Genesis 16-18 | The Banishment of Hagar and Ishmael

Genesis 16-18 tells the story of Hagar, a slave girl who belonged to Sarah, the wife of Abraham. Sarah is unable to have children and asks Hagar to bear a child for her and her husband. Hagar becomes pregnant with a son, Ishmael, but Sarah later gives birth to Isaac. Sarah becomes jealous of Hagar and her son and orders them to be banished from the household. God speaks to Hagar in the wilderness, promising to make her son the father of a great nation. The chapter concludes with God renewing his promise to Abraham that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky.

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Jenny Zook 0:04

Hi everyone and welcome to God's Plan, your part, a podcast where our goal is to read the entire Bible in a year, seeking to understand God's plan of redemption while discovering daily and practically your part in it.

Ryan Zook 0:18

All right everybody. Welcome to God's plan, your part. Today we are back in Genesis. We're at Genesis 16 to 18. And I think Jenny has some issues with what we're reading today,

Jenny Zook 0:32

I don't have issues, but I definitely. Sarah. Sarah. Sarah. Mm-hmm. She's in, she's both in these chapters. But I see her in this very interesting light. So Sarah in my mind is kind of this, like this doubting individual, so I see her face doubt. And you actually deemed her doubting Sarah earlier? Yeah. I said, dang. Don't say it's called doubting Thomas, but this woman has done it for years in these chapters. And I do too, whatever. Anyway, there's a chance that

Ryan Zook 1:10

Jenny's being mean to Sarah. I'm not sure.

Jenny Zook 1:12

Well, I'm just calling it how I see it. So there's two instances where Sarah is faced with doubt and just like totally gives in. So the first instance is when we hear her while she is like basically saying like, okay. you know, my heart, I wanna have children, but this is never gonna happen for me. So she like takes it into her own hands, finds Hagar and says, here Abraham, go and have a child that I can call my own. And so kind of just like,

Ryan Zook 1:43

it's interesting how she says it. So that is Genesis 16 verse two. Go into my servant. It may be that I shall obtain children by her. Mm-hmm. that I underlined that it may be like, I wonder how many times we're like, huh. Well it could be, could be this could be this less good

Jenny Zook 2:02

option. Like rather than seeking God and like waiting out his plan, she just kind of goes for it. You know what, I think I see that a

Ryan Zook 2:08

lot in my life. No, I don't think I would ever say that on a recording for the world to hear.

Jenny Zook 2:14

Listen, we all have moments where we just wanna do things our own way and we

Ryan Zook 2:18

don't wait it out. I actually see that a lot in students and young adults when they're pursuing relationships. Like it may be that God wants me to help this guy get better at his life. It may be that God wants me to preach the gospel to this girl. And that's just, that's just like, I'm a, I'm a student pastor. Mm-hmm. that's the thing that's on my mind. But I, I bet there's many, many. Where we are believing the Lord to provide and we find ourselves saying it may be blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. Anyway, continue your mean rant against

Jenny Zook 2:49

Sarah. No. Well I just, I think in that decision making, because it wasn't necessarily fitting her timeline, she causes a lot of dysfunction and a lot of like unnecessary tension between the, like, love triangle. It's

Ryan Zook 3:04

real weird. We can have some grace. As we read these chapters, we read them really close together, right? Mm-hmm. like we've read this story like across two days. This is several, several years, like, like 13 years happened between chapter 16 and chapter 17. Mm-hmm. So like that's just a snapshot of like, okay, she heard this promise. Probably we can sort of understand why she's doubting. However, she is primarily doubting

Jenny Zook 3:27

mm-hmm. And then also when she finally does. Realize that God's going to provide a child through Isaac. She actually doubts that too by laughing. Like, okay,

Ryan Zook 3:41

yeah, sure. And it's crazy because God she's not even talking to God. Like if you're familiar with the story, I thought in the past like, well, she, like God told her and mm-hmm. she laughed at him, but that's not true. God was talking to Abraham outside and Abraham or Sarah was over, like listening, Uhhuh And she's like, yeah.

Jenny Zook 3:58

And it's funny too, this story always reminds me of like future chapters when very similar things happen with Zacharia and Elizabeth. Elizabeth. Yeah. Yeah. But I like to be totally fair. Like if I heard this news in my old age someday, I'm sure too, I would be very like, oh yeah, right. Yeah.

Ryan Zook 4:18

Abraham is 99 years old. Mm-hmm. right? Do you know who don't like, you know what? Men do not have babies. 99 year olds. Mm-hmm.

