SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON 10 November 14, 2004

The Covenant
Theme: A Journey with Abraham
Theme Verse: "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Hebrews 11:8, NIV
Readings: Genesis 16
Memory Verse: Proverbs 3: 5-6 "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."

      "Then she called on the name of the LORD who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said," Have I also seen Him who sees me?" Genesis 16:13
There was a general Israelite terror of having seen the LORD, that no one could survive such an encounter with God. But Hagar does. Her words at once express relief that she has survived, and joy that God has indeed seen her.
Today's lesson is about seeing well, seeing the LORD. In the first chapter of Jeremiah, the word of the LORD comes to the young Jeremiah. In verse 11, the LORD asks Jeremiah, "What do you see?" Jeremiah simply states what he sees. The LORD replies, "You have seen correctly (well), for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled." How well do we see? How alert to the LORD's presence?

WORD RECEIVED: How often do you go ahead of Me with your own plan? Instead, I want you to wait. When you wait on Me I can show you the way. My way is always the best.

      How often DO we go ahead of the LORD with our own plan? And what does it get us in the end? How long had Abram and Sarai waited for a child since the LORD first made the promise to Abram? They could wait no longer. They fell back, away from God's plan, to the custom of the day. How hard it can be to see beyond the customs of our day!

      (NOTE: a portion of an ancient Assyrian text that includes a marriage contract- "If Subety does not conceive and does not give birth, she may take a maidservant as a substitute, in position she may place her. She will thereby bring sons into being and the sons will be her sons. If she loves the maidservant, she may help her. If she hates her, she may sell her.)

      Look at Genesis 16:2. Sarai KNEW the LORD's promise. She understands that she is not truly barren- it is only God, as she sees it, restraining her from conceiving. Her bitterness and impatience would bear a bitter fruit. Abram and Sarai would disobey God. They would sin against the LORD. They would agree to set Hagar as a wife, as an equal with Sarai. With disobedience and sin comes enmity. Look at the way their disobedience corrupted relationships.
      1. Hagar, when she saw that she had conceived, noticed that Sarai, to apply the Hebrew idiom literally, "seemed slight in her eyes." (We will look later at how God corrected her vision!)
      2. Sarai blames Abram
      3. Abram allows Sarai to react as she wishes toward Hagar
      4. Sarai abuses Hagar (The word in the Hebrew applied for abuse here is the same word used to describe the abuse of the Hebrews at the hands of the Egyptians.) Sarai oppressed Hagar.
      5. Hagar flees

      Can you think of times of disobedience, and the disruption it caused not only in your life but in the lives of others? Sin is never a solitary process. How often is our disobedience tied to impatience? Read Galatians 5: 22-25. Patience is part of the fruit of God's presence in us by his Holy Spirit. Paul exhorts us to "keep in step with God's Spirit." How often do we "take over" for God, try by our own efforts to set the reward only God can give? Sin is choosing something or someone other than God to supply our needs. Abram and Sarai took the matter into their own hands. Adam and Eve did this as well. They chose for something other than God. Paul is very clear in Romans 14: 23b, when he declares that "everything that does not come from faith is sin."

      Sometimes a sinful plan appears to be a good plan. How are we able to distinguish a sound yet worldly plan from God's plan? See Genesis 3:6. What is wrong with Adam and Eve's plan? See Genesis 16 again. What is wrong with Abram and Sarai's plan? (Notice that the men are just as involved and guilty as the women!)

PRAYER: LORD, help me to see through the devil's lies. I want to follow your plan."

Psalm 27:14 reads-
      "Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.

WORD RECEIVED: See that Hagar called on my name. I hear all who call on my name, all who cry out to me.

Earlier we noted how well, or poorly, Hagar was seeing, and the consequences of that. Abram and Sarai were not the only ones with poor sight! But God had not abandoned her. Read Psalm 145: 13b-18. "The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth." God sought out Hagar. He searched for her, rather than happening upon her. This same quality is evident in Jesus encountering the Samaritan woman at the well. And how well did Jesus see! (John 4) Here was a single Jewish man who sought out this divorced Samaritan woman- to proclaim the Father's love to her! In today's lesson, God is attentive to Hagar's humiliation and misery. Hagar acknowledges this by naming God "el roi", the "God of seeing". (No other Old Testament character, male or female, confers a name on God.) Compare this with the declaration by the Samaritan woman to her people in John 4- "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did!" And she seemed overwhelmingly joyous about it! Jesus had seen well. He had truly seen her. God had seen Hagar, and it transformed her. (The well of this encounter must also have been named by Hagar, for it means "the well of the Living One who sees me.") Read 1 Peter 5:6. Hagar was humbled by this encounter. Have you had such an encounter with God? Isn't it refreshing? How do we otherwise feel when we know that someone truly understands us? Isn't it amazing that God can know all our faults and still loves us? His love endures forever. God seeks us out. Even now he is seeking you. Read John 10:15 and Matthew 12: 11-12.

      How did the LORD handle Hagar? He provides a sobering description of her child and that child's place in the world and in God's promise. Most of all, he helps her to see the situation well. Hagar must have been transformed to be able to return to the place of her oppression, and without pride. She must have repented. God comforts her, and reassures her. And she obeys!