THE DYNAMICS OF MARRIAGE, A COVENANT RELATIONSHIP
Genesis 16
GOD HAS A COVENANT RELATIONSHIP WITH YOU
God started His relationship with man as a covenant relationship based on
Trust and obedience. God intends a partnership with man to spread righteousness throughout the world. God made angels first, but did not make a covenant with them. God made animals second but did not give them the ability to communicate with Him. God made six divine covenants with Man The covenants reveal His character, purpose and redemptive plan. He reveals His love, grace and mercy toward mankind.
A covenant is an agreement between two parties, God and man. If we keep in mind these Covenants, we will see the righteousness of God and the sinful nature of man. Not only that we will see the mercy of God to redeem us.
God covenants were made with men and women just like us with human
Desires that can lead us away from God. Up to this time frame, God made
Three covenants with mankind, each with married men. Marriage is divinely defined by God as a covenant between man and his wife.
THE ADAMIC COVENANT The covenants started in the Garden of Eden. The Adamic covenant established the nature and purpose of God, Genesis 1:26-20; Let us make man in our Own likeness and image. Let them rule the earth. Be fruitful and multiply. Man failed the first covenant because he could not abide by the first command to not eat From the Tree of Knowledge, Of Good and Evil. God immediately Pronounced His redemptive plan, Jesus bruising Satan on the head.
The Noahic Covenant. Man became so sinful that God commissioned Noah To build an Ark, flooded the land killing all but that which Noah placed in The Ark. After the Ark rested on mount Ararat in Turkey, God made a
Covenant with Noah that covers us now. I will never again destroy the
Mankind by water Genesis 9-11-13. As a reminder God placed a rainbow
In the sky,
The Abrahamic Covenant. After Abram resided in Canaan (THE PROMISED LAND) for 10 years, He became a rich man with livestock gold and silver. He even had servants and a trained army of 300 men. After winning the battle against four kings he ask God what would he have since his wife was barren and had no offspring. God told Abram his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky if he could count them. He was 85 years old at that time.
Genesis 15:5. Abram believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. The key to a relationship with God is to believe what He Has said to us.
FAITH IS A BUILDING PROCESS
The text didn’t say Abram was completely faithful and without sin. It did
Say he believed the Word of God. His faith was imperfect. Abram exercised
His faith in building and protecting his wealth, servants and workforce.
But when it came to his wife, he yielded to her desire to have a child outside of God’s divine plan. In essence, He ignored the covenant of
Many descendants.
Sarai got restless and wanted a child immediately. Perhaps she felt she was getting too old, so she hatched a plan to get one. She gave Abram her servant Hagar as a second wife. The plans we make without God can backfire. When Hagar became pregnant she despised Sari. Out of Hagar
Came pride and boastfulness. Instead of rejoicing with Sari, Hagar
Became a bone of contention.
Abram allowed Sarai to treat Hagar so badly that she ran away.
They went against God's desire. The two shall become one flesh
Not three become one flesh. Anytime you involve others in your
Personal business you bring their ideas, thoughts and hostility.
Abram and Sarai made a bad judgment then tried to sweep it under the rug by sending Hagar away. One sin leads to another oftentimes to cover up the first sin.
TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS
Sarai refused to take responsibility for her hostile situation, she blamed Abram.
Genesis 16:5
Then Sarai said to Abram, "You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me."
Abram put the solution to the problem in Sarai hand, perhaps to keep the
Peace in the relationship.
Genesis 16:6
"Your servant is in your hands," Abram said. "Do with her whatever you think best." Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.
Notice Sarai tried to bring God into the problem. God should have been
Consulted first before involving Hagar. Abram had a close relationship
With God. There is never a reason to make a decision without consulting
God.
Both Sarai and Abram were responsible. Abram knew the promise God had
Given him. Sarai insisted on the second marriage to Hagai (16:3) We find no objection by Abram. He went along to get along.
Abram was considered righteous, but one bad judgement led to
Worst considerations. Abram forgot the love, compassion, and protection
God had shown him They forced Hagar to leave without consideration her
Welfare or the welfare of their son.
Abram and Sarai were rich and had no lack of anything. Sometimes our
Richness causes us to overlook the grace of God and focus on the what
We don’t have. Sarai coveted the children of other women to point of
Disregarding the promise God had made of descendant more numerous
Than the stars. Her patience ran out because she saw her childbearing days expiring. She saw her weakness but not God’s greatness.
