Dev Ramcharan - Class 4: She is my Sister

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   This is the Rocky Mountain Bible School. Today is Thursday, June 27, 2019. This is study four of our second class. Our speaker is Brother Dev Ramshurin from the Toronto West, Ontario, Canada Ecclesia. His theme for the week is Abraham Believed God. Today's title is She Is My Sister. Brother Dev. Well, good morning, brothers and sisters.

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   We will pick things up again at Genesis chapter 17. Genesis 17. And do you remember we were talking about the fact that God said, I will make my covenant with you as if it's not already been defined, as if it's already not fairly clear, and as if the details, at least up to this particular point in time, have not been provided to Abraham.

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   And we understood, or at least we have interpreted that to mean, that what God is saying is that now it's in implementation mode. You will recall also the proof that Yahweh gave to Abraham to reassure him by providing what he would have been used to in his social circumstances, in the cutting of a covenant, and the Shekinah glory, the manifestation of Yahweh in this form of light and fire, which walked through between the sacrificial offerings, when Abraham didn't.

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   And of course, he couldn't, because Abraham was not an equal partner in this covenant. This was God's covenant that he made. Abraham could not construct for himself the mechanisms of salvation that the covenant pointed to. God did all of that. Abraham, yes, he provided the animals, but ultimately God gave him the animals.

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   So even in that way, God provided every aspect of what would result, what would be the eventuality of the fulfillment of all of the promises in their details. The point of just that lit torch going through and igniting the sacrificial offerings and the wood under the offerings is that this was all of God's making.

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   The saving of mankind was all of God's making. It wasn't an angry, vicious God peeking around the corner to smack people down that had to have his anger and rage assuaged by somebody else. It was a God who, seeing the plight of mankind and knowing in advance what would happen, had worked out a way in which through faith, through faith, as Brother Jim has so well presented to us and pointed out to us in all its details, through faith, men and women would be saved as they believed in him.

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   And so no, the usual cutting of a covenant meant two people walking in between the animals from opposite sides and meeting in the middle so that they would have their agreement. But in this case, it was just the one going through. That does not mean that Abraham did not have his responsibilities. in the keeping of the covenant, in being compliant with the details of the covenant, including circumcision, etc.

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   But ultimately, this is all God's action. It's all God's framework. The constructed mechanisms, all of the details, every aspect, including the provision of his own beloved son, that we might all have hope. And you will never forget that moving section of the session that Brother Jim presented to us yesterday when he talked about that, tying in Genesis 22 with God's provision of his only beloved son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

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   God's done all of these things that we, through faith, might have hope. When we look at chapter 17, it starts off again, verse 2, God says, as for me, behold, my covenant is with you, and you will be the father of a multitude of nations. And then, it goes down to verse 9, God said to Abraham, as for thee, that's what the revised version says, as for thee, thou shalt keep my covenant, therefore, thou and thy seed after thee in their generations.

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    This is my covenant, my covenant, that ye shall keep. And he talks about circumcision, and that that is a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.

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    Now, Paul points out, as Jim has reminded us, that faith came. And it was the faith that created that relationship between Abraham and God. It was through his faith that God accounted him a righteous man. circumcision came after.

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    A sign in the flesh, which indicated that, well, you were a member of the covenant people, but it was also a message to a Jew, to all Jews, male and female, that they were to have the faith, the loyalty, and the love of Abraham, the character of Abraham. It wasn't just that it would be a sign to them that they were superior to other races, and that it, in and of itself, gave them some kind of magical power above and beyond Gentiles.

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    And the Gentiles had to demonstrate that they were like them by being circumcised. Christ, this was just a sign in the flesh. It was a thing that continually reminded them. It involved the cutting off of flesh and faith in God and the living of their lives would have, as a core theme, the cutting off of the restriction of flesh, parameters and boundaries for flesh.

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    And then we go on through that narrative, and it says in verse 15, and God said unto Abraham, as for Sarai thy wife. That's wonderful, isn't it? Because it doesn't, it isn't just saying that God has responsibilities that he's just outlined. It isn't just saying that Abraham has responsibilities, but it brings in his partner and it says, together, you will help each other and you both have responsibilities together.

