Salt + Light Fort Worth

What's the most dangerous
prayer to pray is?

What's the most dangerous prayer to pray?

There's a few of them.

Yeah, a hundred percent.

And that's what comes to mind for me.

Like God teach me patience.

Uh, because turns out God is faithful.

Yeah.

Humility's up there as well.

Um, like God is God.

God is faithful.

He answers prayers, right?

And so how does he answer
prayers for humility?

By putting us in the spot where
we get to choose his invitation

to humility or ignore it.

Uh, how does God answer
prayers for patience?

Most often by putting us in
situations where we get to

choose to be patient or not.

Um, and let's be honest, whether
it's work, school, siblings, kids,

parents, just daily life, even
with yourself sometimes is it

easier to be patient or impatient?

Most of life.

There's like seven of us here,
like, we gotta talk today.

Like we gotta have some conversation.

Is it, is it easier to
be patient or impatient?

Impatient.

There you go.

If you say patient, like, I would
love for you to come and teach the

rest of us today, because if that's
where you're at, then, then, then

you're better than the rest of us.

I'm, I'm guessing, for all
of us, way easier to be.

Im impatient.

Um, and the problem with his, with
impatience is it doesn't just test

our trust of God or other people.

Um, it also just leads us to
take matters into our own hands.

It's right.

Like that's, that is the logical
outflow of any impatience.

We take things into our own hands, whether
it's with kids, coworkers, just the, I

can just do it myself is the mindset.

I'm faster at it.

I'm better at it.

I like the way I do things.

I'm just gonna do it.

Um, impatience I do,
I'm gonna do it myself.

Taking things into our own hands.

That's, that's the theme
of today's chapters.

Um, these couple months on Sundays,
may and June, we're looking at a lot of

stories, story by story in the middle
section of the Book of Genesis, and,

and we're just asking the question,
what does life with God look like?

What does life with God look like?

Here's why we're doing this.

In the winter, the first chapters
of Genesis, we saw how life

on Earth is supposed to look.

It's kind of the way we framed it,
the way that God designed everything

to work in his created world.

We also saw

that God created everything.

It was perfect.

God gave us the greatest
story, the greatest authority.

He's the greatest.

He gives us the greatest lens to
see the world through the way we

shape our life and our worldview.

And concurrently we saw humans
tendencies to choose less than that, to

choose lesser stories, to choose other
authorities, to choose other lenses,

worse lenses to shape our lives around.

And that's been true in Genesis.

That's true the en entire Bible.

That's true in all of our
lives today, isn't it?

Like none of us choose God's invitation,
God's lens, God's authority all the time.

And so there's the second theme in Genesis
that we just wanna shine a spotlight

on over these couple months together.

And that's this, while we mess
things up, life, relationships,

creation, like everything God made
good while we mess all that stuff up.

God remains faithful and
God remains constant.

And so again, through Genesis, through
the whole Bible, in, in each of our

lives today, the theme and the story
that's told over and over is that

people break things and God fixes them.

People run, but God
pursues, people disobey.

But God forgives that good news.

And that's what we see today in the
story of Abraham and Sarah, is they, as

they take matters into our own hands.

And that's what we can recognize as we
also take matters into our own hands.

Uh, because just like every week in
every part of the Bible, Genesis's

Truth exit, uh, echoes down
through the centuries to us today.

And we live it just as much
as Abraham and Sarah did.

So I wanna pay attention to three truths.

Uh, Abraham's impatient.

Sarah's indignant and God intervenes.

I try my best not to choose alliteration
'cause that seems like the cheesiest

thing on earth, but there's three I words
and they all happen to be the best words

for, uh, the characters in this story.

So Abraham's impatient, Sarah's
in indignant and God intervenes.

And there's gonna be a lot more I words.

'cause there's Isaac and
Ishmael, like, we're gonna go.

I is all day long today.

Um, so kids, if you need, if you
need a game count the number of words

that start with the letter I in this.