Jenny Zook 4:24

Well, I think it's, it's easy to say these things on this side of. Or this side of the story. But I probably would have the same. Now

Ryan Zook 4:32

doubts. One of the things that's very cool, I was, I was telling Jenny before we turn this on, what's really cool is to look at this story and don't look at the people, look at God because what's really cool is that they are messing up lots of stuff. Well, yeah, cuz

Jenny Zook 4:43

I was saying I feel so bad for Ishmael. Like I feel like he's just like this forgotten poor kid

Ryan Zook 4:48

that just, but God is like loving him and pursuing him. Like Hagar basically gives. Like she, well, he loves on her too. Yeah. She's out in the desert. Like, what do you do? What, what are you doing when you're laying out in the desert? You're hoping to die. Mm-hmm. So she's out in the desert with her baby, and God is like, Hey, I see you. I'm gonna look after you. You need to go back. And actually he, what he does say is like, kind of painful, like return to your mistress and submit to her. And nobody likes the word submit. Hmm. And I will surely multiply your offspring. Like, he gives them basically like a modified promise. Mm-hmm. It's very similar to the promise. God gave Abraham. And so I think it's very cool that God looks after her. Like there's, there's nobody, there's nobody on Hagar's side except God. And God's gonna take care of her. And actually she names this place Tru. Truly I have seen him who looks after me. I underlined him, who looks after me. Mm-hmm. like that's who we serve. We serve him who looks after me. That's very,

Jenny Zook 5:44

Do you feel like Abraham's just kind of a dummy too? Like he's just like this big dummy that just listens to, oh yeah, sure. Let's

Ryan Zook 5:49

just go have, he actually has been on like a little bit of a journey of. Developing faithfulness. I mean, like, I'm sure Abraham was like, yeah, sure, that sounds great,

Jenny Zook 5:58

I just heard that. I'm like, wow, didn't he say like, yeah,

Ryan Zook 6:01

no. So just like, just like Sarah's on a journey. I think Abraham's on a journey culturally speaking, it, this would not have been strange. This

Jenny Zook 6:10

like, does not, I think it's really weird to us and it's like very, like there is soap,

Ryan Zook 6:15

like there's, there's culturally and there's godly. So like God's intent has always been right. One man and one. always, and we'll see this get messed up over and over and over again. Mm-hmm. So God does not intend for Abraham to go sleep with Hagar. Mm-hmm. Culturally speaking, it makes sense that Abraham might have been like, oh yeah, maybe. But yeah, also, like maybe he had some not great motivations,

Jenny Zook 6:37

like Yeah, sure. Yeah. Something else that I, I noticed was that God appears often and speaks often with Abraham. Like so much so that it's then the Lord said, then Abraham said, then the Lord said. So it's like this constant conversation back and forth. I don't know if that's like a prayer situation or like God is just, Directly speaking to him. I don't know how that plays out, but it's just very interesting to me how often explicit conversation is happening.

Ryan Zook 7:03

Chapter 18 is really interesting because we do have God show up. This could be another instance where God shows up as a person when God shows up as a person. That's Jesus. And two other people. Abraham does act in a really unique way with these visitors because he like rushes out to them. He bows down to them like Abraham understands that this is somebody very important. We find out that he knows this is God. So this is really cool that God just shows up to Abraham and God is consistently. Telling Abraham his promise over and over and over. Mm-hmm. And you'll see this as we continue that God is gonna repeat this promise to Isaac. He's gonna repeat this promise to Jacob. Like, this is a big, big deal. And it's a big deal to us. Like when, when God says, Kings will come from you. This is true. Many kings come from Abraham. Ultimately the king of kings comes through Abraham, Jesus. And so this is God's ultimate plan of redemption for us taking place like way back in the desert. So that is looking at, we didn't even

Jenny Zook 8:06

talk about,

Ryan Zook 8:08

oh, Sodom. Oh yeah. Sodom. All the negotiations.

Jenny Zook 8:12

Yeah. It's almost like God, He's gracious in that like, well, if I find 10, so be it. This

Ryan Zook 8:21

is that weird thing that I'm sure we'll talk about as we go through the whole Bible where it's like, well, should we pray to God will, will he change his mind or as we pray, does it change our will to God's will? Like how does prayer work here? We see a Abraham actively speaking to God. Praying to God, I would say is similar, just negotiating with God and I don't know like. I don't know what that is, but we see the character of God and that he's like, you know what? If you find that many righteous, I'll do it. If you find that many righteous, I'll do it. And ultimately, I think Abraham is thinking about Lot and his family. Well,

Jenny Zook 8:53

yeah, I thought that too, but,

Ryan Zook 8:56

and so we'll see how that plays out. Mm-hmm. It's not gonna be good. So as we look over these passages, Jenny, what do you think our takeaway is? Like, what's our part in this?

Jenny Zook 9:06

I think a really good takeaway for myself and hopefully others that are listening is just remembering Sarah and her. Her usual gut reaction is just to doubt what God has planned, and I think that's very easy for us to do. When things are not necessarily going the way that we expect or hope, we can oftentimes just take things into our own hands and. Try to do what we want to do instead of what God wants us to do or waiting to hear from the Lord what he wants. I think it's incredibly hard and challenging to find yourself in those situations, but really seeking the Lord and his direction is gonna save you a lot of hurt, a lot of dysfunction, and ultimately just grow your relationship with him, not as you trust and see what he has planned

Ryan Zook 9:53

for you. All right guys. We hope you're getting a lot out of this, so we'll see you. Bye.

Jenny Zook 10:02

Genesis 16. Now, Sarah Abram's wife had born him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar and Sarah. I said to Abram, behold, now the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go into my servant. It may be that I shall obtain children by. And Abram listened to the voice of Sarah. So after Abram had lived 10 years in the land of Canaan, Sarah Abram's wife took Hagar, the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram, her husband as a wife. And he went into Hagar and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress and Sarah. I said to Abraham, may the wrong done to me be on you. I gave you my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that you had that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me, but Abram said to Sarah, behold, your servant is in your power due to her as you please. Then Sarah dealt harshly with her and she fled from her. The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness and the spring on the way to. And he said, Hey, Gar, servant of Sarah. Where have you come from and where are you going? She said, I'm fleeing from my mistress. Sarah, the angel of the Lord said to her, return to your mistress, and submit to her. The angel of the Lords also said to her, I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude. And the angel of the Lord said to her, behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord had listened to her your affliction. He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kingsmen. So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her. You are a God of seeing before she said. Truly here I have seen him who looks after me. Therefore, the well was called Bi la Haro. It lies between Cadesh and Bead and Hagar bore Abram a son and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore Ishma. Abram was 86 years old when Hagar Bo Ishmail to Abraham. When Abraham was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to. I am God almighty, walk before me and be blameless that I may take my covenant between you and. And multiply you greatly. Then Abraham fell on his face and God said to him, behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abraham, but your name shall be Abraham. For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations, I will make you exceedingly fruit. And I will make you into nations and King shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your offspring after you and I will give to you and your offspring after you, the land of your so journeys and all the lands of Keenan for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. And God said to Abraham. As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring. After you, every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or brought with your money from any foreigner who is not your offspring. Both he who was born in your house and he who was bought with your money shall surly be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people. And he has broken my covenant. And God said to Abraham, as for Sarah, your wife, you shall not call her Sarah, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her. And moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her and she shall become nations. Kings of peoples shall come from. Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child? And Abraham said to God, oh, that Ishmail might live before you. God said, no, but Sarah, your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting. For his offspring after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father. 12 Princes and I will make him a great into a great nation. But I will establish my covenant with Isaac from Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year. When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham. Then Abraham took Ishmael, his son and all those born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day. And God had said to him as God had said to him, Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his fores. And Ishmael, his son was 13 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin that very day. Abraham. Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised and all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner were circumcised with

Ryan Zook 16:17

him. And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mara as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said, oh Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the. While I bring a morsel of bread that you may refresh yourselves and after that you may pass on since you have come to your servant. So they said, do as you have said. And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, quick three says of fine flour, need it and make cakes. And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf tender and good and gave it to a young man who prepared it. Then he took kds and milk and the calf that he had prepared and said it before them, and he stood by them under the tree while they ate. They said to him, where is Sarah, your wife? And he said, she is in the tent. The Lord said, I will surely return to you about this time next year. And Sarah, your wife shall have a son. And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now, Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself saying, after I am worn out and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure? The Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh and say, shall I indeed bear a child now that I'm old? Is anything too hard for the Lord at the appointed time? I will return to you about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son, but Sarah denied it saying I did not. She was afraid. He said, no, but you did laugh. Then the men set out from there and they looked down towards Sodom and Abraham went with them and set them on their way. The Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do? seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. For I've chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him. Then the Lord said, because the outcry against Sodom and Gamora is great, and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come. And if not, I will know. So the men turned from there and went towards Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. Then Abraham drew near and said, will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are 50 righteous within the city, will you then sweep away the place and not spirit for the 50 righteous who are in it far? Be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked so that the righteous fair as the wick. Far be that from you shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just. And the Lord said, if I find at Sodom 50 righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake. Abraham answered and said, behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord I, who am, but dust and ashes, suppose five of the 50 righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for a lack of. And he said, I will not destroy it if I find 45. There again, he spoke to him and said, suppose 40 are found there. He answered, for the sake of the 40, I will not do it. Then he said, oh, let not the Lord be angry and I will speak. Suppose 30 are found there. He answered. I will not do it if I find 30 there. He said The hold I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose 20 or found there, he answered For the sake of 20, I will not destroy. Then he said, oh, let not the Lord be angry and I will speak again. But this once, suppose 10 are found there. He answered, for the sake of 10, I will not destroy it. And the Lord went his way when he had finished speaking to Abraham and Abraham returned to his place. Thanks so much for listening to God's Plan, your Part, if anything stuck out to you, if you have any questions. Or if you'd like to receive a Bible, you can email us at God's plan your part gmail.com. Also, if you're enjoying the podcast, please consider supporting us through the link in our description. We love that you're on this journey with us, and we hope you have a great day. See you tomorrow.