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    And this mother, this woman Sarah, it says, I will bless her and give thee a son of her. Yea, I will bless her and she shall be a mother of nations. Nations! So that's not just people who are Jewish. The implication is multitudes of Gentiles will call her their mother. Sarah.

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    So Jerusalem is the mother of us all. Sarah is the mother of us all. Abraham is our father through faith and baptism into their special seed. Sarai. Well, different lexicographers, different people who work with the language and talk about the origins of words and so on and so forth have indicated that Sarah means princess.

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    It can also mean noble woman. Noble woman. And it is the feminine version of the male word sar which means commander. It means captain. In chapter 21 Abimelech and his captain sar will ask Abraham to make an agreement, a covenant with them. So this word princess when we think of our little girl who is our little princess and our family this is a serious word.

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    Very, very serious word. In fact, serious to the extent that one of the people that has defined its meaning has said noble woman, princess, woman of strength.

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    And if that word Sarah is the feminine equivalent of sar then that would make sense, wouldn't it? You wouldn't think in terms of a weak, waffly, indecisive captain. What kind of captain would that be? And so the feminine equivalent is not going to be a light insubstantial individual. Sarah is gentle, patient, patient, patient, forgiving, but very strong.

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    We see those moments of the strength manifested in negative energy when she bursts out in a particular time. And we'll look at that shortly. But Sarah, Sarah has an absolutely crucial role to play in the covenant. Through her the children will come. And it says that she will be a mother of nations, kings of peoples.

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    Peoples, not people, kings of peoples, meaning multiple nations, shall be of her. Now the lines of the kings coming through Sarah go all the way through, not just to the Lord Jesus Christ, the great and lofty one, of all the kings, but also to those people who say, thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and hast made us unto our God kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth.

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    And so the kings of the nations that come through Sarah include people in this room, people in this very room, who will be kings and priests in that kingdom of priests that the Lord Jesus Christ shall reign over on God's behalf. Wonderful woman, Sarah. Sarah versus Sarah. Well, what has been suggested is Sarah means my Sarah, just like Malachi, Malachi, means my messenger, I, is my.

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    Sarah, my Sarah, my princess, my noble woman. And the interpretation that was suggested, whether you agree with it or not, was that that indicated well, that Sarah was really confined to the people closest to her, her immediate family members, her husband, whatever child she would have, my Sarah, my princess, but by the removal of my, she becomes a princess whose importance is more universal.

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    It's not just confined to her immediate family, because multitudes will find their descent from her in the faith. Multitudes. She will be the princess, noble woman, woman of strength, queen, and mother of multitudes as Abraham is the father of multitudes. Now we're going back in time to chapter 16.

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    a promise had been made by God. There would be children, but it didn't look as if any were coming. Sarai, Abram's wife, bare him no children. She had a handmaid, an Egyptian whose name was Hagar. Now to stop and reflect on that relationship,

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    Sarah, Sarai, is a beautiful woman who has come out into this wandering from an upscale urban environment where she in that environment was already an individual from a notable family. Right? She's named in a particular way. Her husband's name means high or elevated father, which points to his father, terror, more than likely.

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    Harry Witt suggests that maybe what that means is that as elevated father, his father might have been some kind of priestly nobleman in their society at one point in time. And there are some Jewish traditions that talk about that one. There's one quite funny one. Of course there's nothing biblical about it, but I'll tell it to you anyway.

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    It's a Jewish tradition. And the Jewish tradition is this, an old story, an old tale, that terror, as we learn in Joshua, was an idolater. In fact, he made idols and sold them in a store. And Abram, who was not a believer in those gods, but believed in one god, one day smashed all the idols in the store, in the shop, and took a stick and put it in the hand of one of the surviving ones.

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    Terror comes in and he says, what happened? Abram said, well, this one idol destroyed all the others with that stick. And Terah says, that's impossible. And Abraham says to him, then why do you believe those things? Now, that is such a Jewish story, it cannot be true. It's so, it has Jewish humor throughout.

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    It is riddled with Eastern Ashkenazi humor. There's no way that's true, but it's a great story. But the point is, Zara didn't come from a humble little family in her of the Chaldese. She did not. And they had servants. Now, servants were not members of the family. Right? The servant girl was considered to be the bottom of the family.

