Hagar Genesis 15–16

Did you ever try to count the stars?

Did you come up with any number?

I think that you found out that there were too many to count, and that every time you quit counting you found many more that you missed the first time around. Pretty soon you became so confused that you just quit!

Astronomers, who are people who study the stars, say you can count about two thousand stars just by using your eyes and no extra instruments. But they can count one quintillion stars using special telescopes. Do you know how large a number a quintillion is? It’s greater than a thousand, greater than a million, greater than a billion! A quintillion is a “1” with eighteen zeros after it, like this: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000. That is a lot of stars! God has made a marvelous creation!

We will learn about how God promised Abram that he would have as many children and grandchildren as there are stars up in the sky. What did God mean by this? Did He mean that Abram would have one quintillion grandchildren?

God meant that Abram would have so many grandchildren, or “descendants,” that you couldn’t count them. Just like when you try to count the stars, you finally give up because there are too many to count!

When God first told Abram he would have many children, Abram couldn’t believe it. He said, “How can I have many children when I am so old and don’t even have one child yet?”

Then he remembered his servant. Maybe, since his servant lived in his house with him, his servant would have all the children! Maybe that is what God was talking about.

But God said, “No, your servant’s children will not be your children. You will have your own children, and they will have children.”

That was when God showed Abram all the stars in the sky. God told him to count the stars, but of course Abram couldn’t. Then God said, “That’s how many descendants you will have.”

Did Abram believe God now? Yes, the Bible tells us that now he did. Now Abram had faith in the Lord, even though it looked impossible to him. Now he believed that somehow, someday, God would keep His promise.

God always keeps His promises.

You and I may forget that we promised to do something, or we may break a promise if we get angry, but God always remembers promises. The Bible tells us that God changes not.

But—one thing before we go back to our story—if God keeps all promises, that means that He remembers the promises of punishment as well as the promises of good! God promises that He will never destroy the world with a flood again, but He also promises that the punishment for sin is death forever. God is not like our parents or teachers who sometimes will not punish us after all. God is fair and just He must punish sin because He promised to do so. If He ignored sin, He would be lying. God must do everything He promised. Oh, that we would all pray to God to remember us in mercy!

God continued to talk to Abram. He told him how his descendants would become prisoners in another country, but finally come out of it with many belongings. God also made a covenant and promise with Abram to give him all the land around him.

Then what happened? Did Abram’s wife Sarai have any children?

God always keeps His promises.

No, time passed, but still Sarai did not have any children. Sarai was worried. She was getting old and didn’t think she could have children anymore. How could she help Abram get children?

Sarai had an idea. She had a maid, or helper, named Hagar. Hagar was still young. She could still have children! Why didn’t Abram marry her? (In those days God allowed men to have more than one wife at one time even though He did not approve of it.)

Abram thought that was a good idea, too. So he married Hagar, and pretty soon she found out she was going to have a baby!

But—then what happened? Hagar began to feel really proud that she could have children. She laughed at Sarai because she couldn’t have any, and soon Hagar felt like she owned the house and was in charge, when really Sarai was.

Sarai became very sad. She realized that she had sinned and should have had faith in God to give them children. She told Abram, “I have sinned. I was wrong to tell you to marry Hagar. Now Hagar dislikes me and won’t listen to me.”

Then Abram told her that Hagar was her maid, and that she could do anything she wanted to do to make Hagar obey.

So Sarai became mean to Hagar. She treated her angrily and unkindly. Soon Hagar couldn’t bear it anymore and ran out of the house.

Hagar was sitting, crying, by a fountain of water, when she heard a voice. It was an angel of the Lord! The angel asked her, “Hagar, where did you come from? Where are you going?”

Hagar told him she had run away from Sarai. Then the angel told her, “Go back to Sarai, and do whatever she tells you.”

Was that all the angel told her? No, the angel had a promise for her from God. He told her that she would have a baby boy and that his name should be Ishmael. Ishmael would be a wild man and always fighting with everyone. He would have many, many children and grandchildren, too.

Hagar listened to the angel and obeyed him. She went home, just as he had told her to. She became Sarai’s maid again and obeyed her. And, it wasn’t long before Hagar had a little boy— and she gave him the name of Ishmael!

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen