Chapter Summary Genesis 16 - 17

Sarai urges Abram to follow an accepted custom and father a child with her maidservant, Hagar (16:1-4). But Hagar’s pregnancy creates intense jealousy. Only God’s intervention prevents Hagar from running away (vv. 7-16). Years later, when Abram is 99, God introduces circumcision as a sign of covenant relationship (17:1-14). God also announces that His promise of countless descendants will not be fulfilled through Hagar’s son Ishmael, but through a child to be borne by Sarah, who is now 90 (vv. 15-27). Today, some 4,000 years later, the rite of circumcision is still practiced by the descendants of Abraham!

 

Key Verse 17:19:

 

GOD IS THE GOD OF THE IMPOSSIBLE.

 

Personal Application:

 

IT’S A MISTAKE TO LIMIT GOD.

 

HAGAR.

 

The relationship of Sarai, Hagar, and Abram seems strange to us. But by ancient custom it was lawful for a barren wife to give a slave to her husband. Any children born were considered the wife’s rather than the servant’s (16:2). Documents of the era also show that Abram quoted a point of law in verse 6: the wife did have a legal right in that era to mistreat her slave, though there were limits to what she could do. The story illustrates the wisdom of God’s marital ideal. Even when it was “legal” to have a woman other than one’s wife, the practice created strife.

 

ISHMAEL.

 

God promised to multiply this son’s descendants too. God did so for Ishmael is the father of the Arab peoples. The modern strife between Israel and the Palestinians is one consequence of Abram’s and Sarai’s decision not to wait for God to act. There is a fine line between acting in faith, and self-effort.

 

“THE GOD WHO SEES ME” (16:6-16).

 

What a message for you and me in this passage. When life becomes too painful to bear, we can find strength in remembering what Hagar discovered. The Lord is “the God who sees me.” When we sense this, when we know the Lord is aware of our pain and need, our strength will be renewed. For God not only sees us, He sees the future. He promised Hagar that a bright future for her unborn son lay ahead. We too have hope for tomorrow, whatever our pain today.

 

ABRAM TO ABRAHAM (17:1-5).

 

Abram means “father,” while Abraham means “father of a multitude.” What faith it must have taken for the aged Abram, parent of a single child, to announce that change of name! Faith is like this. Faith enables us to act as if the “not yet” were “now,” in full assurance that “it soon will be!”

 

CIRCUMCISION.

 

The rite involves removing the flap of skin that covers the tip of the male’s penis. This is done the eighth day of a Jewish boy’s life. Circumcision was the physical mark of participation in the covenant which God made with Abraham and his descendants. One who did not consider covenant relationship with God important enough to identify himself or his children with the covenant people, and thus did not practice circumcision, “will be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant” (v. 14). Both testaments, however, testify that the physical sign is no more than a formality. It Symbolizes A Readiness To Respond To God That Is Spoken Of As “CIRCUMCISION OF THE HEART” (Deut. 10:16; Phil. 3:3).