Um, but every one of those truths,
Abraham's impatience, Sarah's

indignation, God's intervention reminds
us of God's goodness and promise.

So that's where we're going to, okay.

All right.

First, Abraham like us is impatient.

Okay.

Talk to me.

I wasn't here last week.

You were here last week.

What did God promise, Abraham and Sarah I
last week, what was part of the covenant

that God made in Genesis chapter 15?

Land, land.

Part of it.

I'm gonna give you this
land, you're gonna own it.

What else?

Family.

Family, yeah.

Offspring.

That's gonna be a big
part of today's story.

And then wealth, I'm gonna give you
blessing and, and blessing in, in the

Old Testament, not dissimilar to today,
is often thought of as material wealth.

So, so here's what God had said to Abram.

God brought Abram outside and said,
look toward the heavens and number the

stars, if you're able to number them.

In my mind, God's a little sarcastic, so
it's a little dig like, yeah, you can't.

Um, and then God said to him,
so shall your offspring be.

And he believed the Lord and was
countered him as righteousness.

And God said to him, I am the Lord
who brought you out from er of the

Chaldeans to give you this land possess.

There's land, there's offspring,
there's blessing, there's wealth.

But did God give Abram a timeline?

No.

Did he say by this date I will.

No.

And for every single one of us,
that's where it gets tricky, right?

Ever been in a similar experience,
maybe not like God didn't like cut

animals in half and walk You walk
you through this and then maybe

not that similar of an experience.

God didn't audibly give you a promise,

but have you ever become
impatient with God's promises?

And the answer is yes.

So God promises to provide, right?

But then we lose our job and it
takes us forever to find a new one.

Become impatient.

God promises peace, right?

That's a biblical promise.

But our soul or life or the
world around us seems like it's

just evolving into utter chaos.

Anybody become impatient
with God when that happens?

God promises to be present.

And yet anyone experience
this, he feels so far away.

And on and on and on and on we go.

And so what do we do in those situations?

So often we go, I'll just take
matters into my own hands.

I'll take matters into my own hands.

So we treat God the same way.

We treat the coworkers or the kids.

I can, I can do it better myself.

I can do it better myself.

At times, that's unwise, at times that
devolves into sin, and that's exactly

what Abraham and Sarah fall into.

So Abram is impatient.

Sarah Abram's wife had born him.

No children.

Was it God promise?

Look at the stars.

It's gonna be children.

Sarah had not born children, so
she had a female Egyptian servant

whose name was Hagar and Sarah.

I said to Abram, behold, now the Lord
has prevented me from burying children.

Go into my servant.

It may be that I shall
obtain children by her.

And Abram listened to the voice of Sarah.

So after Abram had lived 10 years in the
land of Canaan, Sarah Abram's wife took

Hagar, the Egyptian, her servant, and
gave her to Abram, her husband as a wife.

And he went into Hagar and she conceived.

The author says that twice because it
feels like it's so out of character

for what God's people are supposed to
do, that he has to reiterate like, this

really happened, is what he's saying.

It wasn't enough just
to say what happened.

I'm gonna double down on it.

'cause if you just read this
or hear this once, you're gonna

go, surely not, but twice.

This is what happened.

And whose idea was this, sir?

I, sir.

I, yeah, but I said
Abraham's impatient here.

Here's why.

This is an echo of Genesis
three, where Adam knew better and

trusted the voice of Eve, right.

Even if you look at some of the Hebrew
words, like the way the author lines us

up, it's, it's exactly paralleling Adams
abdicating his role in Genesis three.

Abram should have known better.

Abram did know better.

Abraham was the guy who walked
with God, who, who was supposed to

trust God, who communed with God.

Like he, he spoke with God.

He should have known better here.

He listened to Sarah more than God.

He gave into sin.

Maybe we're gonna see in just a sec that,
that she blamed him for a lot of stuff.

Maybe he was just weary of, of her blame.

