an exaggeration because the number of professed Christians in the world is about two billion, so there are about two billion people in the world that are not true Christians – they are not born again in their hearts by the act of God.

The Bible refers to what may be the total of all the people God has saved as 200 million. It is possible that 120 million or 150 million of those are still alive and living on the earth today, but that still leaves two billion professed Christians that are not really saved, so we can see that the gospel that identifies with the “flesh” (Hagar who is in bondage with her children) is almost like an “assembly line.” These people are quickly brought in to the churches, coming down the aisles and going out the door at the end of the service as another professed Christian. And this is taking place all over the earth in churches and congregations. They are “mass producing” professed Christians that are not truly born again. But because they can mass produce and because they can “bring forth” people to fill the pews and congregations, they have masses of people that agree with the teaching of the gospel of works, the free will gospels. They prefer that gospel and they want that kind of gospel they do not have eyes to see the other Gospel, because God has held them back from it and they are in spiritual blindness.

So, there is a very real tendency on the part of these people that are born after the flesh to despise others, as we read at the end of our last study in Luke 18:9:

And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:

They trust in themselves that they are righteous. Why? It is because they were baptized. (In Old Testament times, it was because they were circumcised.) Or, it is because they partake of the Lord’s Table. They belong to a church that tells them they are saved and they attend regularly and they are contribute regularly. They do this and they do that and they accepted Christ and they have done everything asked of them by their priest or pastor and, therefore, they are righteous and not like the others. There is a tendency to despise others that have not done these works. It goes on to say in Luke 18:10-13:

Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

Then Jesus tells us that it was the publican that was justified. It was the one who had no righteousness in himself and he did not even dare lift his eyes up to heaven; he knew he was a sinner and he knew he had offended God and fallen short of the glory of God. He knew the wages of sin is death. And, yet, God says that this man was justified, rather than the other man that listed all his acts of righteousness. He said he was not “as other men.” For him to say he was not an extortioner, it means he was not transgressing the law on that point. If he was not unjust, it means he was just and keeping the law. If he was not an adulterer, he was keeping the law concerning adultery. He was not as the publican. You see, he was highlighting to God the good things he had done, just like the professed Christians today. They approach unto God and they say, in effect, “I am saved because I accepted Christ, I walked down the aisle, I said the Sinner’s Prayer and I was baptized.” It is “I,” “I,” “I.”

And there is a tendency to despise others, like Hagar, whose mistress was despised in her eyes. She now had the proof or evidence that she was the one in favor with God. The Bible does say this concerning the bearing of children, in Psalm 127:3-5:

Lo, children are an heritage of JEHOVAH: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

The word happy is the word for “blessed,” so there is favor and there is blessedness of God when you conceive a child. If she has been granted a child, it must be that God is looking favorably upon her and not upon her mistress Sarai, who had been unable to conceive and bring forth children. Therefore, God has withheld favor from her and blessing from her. You see, she begins to puff up over Sarai. And it is the same thing with the two covenants or two gospels. The works gospels say, “Our church is full. Our church is vibrant. We have people on ‘fire’ for the Lord. Just look at all the people making profession of faith. Look at everyone that comes to our service. On the other hand, that grace Gospel over there has people that wonder if they are even saved. It must be of Satan. They do not even know if they are saved. They go years without being sure. Can you imagine that?” Do you see how they despise the true Gospel of the Bible?

Again, the true Gospel of the Bible requires waiting on the Lord for Him to bless and for Him to bring forth the spiritual fruit. Remember, this is all about the promise to Abram regarding the seed. Yes, the seed is Christ, but there are all those counted for the seed in Christ, all the elect that have become saved. It was needful for them to wait upon JEHOVAH and to wait upon God for salvation in His timetable and not in the timetable of man.

Let us go back to Genesis, chapter 16 where Sarai explained to Abram about Hagar: “I was despised in her eyes: JEHVOAH judge between me and thee.” She is asking Abram for permission to do something to this rebellious handmaid. Then it says in Genesis 16:6:

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.

The word translated as “dealt hardly” is the word for “afflicted.” Sarai afflicted her. It could have been any number of ways she afflicted her. It does not mean she beat Hagar, but I suppose that is possible. It could be that she “put her in her place” back in the kitchen to cook dinner or do dishes. Hagar had just conceived and she was also a wife of Abram like her mistress, so she could have expected something wonderful and glorious and she may have thought that Abram would not allow Sarai to do anything to her to afflict her and, yet, he did. He put the whole matter in Sarai’s hand and that, alone, would have been troubling to Hagar. Her new-found status was not what she thought it would be. It could have involved other things; we do not know in what manner Sarai dealt hardly with her or afflicted her, but we know it was severe enough that Hagar fled from her face. She ran away. She left the tents of Abram and Sarai and she went out into the wilderness, as it says in Genesis 16:7:

And the angel of JEHOVAH found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.

