"The God Who Sees Me"
Israel • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 1 viewNotes
Transcript
Scripture Reading: Psalm 33
Scripture Reading: Psalm 33
We’re in the 3rd Month of the Year…
Which Means We’re in Our 3rd Theme…
In Our Year-Long Series of Themes…
That Progressively Tell the Story of Scripture:
Israel
Israel
Someone Brought it to My Attention the Other Day…
That When I Refer to the “Story” of Scripture…
It May Sound Like I’m Saying that the Bible is Fictional/Myth
To Be Clear, that’s Not at All What I’m Saying
I Believe the Bible is 100% True…
And Everything it Tells Us is 100% True
This Misunderstanding Hinges on How We Define “Story”
“Story” is Not Synonymous with “Fiction/Myth”
A Story can Be Either True or Fictional
But the Word “Story” Itself, By Definition…
Doesn’t Mean it is Either Truth or Fiction
When I Talk about the Story of Scripture…
I’m Talking about How the Entirety of Scripture is Connected
It’s All Working Together to Tell One Grand Narrative/Drama
It’s Not Just a Collection of Historical Facts & Rules
It’s a Story Like All Good Stories Ever Told:
There’s a Beginning/Exposition
(Creation - Where We Learn about God & His Purpose for His Creation)
Then There’s the Rising Action…
Where There’s a Crisis - Things are No Longer as They should Be…
And the Hero Begins Seeking to Fix Things & Save the Day
(The Fall Where Sin, Death, & the Curse Enter Creation…)
(And the Rest of the Old Testament Where God is Working…)
(To Atone for Sin, Defeat Death, & Break the Curse)
Then There’s the Climax (What Everything has Been Building Toward)…
Where the Hero Wins the Battle & Saves the Day Against All Odds
(The Gospels - The Birth, Life, Death, Resurrection, Ascension of Jesus)
Then There’s the Falling Action (The Hero has Won, But the Story isn’t Over Yet)
(Acts & the Letters of the Apostles)
(Now that Jesus has Won the Battle & Saved the Day…)
(What are We to Do Now?)
Then There’s the Resolution/Conclusion…
Where All Things are Back to the Way They should Be…
And Everyone Lives Happily Ever After
(The End of Revelation…)
(And the Hope of Restoration that’s Mentioned Throughout the NT)
So, Whenever I Talk about the Story of Scripture…
I’m Not Saying Scripture is Fictional/Mythical
I’m Saying, Scripture is a Collection of Writings…
Written By Many Different People Over a Span of Many Centuries…
That are All Connected & Play a Part in One Grant Story/Narrative:
God Made All Things Good
Goodness was Ruined
God has Been Working Throughout History to Fix it
And One Day Goodness will Be Restored
Israel
Israel
Israel Plays a Huge Role in this Story
As We Looked at Last Week…
God Chose/Blessed Abram & His Descendants…
So They could Be a Blessing to the World
God is Going to Restore All Things Through the Family of Abram
In Genesis 15, God Made a Covenant with Abram
He Promised Abram that His Descendants:
Would Be as Innumerable as the Sand of the Seashore & Stars in the Sky
Would Inherit the Land of Canaan
But Abram has Been Living Like a Foreigner in Canaan for 10 Years Now…
And He’s Yet to have a Single Child…
Or Own a Single Piece of Land
It Seems Like God isn’t Keeping His Promises
But then a Thought Pops into Sarai’s Head:
“God Promised Abram a Descendant from His Own Body”
“But He Said Nothing about the Descendant Coming from MY Body!”
That Little Bit of Background Leads Us…
To the Thematic Quote from Our Text that We’re Going to Focus on:
“The God Who Sees Me”
“The God Who Sees Me”
Genesis 16:1–11 (NIV)
1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.
This was a Customary Solution to Barrenness in the Ancient Near East
If a Woman couldn’t have Children…
She could Give Her Servant to Her Husband as a Slave-Wife
And the Child Born from that Union would Be Considered…
The Child of the Wife…
And Therefore Heir to All that Belongs to that Husband & Wife
So this Became Sarai’s Plan…
Since it Didn’t Seem like God…
Was Going to Bring the Promised Child Through Her
Instead of Trusting that God will Keep His Promise…
And Waiting for Him to Fulfill it…
Sarai Decided to Take Matters into Her Own Hands…
And Abram Followed Her Lead
Does this Story Sound Familiar?
The Fall of Adam & Eve Continues to Replay Itself in Biblical History
Over & Over Throughout Scripture…
God Asks Us to Trust Him…
And Wait for Him to Do What He Said He’ll Do
But So Often, the Hardest Things for Us to Do…
Is Trust & Wait
For Us, the Longer it Takes for Someone to Fulfill a Promise…
The Less Likely They are to Fulfill it
But that’s Not How God Operates
He Always Keeps His Promises…
And He Always Works Things Out in His Own Perfect Timing
God Blesses Those Who Learn to Trust in & Wait on Him
4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.” 6 “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.
