God's Faithfulness in Times of Desperation: The Story of Hagar

Show Notes

Episode 435: 
In this episode, we explored the miraculous fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham and Sarah, as Sarah gave birth to Isaac in her old age. The joy and laughter that Sarah experienced after initially doubting the possibility of having a child at her age were highlighted, emphasizing God's faithfulness in keeping His word. The episode took a poignant turn as we discussed Hagar and Ishmael's plight after being sent away by Abraham and Sarah due to Sarah's jealousy.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Bible Guys. We are excited because today's Friday, and everybody loves Fridays. Friday, Friday unless somebody's listening like on Saturday. Oh, well, you know, Tuesday, but don't. Most people listen to the podcast in real time. There's a lot of people that are catching up, are there. They found out that we've got like a good jillion episodes, and so they are going back and catching up too. Listen to another day. Well, if you like catch up, there you go. But I would say the majority of our people are waiting with baited breath for it to be released at six o'clock in the morning. Yes, and by the way, we are baited breath. We are not going to do what made Chris mad today. It's we're taking a break from that we did last week. I know, which is what makes Jeff Matt this week is that we're not here, is that we're not doing what we made Chris Man this week? Yeah. Yeah, But instead, why don't you read the instructions on the side. Yeah. So the instructions for this one are, let me pull it up here, this is how well do you know them? So in today's passage, we're talking about the birth of Isaac and Hagar and Ishmael and all these things, and so I'm going to have to also try to figure out my friendship and relationship with you. Yeah, that's it. So how much do you know about me? Chris is going to ask me three to five questions about himself, and I'm going to have to see if I can answer any of them if I really know you. So I have put together some softballs here where I think I'm gonna start off with an easy give me a yes, give me an actually, how many? How many? How many questions are we can get? I have five, okay, this first one, and these are worth two hundred and fifty thousand points apiece. No, no, no, actually they're worth one point a piece. One point okay, which is even worse. That's hardcore. I know, that's worse. It's hard to make it up. So this is sort of a two parter. The first one should be easy, what is my favorite dessert? Kind of dessert, your favorite just category of dessert? Ice cream? Yeah, the ice cream. That's that's not the full question. The full question is because I knew you knew that. What is my favorite flavor of ice cream? Yes, it's an old man flavor. It's a is it maple nut? No? Is it? It's one of those though it's you are correct, it's an old man flavor. Yes, it's not butterscotch. It's what you just said. I know, butter pecan. Yes, I knew I was getting there. Yes, so I started with the nut right, right right, and then got to the butter and then but okay, here's another one that you might know. How many hold ones? Do I have two? That's correct, Yes, I have two, old one. I remember that. Okay. Now here's a little harder one. Okay, I think I've told you the story, maybe only once or twice. What city did I get engaged to my wife at? Pittsburgh? Yes, yes, okay, I knew that one. Yeah. I think I've only ever heard that story one time. Did you struck me as funny that I'm gonna take my wife to fan Because I didn't say I took my wife to Olive Garden to get engaged, So Fancy's place. I knew so for a boy from Youngstown, the fancy place was Pittsburgh. That's right back in the in the nineties, early nineties, yes, early nineties, before the city turned around, which is like a rusty steel city. It's exactly right. But did you go to a pretty place, like a pretty park? Yes, ye, yes, of course, where the water meets and all that. Yeah, all that, yep, ye, right off the right, off the three rivers, the whole thing. Okay. So okay, now this one here is I'm not sure I've ever told you this number, but we've heard on the Bible. Guys, how many sets of stitches you've had in your lifetime? Yes? How many sets of stitches have I had? Oh? Boy? None? Two? Two? Okay, one on my chin when I fell off my bike when I was six, and then one also on my chin when a dog bit me and I had to go get some stitches up. Okay, I knew that story. Yeah, I knew that story. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, that's it. Just too I feel like I failed you, Chris. And how many how many of you had? I've had stitches twenty one times? Twenty one times? Right, so big difference between the two. But I haven't had any stitches in like ten years. This was the last one I had. Okay, all right, now this one's actually a hard one. So these are getting progressively harder. Right, So you know all of the Marvel movies, right, I'm not I'm not including I'm not including after Endgame, Okay, okay, So all the way from Captain America, so in that in that stream story, which is called Phase one, yes, phase one, Okay, So in Phase one in Captain America, all the way through Endgame, which is my absolute favorite Marvel movie. Oh my goodness, this is a tough one. It is a tough one. It wins over all the other Marvel movies, all the other Marvel movies. I'm going to say, what's the Scarlet Johansson movie? What is that? Black Widow? Black Widow? That's what I'm gonna say. Not even close, No, not even close. That's my wife's. Is that your wife's favorite? Maybe that's I remember it coming up at dinner one time. That's my wife's. And here's the