Questions
Read Genesis 16.
1. What are your first impression after reading this story? Of the three main characters, who do you empathize with the most? The least? Why?
Sarai and Abram are esteemed as faithful woman and man of God. Yet they were still very much sinful just like us. But God still chooses Abram and Sarai as His own, He loves them regardless of their sins. God loves US, too, regardless of OUR sins because.... we are HIS! And He continues to redeem us.
2. It was not uncommon in ancient cultures for a barren woman to give her servant/slave to her husband in order to conceive a male heir. After the baby was born, the wife would adopt the child and he would become a legal heir. read Genesis 15:1-6 and explain how Abram and Sarai (later called Abraham and Sarah) might have rationalized their solutions to make it agree with God's promise.
God promised Abram clearly- "You will have an heir." Abram has to wait though for God's timing. Sarai gets tired of waiting, blames God and tells Abram to sleep w/ Hagar. Sarai takes matter into her own hands and tried to "control."
WAITING for God's timing
Basketball Players During Off Season illustration on WAITING -
Kobe Bryant VS Allen Iverson
Kobe Bryant:
Actively trains to prepare for the new season - passionate and disciplined, always TRAINING
Allen Iverson
Slacks off during off season - Talented but lazy
What we do during "off season," how we dilligently train during off season will determine how we act during our crisis. Just as how dilligently these players train during off season will determine how they are as players during important games. Are we training ourselves in the WORD, in prayer, in His community as we prepare for crisis as we wait upon the Lord's timing? We are missionaries and we are missionaries ALL the time just as these players are basketball players all the time - during and off seasons.
How are you spiritually training yourselves during the off season? How do you patiently wait upon the Lord to act? Do you have a tendency to take matters into your own hands...
Quote by Wiersbe...
Do not miss the practical lessons here: whenever we run ahead of God, there is trouble. The flesh loves to help God, but true faith is shown in patience (Isa. 28:16). We cannot mix faith and flesh, law and grace, promise and self-effort...A willingness to wait on the Lord is another evidence that you are walking by faith.
When we depend on ourselves, people see what we can do and our testimony is, "Didn't I do well!" When we depend on God, people see what He can do and our testimony is, "Didn't God do well!" Which testimony will you have today?
Facing an impossibility gives us the opportunity to trust God.
3. The situation deteriorates quickly, with the consequences of one bad decision leading to another. Trace this downward spiral in the chart below, summarizing the choices and consequences in each verse:
16:2 Sarai tells Abram to go sleep w/ Hagar
16:3 Abram sleeps w/ Hagar
16:4 Hagar conceives Abram's child, Hagar looks down on Sarai and rubs it in about this pregnancy
16:5 Sarai is bitter and blames Abram
16:6 Sarai mistreats Hagar
BLAME:
Why do we like to blame? Why is "blame" so tempting?
It makes us feel justified in our sin. It is so much easier to see other's sin than our own.
Describe how you think Hagar was feeling. In what ways can you relate to Hagar and her situation?
entitled, angry, despaired, betrayed.
5. In the desert, God "finds" Hagar. How does God identify Hagar and what does he ask her (16:7-8)?
God meets her. He shows Himself to her.
Why would God bother to find a runaway slave girl in the dessert, address her by name and have a personal conversation with her? What do you learn about God from this encounter?
God SEES her - her heart, her hurt, her anger, her despair... God sees everything. We learn that God sees us ALL the time
6. Why do you think Hagar agreed to do what God asked of her (16:9)? Why might she have felt it was "safe" (16:10-13)?
Because she knows that God is God who sees her - El Roi. He KNOWs the future.
What makes it possible to forgive people who have hurt or mistreated you? What part does God play in the process? Discuss with your group the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation.
Think upon "forgiveness"
