Bible Story of the Day: Hagar

https://hubpages.com/religion-philosophy/Bible-Story-of-the-Day-Hagar

Bible Story of the Day

Scripture is the story of Jesus, from Genesis to Revelation. There are over 400 prophecies and representations of Jesus in the Old Testament alone. The Old Testament pointed forward to the coming Christ, and the New Testament points back to Jesus. The Bible is a record of redemption through Jesus Christ who conquered sin and death when He died on the cross and resurrected three days later. The New Testament was written almost 2000 years ago. Some of the Old Testament was written over 4000 years ago. The Bible Story of the Day not only shows Jesus throughout scripture but shows how scripture is relevant to our lives today. Seeing Jesus in scripture is a major step into understanding who our God is, and how He impacts and affects our lives in every moment. I pray that the Holy Spirit opens your mind to understanding the verses and how they affect your life and gives you a better understanding of our Lord Jesus Christ. I will post a link to the chapter that each passage is from, so that you can read further on your own.

Sarah and Hagar

Genesis 16:6-8

⁶ But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your maid is in your power; do to her what is good in your sight.” So, Sarai treated her harshly, and she fled from her presence.⁷Now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. ⁸ He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from and where are you going?” And she said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.” ⁹ Then the angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority.” ¹⁰ Moreover, the angel of the Lord said to her, “I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count.” (NASB).

Where is Jesus and What Does This Mean to Us?

The story of Sarah and Hagar reveal truths behind our consequences. When we make poor decisions; we will face negative consequences. We are called and instructed to stay on a path of righteousness. We cause problems to ourselves when we drift. I say when because it is not an “if”. We make mistakes. We make poor decisions. The poor decisions made between Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar had consequences that we can see today. The good news, however, is that God does not leave us. He does not say, “well, Johnny, you just screwed up too much on this one. You are on your own.” It may feel like it at times, but we are never on our own. Hagar felt all alone and on her own, but the Angel of the Lord came to her in her time of need. Jesus is the Angel of the Lord. Jesus heard Hagar’s cries and comforted her.

The full story from Genesis 16 is that Abraham was promised a descendant by God. Sarah was barren and could not conceive. Instead of waiting on God’s timing and having faith that God would keep His promise, Sarah and Abraham took matters in their own hands. Sarah offered Abraham the opportunity to sleep with Hagar, Sarah’s servant. Abraham did. Hagar got pregnant. Sarah got jealous. The problem was the lack of faith in God. Somehow in their twisted minds they justified that God would want Abraham to have sex outside of marriage and that is how Abraham’s son would be born. This happens several times throughout scripture, but is never condoned by God, and there are always repercussions to it. God intended us to be with one person. Genesis 2:24 says, “²⁴ For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” They went outside these boundaries and problems arose.

What does this mean to us? God is with us, hears us, and helps us through the mess we make. We may not like how we get through the problems, but we get through them. Sarah became jealous and sent Hagar away. Hagar did what Sarah wanted and then suffered for it. Have you ever done something for someone and after you did they were mad at you for it? It hurts. It makes us not want to do anything for anyone. Jesus, the Angel of the Lord, is there for us in those times. We can drive on a road everyday but at some point, something will happen, or we stop paying attention and we run off the road. You may not run off far, but it is enough to catch our attention. We lose focus and lose sight of God’s true nature. He does not back away from His promises. He does love us, and He is faithful even when we are not. If we lose focus of who He is and what we are to do, then we are likely to run off the road and risk being hurt. God will guide us back onto the road, but it may be painful. Facing the consequences of our actions with God will have far better results than facing them without God. Either way, we will face consequences of our actions. The pain Hagar felt has rippled through time and continues to affect relations between Israel and the Islamic world.

Resource

• Genesis 16 NASB – Sarai and Hagar
  Sarai and Hagar – Now Sarai, Abram’s wife had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “Now