reason why my wife actually appreciates the heroes that don't actually have the powers, right, she's more impressed. That's the that's the conversation I'm remembering. Yes, yes, I no power. Okay, So, but I forgot because because oppos between Batman and Superman. You love Superman because of the superpowers, that's right, and you don't like Batman because it's just a rich guy with gadgets. I should have known that, So can I can I hit reset on that one, which, by the way, let's be clear, I don't mind Batman, it's just that you're a Batman hater. Stopped. But they don't get to go backwards on this one. Yeah, they make him out to be more than he is capable of doing. He's capable of every bit of that, and no, no he's not. Okay, okay, No, then I don't know, I don't know. Pick the most outlandish, over the top movie of all of them, Endgame, Close, Infinity Wars, Infinity Wars. Okay, yeah it is. It is because I think that in our lifetime, and perhaps maybe the lifetime of every listener, regardless of how young they are, they will never ever probably see another film company accomplished what Marvel accomplished, which was to do ten years of incredible movies and then make one make one movie with all of those stars in one movie. Yes, and not only that, but to actually put ten years of movies and somehow make it one story. They tied it together with Infinity Stones. Right. Well, the reason why it was so difficult for me is I couldn't think. I don't think zach Efron's in g was just is in the Marvel universe. That's what I was trying to figure out. Sorry about that Endgame or excuse me? And between the two, between the two, Endgame was slightly the better movie, and or excuse me, in Findity words were slightly the better movie. And I would just say, I would just say it was so amazing. I just I get superhero movie is amazing. More superheroes is more amazing. All the super superheroes is most amazing. That's essentially your your philosophy on this. That's a part of it, Yes, but it's the accomplishment. It is. It is the it is the wonder of seeing the thirty characters and you you know, the depth and the awesomeess of every single one. I'm sorry I missed that one one epic epic moment. Yes, okay, are you gonna let me redeem myself? Is there another one? No? That's it. That's fine, it's it. That's all fine. But you got three out of five? Okay, what was the other one I missed? You missed? Uh? How many stitches do I have? Oh yeah, that's I knew about the dog bite. I didn't know about the bicycle thing. Yeah, okay, well there you go. I kind of just know you a little bit. I've been vaguely paying attention. Mostly, I'm only listening to figure out when you're done talking so I can tell you a more amazing story. That's nothing. Let me tell you about this one. Bridy Rian says. We just wait for the lips to stop bothing soon. You say, you mean you see the difference. Yeah, So the fact that I got any right, it's pretty amazing. That's really funny. Okay, So yesterday we paused in our system or in our process here of what we were going to cover. We were supposed to talk about this topic yesterday, but instead we went and did the Sodom and Gomora thing. And then today we're coming back and we're continuing on. In Genesis chapter twenty one, we're going to talk about the birth of Isaac and how Hagar and Ishmael leave. Yes, right, So here's what it says in verse when it says, the Lord kept his word and did for Sarah exactly what he had promised. That's one of my favorite phrases in the Bible. God keeps his word and does what he promises. Right. She became pregnant, and she gave birth to a son for Abraham and his old age. And this happened at just the time God said it would, and Abraham named their son Isaac. Eight days after Isaac was born, Abraham circumcised him as God had commanded. Abraham was one hundred years old when Isaac was born, and Sarah declared, God has brought me laughter. All who hear about this will laugh with me. Who would have said that Abraham to Abraham that Sarah would nurse a baby. Yet I have given Abraham a son in his old age. And then in verse eight, it says when Isaac grew up and was about to be weaned, Abraham prepared a huge feast to celebrate the occasion. But Sarah saw Ishmael, the son of Abraham, and her Egyptian servant Hagar, making fun of her son Isaac. So she turned to Abraham and demanded get rid of that slave woman, and her son. He is not going to share the inheritance with my son Isaac. I won't have it. This upset Abraham very much because Ishmael was his son. But God told Abraham, do not be upset over the boy and your servant. Do whatever Sarah tells you, for Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted. But I will also make you a nation of descendants of Hagar's son, because he is your son too. So Abraham got up early the next morning, prepared food and the container of water, and strapped them on Hagar's shoulders. And then he sent her away with their son, and she wandered aimlessly in the wilderness of Yoursheba. When the water was gone, she put the boy in the shade of a bush, and then she went and sat down by herself, about one hundred yards away. I don't want to watch the boy die, she said. She burst into tears. But God heard the boy crying, and the Angel of God called the Hagar from heaven, Hagar, what's wrong. Do not be afraid. God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Go to him and comfort him, for I will make a great nation from his descendants. Then God opened Hagar's eyes and she saw a well full of water. She quickly filled her water container and gave the boy a drink, And God was with the boy. As he grew up in the wilderness. He became a skillful archer, and he settled in the