Maybe he was tempted by the pleasure
of some unknown forbidden fruit,

something new that happens in the world.

Whatever the reason, Abram
denied God's design for marriage

and committed adultery and sent.

A Abraham was impatient.

He wasn't willing to wait.

He was willing to listen to other
stories, believe other truths.

And so Sarah is not
free of any blame here.

To be clear, she's involved
in Abram's impatience.

But then more than that, when God
does this weird and backwards thing

that Sarah wanted to see happen,
like it's weird and backwards, right?

But God actually does it.

'cause again, turns out like
God answers, prayers, even weird

ones, even ones that like lead us
into places that we ought not be.

Sometimes

when God does this weird and
backwards thing that Sarah asks

for, she becomes indignant.

So in verse two, she
blamed God for infertility.

Now she's blaming Abram and she's
gonna blame Hagar for her unhappiness.

Here's what she said.

When Sarah saw I.

That Hagar had conceived.

She looked with contempt on her mistress.

That should be reversed actually,
when Hagar saw that Sarah had

conceived, Nope, that's right.

When Sarah saw that Hagar had conceived,
she looked with contempt on her

mistress, and Sarah said to Abram,
may the wrong done to me be on you.

I feel a little bit bad
for Abram in that moment.

I did what you told me to.

But again, sin leads to sin,
leads to sin, leads to sin, right?

I gave my servant to your embrace, and
when she saw that she had conceived,

she looked on me with contempt.

May the Lord judge between you and me, but
Abram said to Sarah, behold, your servant

is in your power due to her as you please.

And Sarah dealt harshly with
her and Hagar fled from her.

Now again, notice Sarah's blame.

Notice Abraham's passivity again.

Like, do do what you want with this woman.

That's, that's utterly not fair to Hagar.

To be clear, he abdicates his
role again, like his patriarch

of the estate at the time.

He was supposed to provide and protect
everyone in his like household.

And so he is sinning again.

But then looking at Sarah e, even if
Hagar did have contempt toward Sarah,

Sarah had at least as much contempt
for Hagar as Hagar had for Sarah.

And it was Sarah who kind of put, put this
family in the spot in the first place.

Like this is, so like soap opera stuff.

Like this is, this is a mess, right?

There's one author that says,
corruption leads to contempt, leads

to conflict, leads to condemnation.

Lemme say that again.

Corruption leads to contempt.

Contempt leads to conflict.

Conflict leads to condemnation, and
all that stuff is just flying all

three ways here between these parties.

Peace.

And so this is the
human side of the story.

This is what's going on.

And, and there's one other reality
before we look at the god's side of the

story, that God's side of the story, and
it's the result of Abram's impatience.

I were, and Sarah's indignation brings
us to another I word, which is injustice.

Like Hagar is utterly powerless to
stand up to Abraham and Sarah in this.

She's at best, a servant
at worst, a slave.

Her only option is to obey
what her masters tell her.

And so she did.

And then because she did, she
was berated and treated harshly.

That's, that's literally
the definition of injustice.

It's a power dynamic that
she had no control over.

So in, in today's terms, if you wanna
put it in, in 2025 America terms, Hagar

is at least a victim of trafficking and
abuse, trafficking and domestic violence.

At least she had no idea what Sarah Uch.

So she knew Sarah was
treating her harshly.

And so yeah, she, she fled.

She fled.

And so here's, here's
where we find ourselves.

And there's part of me that like
wishes this was so much cleaner.

And there's part of me that really
likes that the Bible's willing

to show us the messiness of life.

'cause it gives us language
and it gives us eyes to see

in our own messiness of life.

So I'm, I'm, I'm torn of whether
I like this story or not,

but Abram is impa impatient.

He's passive, he's abdicating
his role, that's where he's at.

Anyone trend that way?

I.

Ever becoming impatient,
passive abdicating.

Sarah is indignant, like she's bowing up.

She's angry and blaming and
treating others harshly.

