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DWDP-Gen 16:1-19 The God Who Sees · More Than Medicine

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to More Than Medic, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: Hosted by author and physician, Dr.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: Robert Jackson.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_02: Papa, can you tell me a story?
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_02: Do you really want me to tell you a story?
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you go get your brother and your sisters, and I will tell you a story.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Devotions with Dr.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_02: Papa.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_02: Gather around, grab your Bibles, and let's look into the written word which reveals to us the living word, who is our Lord Jesus Christ.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: We're now at Genesis chapter 16, and what I'm going to do is I'm going to read a few verses at a time and we'll comment on those verses, but before we're done, we're going to go through all eighteen, nineteen verses of chapter sixteen.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: Trust me, as a family physician, one of the most difficult and heart wrenching conversations that I have are with young female patients who deal with infertility.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: On the other hand, the most deliriously exciting conversations are when I get to tell those same patients that their pregnancy tests are positive.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: For those female patients, their two happiest days are first when they receive a pregnancy test that is positive and second the day they deliver that little precious baby.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: Sarai was seventy five years old and still infertile.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: From the time she had married Abram and from the time that she had understood God's promise to Abram that he was going to be the father of a great nation.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_02: Every single month she had realized that she was not pregnant.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: She met weekly with her group of female friends to eat dinosaur sausage and biscuits to study their genealogy.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_02: Three hundred years back to Noah's flood, they didn't have the advantage of ancestry dot com, but they still had the Toledo of Grandpa Shem, and they were all curious about who they were connected to in their ancestry.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: But one Wednesday morning when they were eating their dinosaur sausage biscuits and drinking coffee, one of the ladies, sympathetic to Sarai's plight, whispered to her You know God helps those who help themselves.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: If you know what I mean.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_02: Then she nodded toward Sarai's servant girl Hagar with a knowing smile.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: We have to do our part before God does his part.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Sarai thought about it for a week.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: Then she brought it up to Abram, and she started off by saying The Lord has prevented me from having children.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: She was wise enough and wiser than Rachel two generations later, and she well if you remember, Rachel blamed Jacob for not giving her children which caused an explosion in their household.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: Sara knew better than to do that, and she intuitively knew that it was God who opened and closed the womb.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: And then she said Don't you know that God helps those that helps themselves?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: We have to do our part before God does his part.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: Here's my servant girl Hagar.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: Go into her.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_02: Perhaps I can bear a child through her.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: We have to understand chattel slavery.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: Hagar belonged to Abram and Sarai as did any children that she might bear.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: They could trade or sell Hagar and her children at any time.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: The owner could have sexual relations with his slaves if he so desired, and any offspring would be his if he wanted them or he could trade or sell them.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: That was the law.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_02: Sarai intended to claim Abram and Hagar's offspring as her own.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: It was perfectly legal.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: This was the first recorded instance of surrogacy, and as we shall see, it went badly, as it did for Jacob two generations later, and for David a thousand years later, and anyone else who tries to conceive apart from God's plan.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, there are no instances of polygamy in the Holy Scripture where things went well.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_02: At the first Abram thought this is not what God promised me.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_02: But then like Adam, he listened to his wife.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: He examined the forbidden fruit, a fetching, probably twenty five to thirty year old Egyptian slave girl named Hagar, and he said Yes, dear, like obedient husbands do.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_02: And then in verse two it says that Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_02: Let me read verse two to you.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: We haven't even got there.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_02: So Sarai said to Abram, Now behold, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: Please go into my maid, perhaps I will obtain children through her.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_02: Well, let me read verse three and four to you.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_02: After Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Abram's wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_02: He went into Hagar and she conceived, and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her sight.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: So Hagar conceived.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_02: She realized that the problem lie or lay with Sarai and not Abram.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: So Sarai is despised by Hagar, and so she looks upon her mistress with haughty eyes.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_02: And then in verse five we see Sarai's response.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: And Sarai said to Abram, May the wrong done to me be upon you.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_02: I gave my maid into your arms, but when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her sight.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_02: May the Lord judge between you and me.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: Sarai blamed Abram for the fallout of the plan that she had conceived.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: We see here the first planned surrogacy going badly, even before the baby is born.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: The emotional conflicts caused by surrogacy can be like a summer storm in just the last few weeks.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: We have read about the couple in California that decided to abort their baby carried by a surrogate mom because the baby had a heart defect.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: The surrogate mom discovered the heart defect could be treated with a minor cardiac surgery.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_02: She was already emotionally attached to the baby, so she fled to Texas, where the rather than submit to an abortion, the Attorney General of Texas took her side and gave her legal protection.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: So here are the questions.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_02: Who will the baby belong to now?
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_02: The surrogate mom or the California parents who didn't want the baby?
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: If the California parents get the baby, how will they explain to the child one day when he or she finds out that his parents didn't want him just because of a heart defect that was easily repaira?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: Do you see the issues that surrogacy causes?