wilderness of Paran. His mother arranged for him to marry a woman from the land of Egypt, a man alive that one sinful time costs so much pain all these years later, and you know, there's just there's so much in there, the idea of I can't even imagine. I can't even fathom it. She's wandering the it says, it's so plainly, and you've been in the wilderness of be she but too, it's just so brutally difficult. It's like it's like there's only like four sentences that summarize this unbelievable thing, and we could just we can just breeze over it. Yeah, but do you can you put yourself on a spot where you have to be you have to be so convinced that you're gonna die. And by the way, if you're gonna so convince you're gonna die, how dehydrated are you oh, if you set the boy down and then walk an entire football field away and say, I just don't want to see him or hear him. I know he's going to die. I just can't bear myself to be there when he does. That means that you are on the brink of death. And so she's wandering in the wilderness, runs out of water, and then I'm telling you it is just it's this thing where my brain, I just got to be very honest and transparent. My brain goes toward, why God would you allow that to happen? When God, you're the one that said to Abraham, hey, don't be afraid, listen to whatever Sarah tells you to do. And so then what they did is loaded They loaded them up with food and water. They send them off, and so you know, Hagarth is thinking to herself like, okay, you know God, God said this is okay. God also said that I'm going to be, you know, the mother of a great nation and great descendants through my son. And the next thing, you know, she's absolutely convinced that she's going to die. And I'm thinking to myself like, why why would that even be necessary? Right, And to be honest, with you. Sometimes it makes me angry, makes me angry that she has to even go through that, like, why would that even be necessary? Right? And there's a part of me that thinks that God, somehow, you know, he allowed certain things to happen. We know this for a fact. He allows certain things to happen because it's a foreshadowing of Jesus coming. He allows things to happen, you know, the story of Joseph, the story of Melkezedek. You know, even job in some ways was to serve as an example for all of us, right, And I think that sometimes the Old Testament stories play out the story of Jonah and the whale, right, you know, and so Jesus uses it as an example for his purposes of his death, barrel and resurrection. So these stories happen, these hardships happen. But there's a part of me that thinks, these poor people, you know, they're going through, you know, all of these different things, and I mean even the delivery of the Ten Commandments, right, the plagues, the passover, right, all of it pointing to Jesus. And we understand the significance of it. It's wonderful, it's great, But my heart goes my heart goes out the Haggarder and her son, man, it really does. Yeah. So one, we live in these modern times in the West, we live with such abundance and comfort that we forget how brutally difficult life has been for the thousands of years humanity has been, you know, on the Earth for one and currently for some people around here. So this happens to be a story. All of that is. You know, a couple weeks ago we talked about the curse on the planet. Right. It wasn't supposed to be hard. It was supposed to be enjoyable, right, right, And it was hard because life is really really hard because of sin. Sin caused it. In this situation, she's banished because of Abraham's sin with her and the jealousy now that that has created in Abraham's marriage, and the fact that they were mocking the promised one of God, Isaac who ultimately represents eventually Jesus, right, that's what he represents. And so is that mocking I think is a bigger deal than the one sentence covers in there. For one, the other part of it is there, you know, I find myself sometimes getting angry at God's decisions either now in my everyday life or you know, for instance, my wife, her best friend several years ago, died of cancer, and I remember being so mad because I didn't know a nicer person than Tracy. Honestly, she would pray for you quickly. I mean, she was just so quick to say, Hey, let's pray about that. She was in the word. She was incredibly generous, She was selfless in serving others, Such a kind person. Never if you wanted to say something bad about somebody, she would always find a way to make something. I think she would say nice things about the devil, right if you want to, she oh, I don't think he really meant it. Right. She was just that person. And I was when she was dying of cancer. I was so mad at God thinking, you know, uh, jel Anne was my executive assistant and she cancer, same person, such a wonderfully good person. I remember thinking, God, I got a whole bunch of people that I could suggest, if you want to take them out, take them out, not her. She's great, right, And I remember it was during that time with well, when Tracy was fighting cancer, I was mad at God that I literally you mentioned this the other day that you kind of had this moment when God said I'm not done with you. Yeah, I really had this strong impression that God literally, in this phrase, won't go away from me. Is your morality superior to mine? Right? Is my sense of goodness superior to because that's what I was questioning. I was questioning, is my morality, my sense of good superior to God's sense of good? And he has different plans than we have, and he has different priorities than we have. So the curse is water is hard to find. Life is extraordinarily difficult. It wasn't supposed to be