Anyone go that direction.

And then Hagar is vulnerable and
suffering and stranded and a victim.

Anyone ever been in some version of that?

And so they all take matters
into their own hands.

Abraham had matters in his
hands and gave it away.

Sarah's treating her servant harshly.

Hagar runs, they all do
what they think's best.

And everyone's, everyone's
terrible in this story.

Everyone's in a bad spot.

That's where we land.

And so I'd ask again, like, which,
which of those kind of patterns

do you, do you resonate with most?

Which brand of sin or suffering
or pain or brokenness?

Like which do you find yourselves most in?

More passive abdicating, more angry,
bowing up, more running away, fleeing,

which isn't all bad to be clear.

We'll come back to that in a minute.

But Abraham and Sarah and Hagar,
they're all, they're all just

foreshadows of you and me.

They're echoing what happened in Eden.

They're echoing what we saw in
the first chapters of Genesis.

And every time we disobey God, every
time we choose our own way, every time

we take matters into our own hands,
we're just echoing what we see here.

And so, as Genesis does, so often,
friends, this chapter paints a

pretty bleak picture of humanity.

But wherever you see yourself
most, there's really good news.

'cause there's more than just the
human side of what's going on here.

And I'm really glad.

'cause otherwise this is just, this
is just a mess because in the midst of

impatience and indignation and injustice.

God's going to meet Abram and
Sarah, and especially Hagar.

So God's going to intervene.

And another I word, he's gonna
invite each of them to trust him

more than they trust themselves,
more than they trust their ways.

So it starts with Hagar.

She ran away.

The angel of the Lord found her by
a spring of water in the wilderness,

the spring on the way to shore.

So that's in Egypt.

So she was, she was going home,
she's an Egyptian servant.

She was running away, going home.

And couple, uh, versus later,
the angel said to her, return to

your mistress and submit to her,
is that hard for anyone to hear?

Knowing what Sarah had done, it's fair

return to your mi mistress
and submit to her.

And the angel also said, I will surely
multiply your offspring so that they

cannot be numbered for their multitude.

All right.

What's God doing here?

'cause at face value, this
looks like God is returning

Hagar to a very bad situation.

There's two things, and probably more than
that, but there's at least two things.

First, God is inviting and giving the
opportunity for Abram and Sarah to have

a second chance to do the right thing.

By, by bringing Hagar back, he's going to
give Abram and Sarah a a second chance.

What do we call a second chance?

Friends, theologically,
it's a lot of grace.

God is through Hagar's return,
going to give Abram and Sarah

Grace and a second chance.

On the other hand, toward Hagar, God is
providing her protection and promise.

Return to Abram and Sarah.

And the promise is they're going to
care for you, which as we see in the

next chapter, it, it is true for a time.

They get into it again in chapter
21, but there's going to be more

care than you received last time.

They're going to, they're going
to receive God's invitation for

a second chance and do better by
Hagar, at least for a little bit.

But then more than that,
there's this promise.

The angel said to her, behold, you are
pregnant and shall bear a son and you

shall call his name Ishmael because
the Lord listened to your affliction.

He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his
hand against everyone, and everyone's

hand against him, and he shall dwell
over and against all of his kinsmen.

To be clear and just to say it
outright, God is not sending Hagar

back into an abusive situation.

God is working in Abram and Sarah.

I.

And God is sending Hagar back
with his blessing and with his

presence and with his promise.

And this is part of why
this story is so hard.

There's some details here we don't know.

Like there, this is one
of the parts of the Bible.

It's like, man, God, I wish you
would've given us like one or two more

sentences to help connect those dots.

We, we just don't have all the details.

But what we do know is this,
even, even while we, we go,

yeah, I don't know about that.

Even if we go like, I can't see how A
leads to be sometimes what we do know

is that Hagar's response shows that
she sees God's promise as good news.

Even if it's hard for us.

There's something going on here
that she knows is good news.

