Genesis 16 The Gospel Inclusion

The Text

Genesis 16 (CSB)
¹ Abram’s wife, Sarai, had not borne any children for him, but she owned an Egyptian slave named Hagar.

² Sarai said to Abram, “Since the LORD has prevented me from bearing children, go to my slave; perhaps through her I can build a family.” And Abram agreed to what Sarai said.

³ So Abram’s wife, Sarai, took Hagar, her Egyptian slave, and gave her to her husband, Abram, as a wife for him. This happened after Abram had lived in the land of Canaan ten years.

⁴ He slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When she saw that she was pregnant, her mistress became contemptible to her.

⁵ Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for my suffering! I put my slave in your arms, and when she saw that she was pregnant, I became contemptible to her. May the LORD judge between me and you.”

⁶ Abram replied to Sarai, “Here, your slave is in your power; do whatever you want with her.” Then Sarai mistreated her so much that she ran away from her.

⁷ The angel of the LORD found her by a spring in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur.

⁸ He said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She replied, “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai.”

⁹ The angel of the LORD said to her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her authority.”

¹⁰ The angel of the LORD said to her, “I will greatly multiply your offspring, and they will be too many to count.”

¹¹ The angel of the LORD said to her, “You have conceived and will have a son. You will name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard your cry of affliction.

¹² This man will be like a wild donkey. His hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand will be against him; he will settle near all his relatives.”

¹³ So she named the LORD who spoke to her: “You are El-roi,” for she said, “In this place, have I actually seen the one who sees me?”

¹⁴ That is why the well is called Beer-lahai-roi. It is between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵ So Hagar gave birth to Abram’s son, and Abram named his son (whom Hagar bore) Ishmael.

¹⁶ Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.

Our God

Both Hagar and Sarah represent the two covenants - covenant of works and covenant of grace

Galatians 4:21-23 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, don’t you hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and the other by a free woman. But the one by the slave was born as a result of the flesh, while the one by the free woman was born through promise.

While Hagar and Sarah represent two covenants, that is a figurative not a literal representation

Galatians 4:24 These things are being taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai and bears children into slavery — this is Hagar.

To take this Genesis 16 as literal representations of the two covenants is how you end up with Dispensationalism

Galatians 4:31 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of a slave but of the free woman.

• Do not be like Dispensationalists who take this literally -- to the logical end of their theology, the children of the free woman, that is the Jew, are auto-saved not because of anything that Christ has done but completely on the Jewish-ness of their natural descent.
• But what has God has said about this?

John 1:12-13 But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.

• How are the Jewish people saved?

John 3:1-3 There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to him at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.”

• Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

The Gospel

In other words, you must be born again

The story goes that a friend once asked the great evangelist, George Whitefield (1714-1770), why he preached so often on “Ye must be born again.” Whitefield answered, “Because you must be born again.”

• There is no other name by which we are saved other than the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12)

Furthermore, since we are to read Genesis 16 as figurative, the free offer of the gospel is extended to both the descendants of Ishmael and of Isaac

• We have all fallen short of the glory of God -- both Jews and Gentiles alike
• While the Jews have the law and the Gentiles have the law written upon our hearts. we have all failed to obey the law of God

Romans 8:8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Romans 8:9-11 You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his Spirit who lives in you.

Our Response

The free offer gospel is available to all creatures

Matthew 11:15 Let anyone who has ears listen.

Mark 16:15 Then he said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

Romans 10:17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.

We are born as wild donkeys

12 This man will be like a wild donkey. His hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand will be against him; he will settle near all his relatives.”

Titus 3:3 For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, detesting one another.

Ephesians 2:1-3 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.

Psalms 73:21-22 When I became embittered
and my innermost being was wounded,
I was stupid and didn’t understand;
I was an unthinking animal, a beast, toward you.

Yet it is God who sees us not as righteous and good but as wicked and sinners and he saves us

13 So she named the Lord who spoke to her: “You are El-roi,” for she said, “In this place, have I actually seen the one who sees me?”

Psalms 73:23-26 Yet I am always with you;
you hold my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me up in glory.
Who do I have in heaven but you?
And I desire nothing on earth but you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart,
my portion forever.

Ephesians 2:4-10 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift — not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

Titus 3:4-8 But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us —not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy — through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. He poured out his Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior so that, having been justified by his grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life. This saying is trustworthy. I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed God might be careful to devote themselves to good works. These are good and profitable for everyone.

The offer is free because Christ has done it all

The gospel goes out to because anybody who looks upon the Risen Christ will be saved

John 3:9-15 “How can these things be? ” asked Nicodemus. “Are you a teacher of Israel and don’t know these things? ” Jesus replied. “Truly I tell you, we speak what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven — the Son of Man. “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

In other words, You must be born again

Amen