It was not Abram or a search party sent by Abram that found her. It was the “angel of JEHOVAH” and this is God Himself. God went after her and God is the one that stopped her from fleeing further. Then it says in Genesis 16:8-11:

And he said, Hagar, Sarai’s maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai. And the angel of JEHOVAH said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands. And the angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude. And the angel of JEHOVAH said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because JEHOVAH hath heard thy affliction.

The word translated as “affliction” is the same word that was translated as “dealt hardly.” God went after her and He brought her back to her mistress and instructed her to submit herself under her hand. Whatever she was being afflicted with, she was to endure the affliction.

Now this is very unusual and difficult language. This is one of the hardest chapters so far in the book of Genesis because of this historical situation in the lives of this family, but it is because of the two covenants the women represent and the man to whom they are married. This is very hard to understand. As the account goes on, God told her that the Lord would multiply her seed and this is difficult because it is typically reversed and it is the “flesh” that persecutes the “spirit.” The ones in the “flesh” are contrary to those in the “spirit” and they persecute them, but in this case Sarai has the authority and she was afflicting Hagar, who represents the covenant of works or the law. Hagar is to submit to Sarai, so I do not know if we are going to be able to understand it all, but there are some things we can understand very well and it goes along with what we have already learned.

The first thing we can learn is that after Hagar fled and the angel of JEHOVAH found her in the wilderness, “by the fountain in the way to Shur.” When we look up the word “Shur” in the Bible, here is what we find in 1Samuel 15:7:

And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt.

Then it says in 1Samuel 27:8:

And David and his men went up, and invaded the Geshurites, and the Gezrites, and the Amalekites: for those nations were of old the inhabitants of the land, as thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt.

So, we see that Shur is over against Egypt and the way of Shur us the way unto the land of Egypt. Of course, Hagar was an Egyptian and, very likely, she was given to Abram after Pharaoh took Abram’s wife for a short while. Pharaoh gave servants and some handmaidens to Abram and Hagar was one of them. Now she had experienced affliction. She had conceived a child after her mistress gave her to Abram, but it did not spare her from this shame and dishonor of being treated with affliction, so she wanted to go home to Egypt. On a spiritual level, this is fitting. It is not surprising at all when people are born of this covenant that identifies with mount Sanai; they are born through good works and they are justified by works of faith, like accepting Christ, and they are, therefore, born of the flesh and they are of their mother, the Egyptian, and they are born in the house of bondage. And where is the house of bondage? It is in Egypt. So, there is a strong, natural desire when people are born of that covenant and they are near the true Gospel (as typified by Abram and Sarai), to flee. They desire to go away and escape, just like we read in the Gospel of John, in John 3:19-21:

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

This is the same principal, let us say, as a pastor teaching the true Gospel of election (during the day of salvation) and people come in, but they just do not like it: “This church is not for me.” They prefer a church where the salvation is under their own control, so they go away. That is exactly what Hagar did, historically. Her action of fleeing portrays those that want to escape the true teaching of the Bible and, naturally, they are on the road or in the way to Shur or Egypt. They are returning to captivity and the house of bondage.

However, God prevented Hagar from fleeing. During the church age, the Spirit of Christ was in the midst of the congregations. There was the light of the candlestick and God was blessing the activity of many of the churches and that is where the elect were found and the true Gospel was found during that period of history. They saw through a glass darkly and that was according to the will and purpose of God. We must understand these things and make allowances because when God seals things, no one can unseal it. But at that time there was still a tendency for those of the “other gospels” to flee and get away from the true light that was dwelling in the midst of the congregations and to go away to Egypt or to set up a church or a denomination under the authority and power of Satan, but God restrained them or held them back. Why? It was because He had another plan. There was another seed, as it says in Genesis 16:10:

And the angel of the JEHOVAH said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.

This is not the promised seed. This was not God speaking to Abram, but it sounds just like it, does it not? It is almost word-for-word what God had said to Abram. And, yet, that was a different seed that identified with the Gospel of promise and being born of the Spirit.

By the way, at some point we are going to have to discuss how God will later use the “sons of Ishmael” as those He will save as part of the great multitude. But, here, Ishmael is typified as being “after the flesh” and all those born of him will be multiplied exceedingly. What did I say earlier about how many people there are in the corporate churches? There are about two billion professed Christians that are “born after the flesh.”