Here's Genesis 1613.

She called the name of
the Lord who spoke to her.

You're a God of seeing.

She said, truly here.

I've seen him.

Who, what looks after me.

Probably not the life
she imagined for herself.

Can we agree on that?

Maybe not even the,

the charge she hoped that she
would get when she met this

angel, whoever he is, it's Jesus.

Let's go back to that in a minute.

But there's something about
that interaction that made her

feel, seen, known, cared for,
loved, protected, provided for,

and that's what she gets to go back with.

Now, for the record, at times it
is very right to leave situations

like the one that hagar's in.

Um, in Genesis 21, God's going to
come back and tell Hagar to leave

'cause Abraham and Sarah are gonna
do right by her for a little bit.

But then they're gonna go
back to their old ways.

Every situation's different
and we'll see the other side.

But for today, for now, Hagar was to
return and she saw that as a good thing,

and

Abram and Sarah accepted
God's second chance.

They did.

They did more right by God
and Hagar than round one.

Here's how the author puts it.

When Abram was 99 years old, the
Lord appeared to him and said,

I'm God the father Almighty.

You shall walk before me.

This is the wrong verse.

I've done this twice.

Now,

if you'll bear with me or if you have
Genesis 16, we're gonna look at verse 15.

Hagar Bo Abram, his son and Abram called
the name of his son, whom Hagar bore.

Ishmael.

Abram was 86 years old when
Hagar Bo Ishmael to Abram.

So she's part of the household.

She listened, he, he
Abram, listened to Hagar.

We have no record of God
showing up and telling Abram

what he was gonna name his son.

Right?

Who did God tell Hagar?

So there's a betterment
of relationship there.

There's there's a restoration,
there's a redemption of the old.

They said yes to God's second chance.

And let's be honest, 'cause I struggle
with this, there's times when I don't

like grace toward other people you like.

We don't like second chances.

We can read this story and go, I
want justice for Abram and Sarah.

They, they did a bad thing to Hagar.

And that is objectively true.

Like, we want punishment, we want
justice, we want Abram and Sarah

or moving it to our situations.

We want people who offend us or
do mean things to us, or people

who do bad things to others.

Especially the, the vulnerable.

Like we want people to
pay for that, right?

Like we want people to
pay for their injustice.

We want people to pay
for their impatience.

We want people to pay
for their indignations,

but also that may be one way that we
take matters into our own hands as well.

And some of our own impatience
rather than trusting God might

be what leads us to that.

I have a friend who, we
talked about this a few times.

Um, he seems to find himself in a position
of where he tries to be kind of the

arbiter of everyone else's holiness.

Like people around him, um,
he'll, he'll see an action

and assume a motive behind it.

I've talked to him about this.

Not sure I'm not gonna say his name, but,
but, but, but, but we've talked about

this and so it feels like that the image
that I use with him is, is kinda like

the, the emperor and gladiator one, the
better of the gladiator movies, um, where

like everybody around him, he is just
kind of doing, doing one of these two,

it's a holiness meter, a goodness meter.

He is chosen to take on the,
the role of arbiter as of,

of everybody else's holiness.

Is that a, is that a good role to take on?

It is not.

Um, but by contrast, the
reality is God is always good.

God is always generous.

God does call us to the mat on things,

but he invites us home and he
invites us to a second chance.

And maybe it's easy for you to like,
think of my friend who does this and be

like, man, how could someone do that?

But don't we all do that at some point?

We look at other people's situations,
look at other people's choices.

And

God is always this, he doesn't leave
us where we are, but his invitation is

always, goodness, grace, second chances.

His way is above ours.

He sees the whole story.

He seeks redemption for everyone.

And whether we like that or
not for other people, we really

like it for ourselves, don't we?

'cause if we do this for, for us, if
we're the the emperor of holiness,

the arbiter of holiness for ourselves,
if we're honest, we end up with

a downward point in thumb, a lot.

