This Sunday, June 18 is the Third Sunday after Pentecost
Verse of the Season/Month:
Let the whole earth shout triumphantly to the Lord!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Acknowledge that the Lord is God.
He made us, and we are his —
his people, the sheep of his pasture.
This week’s sermon is Let’s Worship by Pastor Dave Zachrich
This week’s readings are:
Things You Didn’t Learn in Sunday School About … Sarah
When God called Abram, his decision to follow impacted others
in his family.
Lot – his nephew
– leaving Lot’s parents behind.
Most of all
Sarai – Abram’s wife
Sarai
means “princess” – and as Abram became Abraham, her name was changed to Sarah …
which also means “princess.”
(From here on I will just call them Abraham and Sarah to avoid confusion.)
Sarah was Abraham’s half-sister.
Same father
– different mother
Weird to us, but perhaps not as unusual in those days.
God had promised Abraham a child – indeed, multiple
children!
Question: Did God promise that Sarah would be the mother?
Sarah was getting anxious about God keeping his promise to
Abraham. It had been 10 years, and still no child!
She decided
to … help God out.
Perhaps she
was not to be the mother – she seemed unable to get pregnant
How to solve the problem? Another woman!
Genesis 16:1-4a - 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.
There are some serious ethical questions and problems here,
right?
Slavery
Adultery
Placing
reason over faith
Not believing
Resist the urge to excuse Sarah and Abraham.
Just
because it is in the Bible does not mean that God approves of the behavior.
The people
in the Bible are … people!
We
look at Sarah and wonder – “What were you thinking?!?!”
We
look at Abraham and judge his behavior.
We
don’t ask: Would we have done things differently?
This is one of the great mistakes of our age.
Desperation? Impatience? Something drove Sarah to put forth
the idea.
Something
moved Abraham to agree to it.
And Hagar … Hagar got pregnant and had no choice in the matter.
So, Sarah’s plan worked! Right?
Not so fast.
Hagar got pregnant, but then she began to look on Sarah with
contempt
There could
be several reasons for this
Pregnancy
is not easy, nor was it super safe at the time!
No
choice
She did something her mistress could not do!
Sarah became angry
She blames Abraham
– which is both unfair and fair.
She also mistreats Hagar – she has the power.
Abraham – does nothing to help.
So poor pregnant Hagar ran away – which we’ll discuss more next week.
Resist hero worship – the “heroes” of the Bible are all
sinners (except Jesus) and they live by grace through faith – just like you and
me.
Ever made a
bad decision? Commit massive moral failure? Lack trust in God’s promises?
You’re in good company, and God is faithful. That’s the point of the cross – Abraham’s blessing for all nations.
Trust God’s timing.
Abraham and
Sarah will have a baby – but she’ll wait another 15 years or so.
Walking by
faith – “to the land I will show you.”
To the blessing He has promised you.
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