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Forget it, God. I’ll do it myself! That’s my summary of Genesis 16. It’s a vivid picture from Abram and his wife Sarai of a lack of trust in the promises of God.

Recap: God has made some incredible promises to Abram. He would have so many kids he wouldn’t be able to count them. They would have land and live life to the max with God as their ruler. And the main point of the previous chapter and that strange ritual of walking through the animals that have been chopping in half is that God will do it all. He will keep his promises. All Abram needed to do was trust him. And he did. But between then and now 10 years have passed. Abram and Sarah are well past the age when they qualify for a free bus pass – or was it a camel pass? And yet, Sarai has had no child. And the question they wrestled with was: is God going to be faithful to his promise or not?

Well, after 10 years of waiting for God to prove faithful to what he has promised he will do they lose patience, and decide to take things into their own hands. Forget it, God. I’ll do it myself! That’s Genesis 16.1-6. And they are not an easy read. This is a horrific account. A total fail on an epic scale. Not only do they fail to trust God to keep his promise. We also see them do what they knew to be wrong. It's a warning to us. Past faithfulness is no guarantee that we will not make a serious mistake. Or to put it in New Testament terms (1 Corinthians 10.12):

Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

Hagar was an Egyptian slave woman. Made in the image of God, yet she was treated as their property. Together, Abram and Sarai hatch a plan for Abram to get Hagar pregnant, so they could have a child. Did she consent? She was likely in her late teens. Abraham was old enough to be her grandfather. And as the text reminds us several times she wasn’t his wife – Sarai was. He should have as Genesis 2.24 put it held fast to his wife. Which means being faithful to her. It was not right for him to have sex with Hagar. But he did. And she fell pregnant. And she faced the horrible reality that after carrying her child for nine months, they would now belong to her master and his wife. And then we read that (surprise, surprise) after she got pregnant the two women don’t get on. Hagar is insensitive and once she gets pregnant looks down on the older woman. Sarai is deeply hurt, perhaps feeling threatened, jealous, struggling with how easily Hagar fell pregnant after years of her own struggle in this area. She takes it out on Abram. So much easier to blame others than take responsibility for our own actions. And cowardly Abram doesn’t step up as head of the household to address the issues. He avoids the problem and leaves it to his wife to deal with alone. And Hagar (the pregnant woman who has been through so much already) is treated so badly by Sarai that she would rather escape into the fierce heat of the desert. Let’s look at Genesis 16.1-6:

Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!” But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.

Maybe we should try see things from their point of view. They had patiently trusted God for ten years already. No wonder they tried to do something! And who could blame them for giving up waiting – after all Abram was 85 and Sarah 75. Who could expect them to have a child now? And strictly speaking didn’t God promise a son to Abram – was Sarai even mentioned in the promise? Maybe this was the logical solution to what seemed like and impossible problem – Abram would be the dad, but someone else the mum? And besides while treating Hagar like this is so obviously brutal, cruel and unwise was it not normal and acceptable in that culture, at that time. Did they even know that this was wrong?

The writer of Genesis however does not leave us to guess what’s going on. It is clear that Abram and Sarai are taking matters into their own hands. And let’s be clear – the problem is not that they’re taking initiative here. Trusting God doesn’t mean being passive and sitting back and doing nothing. The issue is not that they acted. It is that their actions went outside of what God told them to do. And their motives for doing so were because they didn’t trust God to keep his promise. What we have is a description on what happened. But it is most certainly not being recommended! It is called out as very wrong, as sin. And that is clear because as you read these verses there is a very deliberate parallel being drawn with the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3 and that is the very definition of sin.

Eve bought into the lie of Satan that God was keeping good things from her. Sarai says (Genesis 16.2) Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. She too was motivated by believing a lie about God – that he is not on her side. In Genesis 3, we hear how Adam listened to the voice of eve when she encouraged him to eat the forbidden fruit. He did not challenge what he knew to be wrong. And in Genesis 16.2 is the same phrase – Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. When she told him to sleep with someone who wasn’t his wife. Genesis 16.3 says Sarai…took Hagar…and she gave her to Abraham her husband. Just like Eve took some of the fruit and some to her husband Adam. Again it’s the same phrase being used. Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent. And so too Abram and Sarai shift the blame to one another. And finally, Adam failed to take responsibility and so too Abram washes his hands of the mess leaving Sarai to deal with Hagar.

They did not trust God. They took matters into their own hands and did what they knew was wrong. And this chapter is a warning to not do what they did. To not say: Forget it God. I’ll do it myself. But it also gets to the heart of the Christian message. If you expect to see in the Bible stories of spiritual heroes who live good and moral lives and are then rewarded with heaven, then you will probably find this very shocking. The truth is that even the heroes of faith are revealed as those who could not rise above the brutality of their own cultures or deep self-centeredness of their own hearts. What we are meant to see here is a God who graciously intervenes in the lives of those who don’t see his grace, don’t deserve it, who continually resist it and who don’t appreciate it after they have been saved by it. It is only by God’s grace, and by them in the end clinging to the promises of God, that they receive God’s blessing.

So, what about you and me? When do we say “Forget it, God. I’ll do it myself!” We know that the promise that God made to Abraham can be summed up as God’s people, in God’s place, under his rule and knowing his blessing. And ultimately all those promises were fulfilled through Jesus (Galatians 4.4-5):

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

And we now know that the only way to be part of God’s people is to be adopted as his children. Then we will be with him forever. And the only way to do that is by trusting that Jesus through his death in our place on the cross bring forgiveness and redeems us. That is what we remember tonight in this communion service. And Galatians 4, which was read earlier in the service quotes this and goes on to make clear that there are two basic ways to approach God. The religious way aka 'Forget it, God. I’ll do it myself' where I say God "Here are all the reasons why I’m good enough to deserve your blessing and acceptance. If I need saving then I’ll save myself". That is to follow Abram and Sarai’s example of taking matters into our own hands. But God will do what he has promised to do and will do it his way and in his time. To try and do it myself always ends in disaster.