Being Able to Conceive was Considered a Divine Blessing
Not Being Able to Conceive was Considered a Divine Curse
Because of that, Hagar May have Thought…
That Through Her Conception…
She’d Gained Greater Status than Sarai in Abram’s Household
Maybe She’d Be the Favored Wife Now
Hagar Began to Despise Sarai:
She Considered Her Insignificant & Belittled Her…
Because of Her Inability to have Children
It was Wrong for Hagar to Treat Sarai this Way
But Sarai’s Response was Even Worse
She Begins to Blame Abram for Following Her Plan…
And Then She Begins to Mistreat & Abuse Hagar
This Got So Bad that Hagar Decided to Run Away
7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered. 9 Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.”
Hagar was Trying to Flee Back to Her Home in Egypt…
When God’s Angel Found Her Near a Desert Spring
He Then Commands Her to Return to Sarai
But He Doesn’t Just Tell Her to Return to Sarai
He Tells Her to Submit Herself Under Sarai
Most Translations Use the Word “Submit”…
But that Might Soften the Blow…
Of What the Original Hebrew is Actually Indicates
I Like the Way Eugene Peterson Put it in His Message Bible:
Genesis 16:9 (MSG)
9 The angel of God said, “Go back to your mistress. Put up with her abuse.”
God was Telling Hagar to Return to Sarai…
And Submit Herself to the Mistreatment that She Previously Fled from
If God Commanded You to Willingly Submit to Mistreatment, Misery, & Suffering…
Would You Be Willing to Do it?
Well, Guess What?
He has Commanded Us to Do it
Jesus Tells Us to Turn the Other Cheek & Love/Pray for Our Enemies
Paul Tells Us to Overcome Evil with Good
Peter Tells Us to Patiently Endure Suffering
We’re Promised By Our Lord that We’ll Be Hated & Mistreated
And it’s Our Mission to Endure that Hate & Mistreatment…
The Way Our Lord Did
And if We Endure Faithfully…
We are Promised to Reign with Him & Inherit Great Blessings
God Promised Hagar Great Blessings if She Obeyed Him Too
Genesis 16:10–11 (NIV)
10 The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” 11 The angel of the Lord also said to her: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery.
If Hagar will Return to Sarai…
And Submit to the Mistreatment…
God will Bless Her with Innumerable Descendants
God Also Tells Her to Name Her Son Ishmael:
“God Hears”
Her Son’s Name will Always Remind Her…
That in Her Misery & Suffering…
God Heard Her
Notice What She Says Next:
Genesis 16:13 (NIV)
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.”
What a Beautifully Descriptive Name for Our God:
“The God Who Sees Me”
Our God is a God Who Hears Our Cries for Help…
And Sees Us in Our Suffering
He Doesn’t Ignore or Neglect Us When We’re Hurting
We can Rest Assured that He Hears/Sees Us…
And Feels Compassion for Us
And Like with Hagar…
If We Willingly Submit to Mistreatment, Suffering, & Misery for His Sake…
We will Be Greatly Rewarded
Fast Forward Several Centuries…
And the Roles in this Story are Reversed:
It’s No Longer Abraham Owning & Mistreating an Egyptian Slave
It’s Abraham’s Descendants Being Mistreated as Slaves in Egypt
And Like He Chose Abraham…
God Chooses a Man Named Moses…
To Lead the Descendants of Abraham Out of Egyptian Slavery
God Speaks to Him from a Burning Bush & Says These Words:
Exodus 3:7 (NIV)
7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.
“I Have Seen”:
“I have Carefully Watched/Paid Very Close Attention to”…
“The Misery of My People”
“I Have Heard…”
“Them Crying Out”
God would Go on to Perform Some of His Greatest Signs
He Outshined All the Gods of Egypt
He Took Down the Mightiest Nation in the World
Why?
Partly Because They were Mistreating His People
He Saw Their Misery
He Heard Their Cries
Application
Application
God Cares When His People Suffer
He Cares for the Insignificant, Foreign Slave-Girl…
As Much as He Cares for an Entire Nation of His Chosen People
Our God is a God Who Sees/Hears/Cares for His People
He Feels Compassion for Us When We Hurt
He Seeks Our Good
He Wants to Make the Suffering, Pain, & Misery Go Away
And One Day He Will
One Day Sin, Death, & the Curse will Be Defeated
One Day We’ll Be Resurrected & Given Glorious, Immortal Bodies
One Day All Things will Be Restored & Made New
One Day We’ll Be with Him & He’ll Be with Us Forever
But Until that Day…
No Matter What Abuse, Sufferings, or Miseries We Go Through…
We can Confidently Say, “My God…”
“Is the God Who Sees Me in My Suffering”
“Is the God Who Hears My Cries”
“Is the God Who Cares about Me”
“Is the God Who is Going to Rescue Me”
Until that Day:
Humbly Submit to Mistreatment, Like Jesus
Trust Him & Wait for His Salvation