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A Sermon on Genesis 21:14-18 HAGAR part 2 What A Single Mother Needs

Submitted by tcblack on Sun, 08/10/2008 - 6:00am
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Hope

- Try to imagine Hagar pushing off into the wilderness, supplies for a day or so at her side, and her son walking beside her. She’s been ousted by the boy’s father - someone she couldn’t even call her husband. Now she’s alone and terrified, wondering what’s she’s going to do when the bread and water give out. Then look at Hagar putting her son under the bush and walking a stone’s throw away to sit and wait hopelessly for her son’s death.

Single mothers often deal with feelings of guilt, real or imagined, combined with tremendous feelings of inadequacy and hopelessness. Single mothers are also dealing with the sudden stark reality that this child is going to take the rest of her life to raise, a life some of them had barely begun to live themselves. It doesn’t matter how they got to be single mothers: Teen pregnancy, Divorce, being widowed, or abandoned. They’re often struggling alone, isolated and scared of the future; they need constant encouragement.

Think about the enormous power that hope has to give life where none existed before. Imagine also the overwhelming power of hopelessness to destroy a heart and crush a human being beyond repair.

The first thing we can bring to the single mothers in our community is Hope. The Second is Assistance.

Assistance

Need comes in a hundred different flavors. Sometimes it’s financial, sometimes it’s emotional, or moral, or whatever else we daily rely upon.

A Sermon on Genesis 21:14-18 HAGAR Introduction

Submitted by tcblack on Sat, 08/09/2008 - 6:00am
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Genesis 21:14-21. In a time of great rejoicing, when everyone else would have been having a good time; Sarah looked over in the midst of the celebration and saw that Ishmael was making fun of her new son Isaac. Paul tells us in Galatians that he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born of the spirit.

Filled with rage that her son was being tormented, she immediately told Abraham to send the woman and her son away. But Abraham was a righteous man, and he was unwilling to comply until God assured him that he would care for Hagar and her son. Filled with that assurance, Abraham acquiesced and gave Hagar a skin full of water and a loaf or so of bread and sent her off into the desert. He did the best he could, but after this moment, Hagar would be all alone.

Who knows how long they journeyed in the desert, finally the water was gone, and thirst began to set in. Ishmael now greatly humbled by his thirst walked beside his mother until he could go no further. Finally Hagar sat her son down under a scrub of a bush and walked a short distance away.

Her heart was breaking because she knew there was nothing left to do but die. She couldn’t walk far away because she didn’t want her son to die alone, but she dare not stay to close lest she be forced to watch her son die. Now in despair she began to sob.

And then God showed up.

My friends this story for all it’s familiarity is both touching and powerful. For all it’s harshness, it is full of promise and hope for those who would despair at their last moment. Because whether it’s our lives or someone else's, life itself is hopeless and painfully unbearable until God shows up.

Biblical Counseling

Submitted by tcblack on Tue, 08/05/2008 - 7:42am
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Depression "On the Threshold of Eternity" - Vincent Vangogh

Depression is a very very real phenomena and it attacks Christians as well as non Christians. Depression is an equal opportunity destroyer. So I don't approach the topic vainly or arrogantly. I have in the past suffered with great bouts of depression and I'm constantly amazed at the large number of God's servants that have done the same. (see previous posts Freedom From Darkness & On being the Pastor).
While reading today regarding Cain's sacrifice (Genesis 4:3-8) not being accepted by God (Genesis 4:5) I was struck not only by the question "Why not?" but by the mental state of Cain combined with

Day 2 With the Literary ESV

Submitted by tcblack on Mon, 06/02/2008 - 4:02am
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ESV Literary Study Bible

It's only day two and it's been a hassle to find a block of time to read today. Normally I would do my reading in the morning but I had breakfast with one of the men from church today and it was lots of fun.
Turning to the text it's back to the epic. Jacob the deceiver is about to meet his estranged brother; but even that choice encounter can't happen until the chosen son comes face to face with the Angel of the Lord in a wrestling match. Having survived his encounter with God the man named Israel meanders his way to the promised land and the story makes a monumental shift to his beloved son, Joseph who's tragic but divinely ordained life capitalizes the balance of Genesis.

Exodus opens before us many years after the Israelites first went down to Egypt as a small group of 75, but now they have become hundreds of thousands. Reading the first twelve chapters of Exodus in one sitting (notwithstanding reading the last 1/2 of Genesis at the same time) is massive. We cover eighty years of Moses' life but we do so in a brief time period in which the largest balance is given to the deliverance of Israel from cruel oppression.

The ESV Literary Study Bible's notes during the last part of Genesis are almost more commentary rather than pointing out the literary characteristics of the book - this is largely a function of trying not to be overly repetitious though. I appreciate the brevity of the chapter introductions which give just enough information to help you frame what's going on without beating you over the head with information.

Day 1 With the Literary ESV

Submitted by tcblack on Sun, 06/01/2008 - 5:01am
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ESV Literary Study Bible

BANG! With that I'm out of the starting gate. I haven't quite determined how in depth to make this little blogging routine but I have two windows open. One on each monitor. :-) To my left is the Literary ESV set on Genesis 1 - I started to read the notes and figured I'd best open a blog window on the right. I'm already enjoying the literary notes. Viewing the Bible through a literary Genre lens is a worthy endeavor. Thanks to the venerable KJV the english language is packed with literary allusions to the Bible. Just go looking for them. I've got some reading to do. Don't know how much I'll blog about the content itself but here we go.

Epic. Not only is it the theme of the book of Genesis from a literary standpoint but it is the only way to truly regard reading the book of Genesis (well 1/2 of it) in one sitting. Creation, Fall, Flood, Families of the Earth, and the pivot point of not only the book of Genesis but of the entire Old Testament - the selection of the Patriarch Abram and his children to be the family through whom God will bless the earth.
The flood narrative demonstrates that merely starting over isn't good enough. Once the human soul has been marred by sin, even a proverbial "new years day" won't change anything. So God chooses Abraham and puts into play the long term plan to redeem the human soul.

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