My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Abram’s wife Sarai did not have a child. When Abram said to God, “Lord Look, You have given me no offspring” God said –

In Genesis 15: 5, 6 - Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”

And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

But when he asked God how I shall know that I will inherit it.

Genesis 15: 9 - So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”

Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two.

And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him.

Genesis 15: 13 - Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years.

And also, the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

When Abram offered sacrifice to God, he did not do it the way God expected it. So, we see that God gave his descendants to bondage for four hundred years.

If we do not offer ourselves completely to God, great darkness will cover us and he will give us to flesh and the enemy as bondage. Therefore, if we offer ourselves completely to God as a handmaid he will bless us.

After God gave Abram his promise, because Sarai had lost her patience, she gave her maid servant Hagar as a mistress to Abram. So, he was the reason for Ishmael to born to his mistress Hagar.

Once Hagar conceives, she started despising her mistress Sarai. We read in God’s word that due to this Sarai dealt harshly with Hagar. So Hagar runs away from her (Sarai).

Now the Angel of the Lord called her, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.”

The Angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand.”

Genesis 16: 10 – 12 Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, “I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.”

And the Angel of the Lord said to her: “Behold, you are with child, And you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, Because the Lord has heard your affliction.

He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man, And every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.”

Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, “Have I also here seen Him who sees me?”

Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; God is showing us these things clearly through Abram, Hagar says you are the God who sees, and a well in that place, a well called Lahai Roi which in spiritual meaning means that God has kept Abram as a sign as a father for those who walk and live in the foundation of our faith.

This is because God is showing us Abram’s mistress Hagar that even after following God, if we will do fleshly deeds our son will be Ishmael and in the same house Abram’s wife Sarai means a free woman which God is showing us corresponds to Jerusalem. When these two deeds are manifested within a man from the beginning flesh fights against the Spirit and Spirit fights against the flesh.

This is because Jerusalem is free and the child that she bears is Isaac. This is the promised generation that God shows us with a sign.

That is why in God’s words, we see that Sarai is treating Hagar harshly. This is because once Hagar becomes pregnant, she despises Sarai, so Abram tells Sarai to do as she pleases to Hagar so she deals harshly with Hagar. Hagar runs away from her mistress. This is how God removes the fleshly thoughts in our mind’s thoughts. But when the angel of the Lord saw Hagar running away, because she was pregnant told her to go back to her mistress and submit herself to her hand. Then in the same house Ishmael is born. This is the beginning of spiritual life in each one of our lives. The reason why the angel of the Lord sent her into the house a second time is because to show us as a sign the full growth of Ishmael who undergoes circumcision as the son of Abram. God is showing this clearly so that we should also undergo circumcision of the flesh in our mind and obey the commandments of God.

Let us pray. May the Lord bless you all.

-        To be continued