Re-blogged: A Loving Pursuit: Part 8 ( A God Who Sees)

October 19, 2018 at 9:52 pm (A Loving Pursuit, abiding, About Sin, advocating, Assurance, Battling, Bible study, Contentment, correction, Devotional Series I Have Written, Devotional Thoughts., Discernment, Empathy, Faith, Family, Fear, Forgiveness, Grace, Guidance, Healing, Home Education, Homeschooling, Hope, Joy, Knowledge, Life, Lighter Burdens., Love, Love, Marriage, Mercy, Obedience, Our Unchanging God, Parenting, Patience, Peace, Praise, Provision, refuge, Rejoicing, Relaxed Homeschooling, Repentance, Resting, Restoration, Righteousness, shelter, sorrow, Sovereignty of God, strengthening, Suffering, Thanksgiving, Transformation., Trusting, Truth, value, Veteran Homeschoolers, When you are afraid, When you feel bitter, When You Feel Like Crying., Wisdom, worth)

Scripture references;

^“29Are not two ^[j]little sparrows sold for a penny? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s leave (consent) and notice.

³⁰But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

³¹Fear not, then; you are of more value than many sparrows.” Matthew 10:29-31 AMP

“⁶Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, ⁷casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.’ 1 Peter 5:6-7 ESV

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“1Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar.

²And Sarai said to Abram, See here, the Lord has restrained me from bearing [children]. I am asking you to have intercourse with my maid; it may be that I can obtain children by her. And Abram listened to and heeded what Sarai said.

³So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her Egyptian maid, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his [secondary] wife.

⁴And he had intercourse with Hagar, and she became pregnant; and when she saw that she was with child, she looked with contempt upon her mistress and despised her.

⁵Then Sarai said to Abram, May [the responsibility for] my wrong and deprivation of rights be upon you! I gave my maid into your bosom, and when she saw that she was with child, I was contemptible and despised in her eyes. May the Lord be the judge between you and me.

⁶But Abram said to Sarai, See here, your maid is in your hands and power; do as you please with her. And when Sarai dealt severely with her, humbling and afflicting her, she [Hagar] fled from her.

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But ^[a]the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness on the road to Shur.

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⁸And He said, Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where did you come from, and where are you intending to go? And she said, I am running away from my mistress Sarai.

⁹The Angel of the Lord said to her, Go back to your mistress and [humbly] submit to her control.

¹⁰Also the Angel of the Lord said to her, I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be numbered for multitude.

¹¹And the Angel of the Lord continued, See now, you are with child and shall bear a son, and shall call his name Ishmael [God hears], because the Lord has heard and paid attention to your affliction.

¹²And he [Ishmael] will be as a ^[b]wild ass among men; his hand will be against every man and every man’s hand against him, and he will live to the east and on the borders of all his kinsmen.

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¹³So she called the name of the Lord Who spoke to her, You are a God of seeing, for she said, Have I [not] even here [in the wilderness] looked upon Him Who sees me [and lived]?Or have I here also seen [the future purposes or designs of] Him Who sees me?

¹⁴Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi [A well to the Living One Who sees me]; it is^[c]between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son whom Hagar bore^[d]Ishmael.

¹⁶Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael.” Genesis 16:1-16 AMP

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Here we are in Genesis 16 facing an interesting situation. The Lord had spoken to Abram on a number of occasions concerning offspring (note the scripture below), and if you look at Genesis 15:6 you will see that it says that Abram believed the Lord. Abram was a lot like us. He had some information, but not all of the information. I think a lot of people in a situation like theirs would reason and conclude that a surrogate mother was the means the Lord intended them to use. I can sympathize with Abram, Sarah, and Hagar. However the Lord had His own plan. The same God who sees every sparrow that falls looked upon them….all of them. He looks upon us, too, and He cares for us.

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1Now the Lord said^[a] to Abram, “Go from your country^[b] and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ²And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:1-3 ESV

¹⁴The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are,northward and southward and eastward and westward, ¹⁵for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. ¹⁶I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. ¹⁷Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” Genesis 13:14-17 ESV

God’s Covenant with Abram

15 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” ²But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue^[a] childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” ³And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” ⁴And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son^[b] shall be your heir.” ⁵And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him,“So shall your offspring be.” ⁶And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

⁷And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” ⁸But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” ⁹He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” ¹⁰And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. ¹¹And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

¹²As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. ¹³Then theLord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. ¹⁴But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterwardthey shall come out with great possessions. ¹⁵As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. ¹⁶And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

¹⁷When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. ¹⁸On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give^[c] this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, ¹⁹the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ²¹the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”Genesis 15 ESV

On December 20, 2013 I started a series titled “A Loving Pursuit” . I am resuming my study tonight. Below are the links to the other posts in the series for anyone who would like to start from the beginning and catch up. Although I started in Genesis, and am working my way through the Bible I won’t make a post on every chapter of every book, so if you only wish to read occasionally it really doesn’t matter what order you read the posts or if you only read some of them.

photo credit: pixabay.com

2 Comments

Debbie said,

October 20, 2018 at 8:38 pm

I so loved reading this again. There was something special about your handling of Sarai giving Hagar to Abram . . .that wouldn’t we as well think that this must be the way God meant to give us a son in our circumstances. Oh yes . . .I am sure I have done that too, thinking for Him , figuring things out in my own understanding. :). Bless you and thank you for these precious posts! Love! Deb

Reply
- Moore to ponder said,
  
  October 20, 2018 at 11:28 pm
  
  Thank you so much, Deb! I’m glad you liked it.
  
  Love,
  Theresa
  
  Reply