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  SPEAKER_02: And we see that all the way back in Genesis chapter 16.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: Well, look at verse six.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_02: But Abram said to Sarai, Behold, your maid is in your power.
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  SPEAKER_02: Do to her what is good in your sight.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_02: So Sarai treated her harshly, and she fled from her prayer presence.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: Hagar fled.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_02: Abram wisely left it to Sarai to solve the problem, saying to himself, I'm not getting involved in this cat fight.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: And so Hagar fled from the presence of her mistress.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: And then in verse seven, now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness by the spring on the way to Shore.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_02: Now this is interesting because this is the first occurrence of the phrase the angel of the Lord that occurs in Scripture.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: And the context indicates that this is indeed God Himself.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, if you look over further in verse thirteen, Hagar said the scripture says that she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_02: You are a God who sees.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_02: For she said, Have I even remained alive here after seeing him?
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: So we realize that this is in fact God himself.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_02: And the fact that God appears to Hagar indicates that in this entire sticky domestic scenario, Hagar is the least blameworthy, the most innocent slave girl in the entire domestic soap opera.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_02: God dealt with her kindly and called her by name.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_02: He encouraged her to go back to her mistress.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_02: This wasn't part of God's original plan, but now he would make a gracious promise to her and Abram's descendant.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_02: God promised her a son, and even gave her his name Ishmael, and promised him abundant progeny.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: Ishmael, which means God hears, would be a constant reminder to her that the god of Abram, not her old gods back in Egypt, had heard her prayer and met her needs in the desert place.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_02: Subsequently she named the well, the place where God met her the well of the living one who sees me.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: Do you get that name?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_02: The well of the living one who sees me.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: Bair Lahoy.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_02: Bair La Hai Roy.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_02: And she called God Elroy, the God who sees.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: Now trust me, brothers and sisters, God always sees.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_02: Not only did He see Hagar, but he sees you and me.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: The prophet Jeremiah tells us that the eyes of the Lord roam to and fro throughout the earth.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: Why?
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_02: Because he wants to be strong on your and my behalf.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: God's always watching you and me, so that he may be strong on behalf of those whose heart is fully devoted to him.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_02: Is your heart fully devoted to the Lord?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: You see, when your and my heart is fully devoted to the Lord, he's always watching.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: He always sees, and he shows himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is fully devoted to him.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: And then skip down to verse twelve.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: And God describes this guy, Ishmael, this boy Ishmael, that she will bear.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_02: And it said he will be a wild donkey of a man.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_02: His hand will be against everyone, and everyone's hand will be against him, and he will live to the east of all his brothers.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: This is Ishmael, who is the forebearer of all the Arab people groups, all the Arab nations.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_02: God predicted the lifestyle.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: He will be a wild donkey of a man, and the future of Ishmael and his descendants, the Arab people groups.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_02: Indeed, the Arab people have been in continual conflict with the children of Israel, even to this day.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: Just look at the Middle East today.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_02: Listen, Bible prophecy has always come true.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: Even this prophecy, all the way back in Genesis chapter 16, God predicted the issues that are taking place in the Middle East, that have taken place for centuries, that are even taking place today.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_02: All the way back in Genesis 16, God told us what would happen, and he predicted that the descendants of Ishmael would be in continual conflict with the children of Israel.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_02: Now look at verses fifteen and sixteen.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You are a God who sees.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: For she said, Have I even remained alive here after seeing him?
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: Therefore the well was called Baer Lah Roy, because it is between Kadesh and Bed.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore Ishmael.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_02: Abram was eighty six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: Abram, Sarai, and Hagar figured out a way to live together harmoniously, which was the right thing to do.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: When the child was born, Abram named him Ishmael, the name that God had given to Hagar.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: Abram was then eighty six years old, and still Sarai was barren.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: But just wait for it.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_02: Just wait for it.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: It is through faith and patience that we inherit the promises.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_02: That's what Hebrews chapter six and verse twelve tells us.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_02: God had promised to Abram that he would be the father of a multitude.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_02: Do you think he really believed that?
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_02: Do you think that Sarai believed that?
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: Listen, brothers and sisters, there are a lot of promises that God has made to you and me, and they are yet in the future.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_02: Hebrews 6 12 says, It is through faith and patience that we inherit the promises.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_02: Count on it.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: Wait on it.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_02: Stake your life and your future on it.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: You're listening to Devotions with Dr.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_02: Papa.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_02: If you like what you hear, follow, like, share, tell your friends and family about it.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_02: We'll be back again next week.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_02: Until then, I pray that the Lord will bless you real good.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: And remember, Jesus loves you and your doctor loves you.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, Instagram, or web page at Jackson Family Ministry dot com.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Also, don't forget to check out Dr.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Jackson.