And so the fact that God always
shows his goodness and his grace

and gives us second chances should
be really, really good news.

So it's unfair not to like
that for everybody else.

There's one more layer to this.

There's one more layer to God's work.

Um, he doesn't just return
Abram and Sarah to neutral.

He doesn't just bring Hagar
back and go, okay, good luck.

Let's see how this goes.

He goes above and beyond 'cause
that's always what God does.

That's a theme in the rest of the
Bible, so we get to celebrate it.

Even if it's hard for us, we get to
celebrate it as a theme in this chapter.

God always goes above and
beyond and, and, and hear me.

Even if God had just forgiven them,
shown them, grace, given them some

second chance, that would've been kind.

It would've been more than they deserved.

Does anyone technically
deserve a second chance?

No.

And so God would've been
kind in showing them grace.

In just kind of restoring them to neutral,
just restoring, restoring the family norm.

But in the next chapter, in Genesis 17,
God goes above and beyond and shows mercy.

Here's the verses.

When Abraham was 99 years old, how many?

How many years later?

For the record,

he was 86.

I think we just read when?

13.

So there you go.

Good math.

13 years later, when Abraham
was 99 years old, still no kid

for the record, 99 years old.

You know how old Abraham was in
chapter 15 or when God first met him?

75.

Is that easy to become impatient?

24 years.

It's longer than some
of you've been alive.

When Abraham was 99 years old,
the Lord appeared to Abraham and

said to him, I am God almighty.

Walk before me and be blameless.

You haven't been, but be blameless.

That I may take my covenant, make
my covenant between me and you,

and I may multiply you greatly.

And Abram fell on his face and God said
to him, behold, my covenant is with you.

And you shall be the father
of a multitude of nations.

No longer shall your name be Abram,
but your name shall be Abraham.

For made you a father of a
multitude of nations as part

of the Hebrew, Hebrew name.

There I'll make you exceedingly
fruitful, and I'll make you into

nations and kings shall come from you.

And I will establish my covenant
between me and you and your offspring

after you throughout their generations
for an everlasting covenant to be

God to you and your offspring after
you and I will give to you in your

offspring, after you the land of your
sojo journeys, all the land of Canaan,

to be an everlasting possession.

And I will be their God.

This is the same promise that God's
given twice before Chapter 12.

Chapter 15.

Again, 24 years have gone by
since God first made the promise.

God is patient.

Even when we're not.

God keeps his promises even
when we don't see them.

But then God's adding to the promise here.

He's making the same promise,
but he's adding to it.

He's giving them a new name.

He's giving them a new identity.

He does that for Abram.

He does the same for Sarah.

I gave read this already, but God said
to Abram, ask for Sarah, your wife.

You shall not call her Sarah.

I bet Sarah shall be her name.

I'll bless her.

And moreover, I will give you a son by her

and I'll bless her, and
she'll become nations.

Kings of people shall come from her.

And then if you read ahead this
week, and I'd encourage you to read

ahead, there's no way we can tackle
everything going on in these chapters.

If we're going story by story.

If you read ahead, you know that
even as Abram receives mercy,

he still doesn't believe God.

He laughs at God and says, I'm old.

Let Ishmael receive my blessing.

And you know what God answers?

He says, I'm gonna bless both of them.

I'm gonna bless both of your sons,

but I will establish my covenant
with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear

to you at this time next year.

So, so in God's lavish love,
there's enough blessings for two

multitudes of generations, for two
millions and millions of offspring.

Now things don't go well in the
future, but here God says, I'm going to

bless them both in God's lavish love.

There's abundance, there's, there's not
a limited blessing for Abraham and Sarai,

and not just a blessing, and not just
forgiveness and not just second chances

and not just offspring for an old barren
couple and not just one son and nation.

And not just grace.

And not just mercy, but what God's
showing is two sons, two nations, two

abundant blessings, two lavishness

and more.

'cause that's who God is.

That's who God is in these
chapters, who God is.