Then there is the gospel way, where I trust God to do what I cannot do for myself. Where I believe him when he says he will forgive my sins when I trust in Jesus. And when I keep believing in him to keep doing that when I turn back to him after I go back to trying to save myself. Which is a daily challenge. But I think this also say something about patiently waiting and trusting God. Sometimes things don’t happen on our timeline, the way we plan, the way we think is best. We fail to trust in God and His timeline and His ways, which are always wisest, which are always best. It is far better to wait for God to do what he has promised than to try to work out your own solution.

The second half of the passage is an incredible reminder of who God is, made all the more wonderful by the darkness of the brokenness and sinfulness of the first half of the chapter. God is good. God is faithful. God is loving. God is all-wise. And grasping these truths about God is precisely what will help us to keep trusting him.

Hagar ran away from it all. Now as far as we know she isn’t a believer. She was introduced in Genesis 16.1 as an Egyptian and so is 200 miles from home. So bruised, pregnant, vulnerable she is all alone in the barren, harsh, bleak Judean desert. And as a runaway slave she faces the possibility death if caught. Can you imagine her despair and hopelessness? Maybe you are going through something that make you feel like that too. But she wasn’t alone (Genesis 16.7):

The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur.

Who is the Angel of the Lord? We can’t be sure but it is God himself in some sort of visible form. God sought her out and he finds her on the road back to Egypt. He has always been the good shepherd who came to seek and save the lost. Which means anyone and everyone whatever their station in life (Psalm 145.9):

The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

And he said (Genesis 16.8):

Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.”

God of course knows who she is. And he calls her by her name. What a kindness! He knows the answers to the questions he asks her – but he invites her to face up to her troubles and bring them to him. The answer to the first question sums up her troubles – she is fleeing her mistress, Sarai. But she has no answer at all for the second question because she has no hope for the future. None at all (Genesis 16.9):

The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.”

That’s a bit of a shock. Go back! There! Where I was abused! God isn’t condoning slavery here or giving a principle that those who are abused are not to flee from their abuser. In this situation, God sends her back now for her own good. Later in the story, she and her child are sent way by Abram. Hagar may not have been able to see it yet, but right now, God is preserving her life from the dangers facing a runaway slave and from the desert. She may have been by a spring of water now but here in the desert she faced near certain death and so did her child. Returning was a rescue.

So often when life falls apart we just want God to fix everything but sometimes what we need is not for our problems to disappear but to know that he is with us in them. So God assures her that he is with her. And he gives her hope for the future. In order that she would trust him (Genesis 16.10):

The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.”

This is a promise of blessing and protection. It sounds quite similar to the one already given to Abram and Sarai. He will make her into a great nation. But it isn’t the same. There is no mention of being a blessing to the world, or of a land. But she is given hope that her baby will survive and God will look after her. (Genesis 16.11-12):

And the angel of the Lord said to her, “Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to 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 kinsmen.”

Hagar was to have a son! She would call him Ishmael and from him would come the Arab people. It’s sobering to see that the consequences of Abram’s bad choice will be very, very long lasting. Even today the two peoples who came from the two sons of Abraham (Ishmael and Isaac) the Arabs and the Jews are at war. And so here is another warning. Forgiveness is available through Jesus but it does not wipe out the consequences of our sinful decisions. The meaning of Ishmael is significant – The Lord has listened to your affliction. The blessing of God is not because Hagar prayed to God. We are not told that she was seeking the God of Abram and Sarai – and would you expect that given how they had treated her! God comes to Hagar simply because he was moved by her oppression and misery. God is so sensitive to injustice and human suffering that he hears it. He is the God who notices, who sees. This must have blown Hagar away. Here is a God who notices even the nobodies, the foreign, female, slave. He sees her suffering and injustice and does something about it. What a contrast from the pagan gods she would have been told about in Egypt, who are remote and who require elaborate prayers, rituals and sacrifices before they do anything. God loves and wishes to bless all people. But they greatest blessing will only come through the worship of the only true God and Jesus Christ who he sent for everyone, including the Arab people. Genesis 16.13:

So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing”, for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.”

This is the key verse. This chapter is not about Abram or Sarai or Hagar or Ishmael. It’s about the Lord God. The one who sees. Nothing escapes him. Unlike her Egyptian idols with their carved eyes which cannot see a thing. And he is good and faithful and loving and all-wise. And remembering that is what will help us not to say “Forget it, God. I’ll do it myself!” This is why we can trust him. Hagar did trust him. She went back, and so this chapter ends. God cares and forgives, but he doesn’t necessarily remove the consequences of our sin. But he is with us, giving us grace to trust and obey him. (Genesis 16.15-16):

And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.

Final Prayer:

Father God, you are the God of seeing. And now through your son Jesus we have truly seen the one who looks after us. We are sorry when we believe the lie that you are not good or faithful or loving or wise. We are sorry when we try and take things into our own hands and are tempted to go outside of what you have told us to do.Please give us patient trust in you. Thank you that you have shown time and time again that you are trustworthy. We see that most clearly by you sending your Son to die on a cross for our sins to save us for yourself forever. Give us faith trust you to lead us to eternal life with you, and with every circumstance we face in this world.Help us to walk in step with your spirit as we wait for your timing, for your provision, according to your good and perfect will. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.