this way. Disease happens, the blessing, the mercy is here. She is Hagar kind of has a habit of running away from problems. Right. She ran away from Abraham before, and God met her and wouldn't let her do it cent her back. This time, she runs away from her dying son. God meets her there. You know, he keeps meeting her. She's causing some of her own troubles, but God keeps meeting her there. So in both of these things, which is more extraordinary? Which would you want to live your entire life in ease and never have an encounter with God, or would you want to have two encounters with God in your lifetime? Yeah, well the God the God choice. Yeah, yeah, I mean that's that's the right Sunday School answer. But I think about that that Hagar has had two more physical personal encounters with God than I have. M Yeah, right, yeah, it's it's it's it's such a desperate moment, you know, and then all of a sudden, it says God opened her eyes and she saw well. I also tried to interpret how what does that mean? Does that mean that she perhaps didn't see a well and it was there the whole time, or did God perhaps do the you know, supernatural realm. Well, you know, I think I think it was supernatural. She bay that region has a lot of wells. That's probably why Abraham settled there and Isaac stayed there in that area. There's a lot of wells there. But I I don't think it. It doesn't say she missed a well, right right, It was that God let her suddenly. I think it was a miracle. God met her when she was running from her problems, not able to face the difficulties. God shows up in the middle of that brokenness and says, here, let me, let me take care of you. Yeah, only that he promises to bless her son. And here the whole world still, you know, the Ishmaelites still have impact on the planet. So we spent all of our time reacting to Hagar and Ishmael. But let's not overlook the fact that Isaac is finally born. Well that's the whole point of his passage, right right, So we're broken harder for Hagar here, but yeah, the whole point of the passage is God followed through on his promises. Yeah, and you said at the beginning, you said, one of your favorite phrases of the Bible. The Lord kept his word and did it for Sarah exactly what he had promised. Yeah, So it is a great Yeah, it's a great observation right there. That's a strong sentence, and it's it's so weird. So so Ishmael is thirteen years old. This is thirteen years after Ishmael was born, and so you have this young teenage boy and then now you have this brand new baby, and Abraham's one hundred years old, Sarah is ninety years old. And so Sarah just thinks it's funny. So she laughs in derision. You know a couple of times when the Bible says, hey, you know, when the angel said, hey, you're going to have a baby, she said right, and they'd say, hey, why is it Sarah? Oh? I didn't laugh, right, but she was. She was laughing. She thought it was silly. It was. It was an absurd an absurdity that was almost incomprehensible. And one year later now she's laughing, going, I just can't believe God did this. Right, the joy going from being dismissive and derisive to just pure joy and not onely that but like any woman who would hear that she had a baby at ninety would laugh, right, they'd be like that is crazy, but laugh with a joyful kind of boy, right, like that's so sweet and I can't believe it? But wow, who would have ever known? Yeah? You know, and we always think that too, you know, whenever circumstances play out, you know, we can't see the future, but we get there and we say, who would have ever thought? You know, we have we have those kind of comments, you know, and and you know what all of life is that way? But the but the answer to that question is God would have God would have thought? God would have God, you know, would have predicted it because God knows. And so there's all these moments in our lives where we look back and we see God's faithfulness, And wouldn't it be great to just know what God knows? And and and if you know what God knows, that everything's going to work out and God's going to be faithful, you know what, that's really called trusting his promises. That's right, that's what that is. So if we have the ability to look into the future and know what God knows and everything's going to work out, it is literally the same as if just assuming that God is going to work it out and that we're going to trust his promises. That's really good. So my dad, so my mom and my dad had two more sons, some Mark and I are five years apart. And then when I was nineteen and again when I was twenty, my two youngest brothers were born. I was in college. Wow. Right, And so at my church, my pastor called my dad Abraham all the time. He was like fifty two or something when the boys were born, Wow, and he called him Abraham all the time. They tease him, but that's half of Abraham's age, right, it's so bizarre. And that's why God waited to that moment, is there's just no human way that this could have been manufactured, right, It was only God's way. And by the way, your dad's age when he had those kids is our age now, yeah right when. By the way, the thought of Liz having a child and myself having a child together, yeah, makes me want to take a nap right now. Yeah? Yeah, My dad was very very young and virile when he was our age, so my mom is substantially younger than my dad. My mom was like fifteen years younger than my dad, So okay, at least makes sense for her, right right. So well, hey, it looks like that is our time. So so God keeps his promises. And even when you're trying to run away from your promise or from your problems, Good will meet you there. Yes, so we will see you next time on the Bible, guys,