After this and before this, and through
the Bible and through history and through

our lives, in the midst of all of our
impatience, all of our injustice, all of

our indignation, in the midst of every
sin and every bit of brokenness, and

every disobedience, and every opportunity
that we take to take matters into

our own hands, God still intervenes.

Do you believe that

God still gives grace?

God still forgives sin.

God still redeems brokenness.

God still gives his mercy.

God still gives abundant blessings.

Is that good news?

So I want you to think for a minute
what's, what's a, what's a space?

You don't have to say this out loud.

What's a space, area of
life, relationship situation

in which you're taking
matters into your own hands.

Now again, there's responsibility here.

God gives us intelligence.

God gives us his wisdom.

God asks us to, to step into his way.

So maybe a little bit
of a refined question.

What's an area that you're taking
things into your own hands that

might not be the way or the
direction that God wants you to?

Don't say it out loud,

but in a minute we're gonna give
you a chance to just reflect and

maybe the reflection today is, God.

What do you want me to do with that?

Is there something you
want me to lay down?

Is there, is there a patience
you want me to pursue?

Is there a different way?

But as we wrap up, there's, there's,
there's more to these chapters.

Abraham circumcised
every male in his family.

That's a big deal.

Um, Sarah, I receives,
Hagar back cares for her.

There's 13 years of Ishmael growing
up as part of a restored family.

Like we see God carrying out.

His promise to Hagar
of care and protection.

It is.

It is a different situation than it
was when she left Abram and Sarah.

I do obey a bit, so praise God.

And also as we'll see in the
next couple weeks, Abram and

Sarah disobey again and again.

'cause just like us, even after
we receive God's grace and

mercy, that's what people do.

It's just what we do.

So rather than being like these great
examples in these chapters, these

great examples to follow Abraham
and Sarah instead, point us toward

our continued need for God and our
continued need for His grace and

our continued need for his mercy.

We need God's continued
intervention, don't we?

We need God to keep
his promises, don't we?

'cause, 'cause, 'cause
we're gonna break 'em.

We're gonna be impatient.

But God does continue to intervene
and keep his promises and show

us all these things in more.

And of course, the greatest example
of God's intervention and his fullness

of mercy and grace and his promise is
celebrated every time we take communion.

It's in his coming.

Lord Jesus.

There's lots of speculation in this
chapter over who the angel of the Lord is

who met Hagar when she was running away.

When she was vulnerable, when she was
vulnerable and and hopeless and suffering.

And angel can mean messenger, and so some
people think this is just a messenger

from God, but most theologians who are
way smarter than any of us in the room

when it comes to the ways of Genesis,
most theologians would say that this is a

pre-incarnate showing up of Jesus himself.

That the angel, the messenger, the
representative of the triune God that

Hagar met by the spring of life on her way
to Egypt was what's called a Christoph.

We will explore that
term in, in a few weeks.

But is Jesus showing up?

And for shadowing, just giving us, giving
us a little glimpse of what's gonna

happen when you walk to the earth for
three years, thousands of years later.

And either way, whether it's just a
messenger or whether it's Jesus, the

message that's given to Hagar is a
glimpse of Jesus's invitation to us.

Jesus would look at you and say,
there's a second chance here.

Jesus would look at you and say, I'm
good, and I have more grace and more

provision, and more protection, and more
forgiveness, and more abundance and more

blessing than you could possibly imagine.

And then thousands of years later, Jesus
walked the face of the earth for a number

of years and sealed God's covenant with
Abram as his most blessed offspring.

And, and also the fulfillment
of a new covenant, a new

life that God promises to us.

Jesus fulfills all of God's
promises in a way bigger way than

what we see in Abram and Sarah.

Jesus promises a way home not to, not
to mean masters, but to a good God

and Father, when Jesus takes all your
pain, all your suffering, all your sin,

all your brokenness, and offers us far
greater blessing than Ishmael or Isaac.