Abram did not go after Hagar and offer any assistance to her or his son
He could have easily provided a caravan of people and goods to get Hagar
Back to the home he took her from.
EXPECT THE BEST BUT ACCEPT WHAT IS
You would not expect this attitude from the one God considered righteous. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Abram and Sarai were human beings with emotions, desires, frustrations dealing with life issues like you and me. We don’t always think things through and do the right things.
There was no love or compassion for Hagar or the baby she carried.
Abram and Sarai ignored the fact that they were responsible for the situation they ignored the fact that they had been blessed with a son. Sarai got what she wanted, but found no joy. She wanted a son but not the problems.
Complaints in life come from our sin and disobedience. God has a reason for withholding our desires from us. Our thoughts are not His thoughts and our ways are not His ways. But God's thoughts and ways are always for our best interest.
SEE THROUGH GOD’S EYES
Abram and Sarai saw a slave girl. God saw a person
Abram and Sarai saw a piece of property, God saw a hard working servant.
Abram and Sarai saw an expendable asset, God saw the mother of a nation Sarai saw the object of her desire, God saw her sin.
Because God is a gracious and merciful, He sent an angel to
Bring Hager back to Abram and Sarai. He promised Hagar if she came
Back and endured Sarai mistreatment she would become mother of a
Great nation.
THE BLESSING OF OBEDIENCE
Genesis 16:9-12
9 Then the angel of the Lord told her, "Go back to your mistress and submit to her." 10 The angel added, "I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count."
11 The angel of the Lord also said to her:
"You are now with child and you will have a son.
You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery.
12 He will be a wild donkey of a man;his hand will be against everyone
and everyone's hand against him,and he will live in hostility
toward all his brothers."
Hagar’s Blessing was given by the angel so Ishmael would have the blessing Of his fathers home. Hagar would be the mother of a mighty race.
God cares for all races. Hagar did not choose to be a slave or to have a child in that manner but became attached to a righteous man in God’s sight who abused her. While Abram and Sarai's selfrightness sent her away, God’s righteousness brought her back.
GOD SEES ALL
Genesis 16:13-14
13 She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: "You are the God who sees me," for she said, "I have now seen the One who sees me."
Notice it was Hagar’s mistreatment that brought her in the present of God.
Her eyes were open to His grace and mercy.
The story has one convert and two growing in faith.
Abram and Sarai would come to know that their faith lacked the love of God. The God we serve is gracious and full of love. He will not let mistakes
In judgement haunt the one He loves forever.
Abram and Sarai had a love problem.
1 Corinthians 13:1-4
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain
nothing.
Consider this in the text;
GOD TAKES THE WORST IN YOU AND SHOWS YOU WHAT YOUR BEST COULD BE
Take the richness God has grace you with and spread it to the poor God
Has set before you.
Abram and Sarai were rich with gold, silver and livestock. They were so focused on what they wanted and getting more that they forgot the ones
That made it possible. What aided their material wealth was slaves, servants and workers who needed the Word of God to provide hope, peace and Joy to their lives.
LESSONS: WHAT CAN WE LEARN?
1. God's promises and covenants means nothing unless we view them
through the eyes of faith enduring life's experiences with patience.
2. Seeing the covenants and promise of God through our eyes and
experience leads to doubt and despair.
3. Complaints arise from an ungrateful heart for what God has done in our
lives. We complain about what we have compared to what others have.
4. The temptation to have more arises from lust of eye, lust of the flesh
And the pride of life.
5. Temptation makes us think we deserve more than God has provided.
6. Temptation leads us to overlook the needs of others in favor of our
desires.
7. The best of God’s righteous men can be led to do evil when God is not
A priority in their lives.
8.Just because you are highly placed in the church, well thought of by
others, don’t mean there is no sin in you.
9. Just because you have great faith don’t mean you can’t be tempted by
The devil.
10. Let’s not forget that our faith is always being tested and forever
growing.
11. Love must be the priority in decision making.
12. God uses life experiences to grow our faith.
CLASS QUESTIONS
SINCE ABRAM HAD GOD’S PROMISE, WHAT CAUSED HIM TO RUSH GOD’S PLAN?
SINCE SARAI’S PLAN WORKED, WHY WAS SHE NOT HAPPY?
WHAT ADVERSITY IN THE TEXT LED TO CHANGE?
Rev. M. Mitchell