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    The lowest peg on the ladder of hierarchy in the family structure. But there was an affection that developed between the woman and the young girl who helped her get her clothes ready, brush her hair, draw whatever bath she had, if she had jewelry, put on her jewelry, et cetera, et cetera. And the woman of the house would take an interest in this child or in this young woman.

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    And there would be a genuine affection but the division from a social strata perspective was very great. The gulf was very great. That girl, for instance, would never become or never be seen as someone who was appropriate to be the daughter-in-law that you might have one day. You might love this young girl.

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    And you remember there was a little girl who was a servant to a family whose master had a terrible leprosy. You remember that little Israeli girl who was in that home. And obviously she's a beloved little child in the house, but she's a servant in the house. And so there is this girl, we don't know how old she is, Hagar.

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    Hagar. And Zara has this affection for her, this trust, trust. And she knows that according to the social norms of the time, if I own this girl and she has a child, well, that's my child, in the same way that this woman is my servant. And therefore, by having a child through her, the child is mine and Abraham's, not the girl's.

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    Not the girl's. God's. And so what happens is, Sarah says to Abraham, look, Yahweh has restrained me from bearing. She doesn't blame him. Do you remember there once was a patriarchal wife, a matriarch, who said to her husband with great peevishness that it was his fault that she wasn't pregnant. He says, am I in God's place?

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    Yes. Well, Sarah doesn't do that. Sarah's a very, very spiritual minded sister. And she says, I pray you, go into my handmaid. It may be that I may obtain children by her.

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    Now, just think of that. Sarah had been with her husband a long time. She knew him very, very well. She knew him very well.

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    Perhaps it slipped her mind that there might be an affection that might grow in him towards this girl, that she might misinterpret her mind. And in her mind, grow large.

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    Abram, like Adam in Eden, doesn't say no. Surely, Abram must have had, it crossed his mind at least once. Maybe this is not the best way. nowhere in this little part of the narrative is there a prayer to the God for guidance who Sarah knows has prevented her up to this point in time from conceiving.

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    So once again, they're going by their own lights, using their own wits, and doing what seems to be logical to the eyes of flesh, but crosses the boundary line to the eyes of faith. Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.

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    Now, that phrase ten years in the land of Canaan is not just a throwaway line. Ten years. No pregnancy. And so they thought, well, she thought, we have to do something. I have to do something. Maybe there's a way, and technically, technically, if I do this, that's my child.

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    And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived. Now, Sarai didn't just give this girl to her husband, that she might be a slave girl.

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    Sarai elevates her to be a wife to Abram. Do you see how things are getting messier and messier? she gave her to her husband to be his wife.

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    To be his, she's not a surrogate mother. She's his wife. So this slave girl has now been elevated at a, at a, at a, at a speed and to a level she could never have imagined. I'm his wife. Now, according to the customs, when there were multiple wives, there was a, well, there was the first wife, the primary wife, and there was a pecking order amongst the wives.

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    It didn't work so well with Jacob, but that's how it's done in Muslim families today where there are multiple wives. When you're 17 years old, you think multiple wives is a really good idea. When you're a 50-year-old man with four fighting families, you realize it is the greatest tragedy of your life. Now he has two wives.

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    And he went into Hagar and she conceived. She conceived like that. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.

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    And so that word mistress is put in there by God. Remember, we say Moses is writing, Paul is writing, God is writing from beginning to end. God put that in there. Because Hagar should still have realized she was not on an equal footing with Sarai. She should have known Sarai was still her mistress, but she forgot that.

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    She forgot that because of the elevated level to which Sarai, in desperation and kindness, had lifted her. And then it says, Sarai said unto Abram, my wrong be upon thee. Now she hadn't blamed him for her barrenness, but she sees he is at fault for letting this situation develop. now Abram, a naturally affectionate kind of man.

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    We see that in his dealing with Lot. We see it with his wife. We see it with his son. We see it in the love, the absolute love that Eliezer of Damascus has for him. This outsider who's come in and just loves him so much because of the kind of man he is and how he has changed because of Abraham.

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    This man could not help but love. Can it not be that Sarah saw that he loved Hagar also? Can that not have been poison trickling through her heart? And when this girl turned around and despised her, the word despise means to see something as slight, to see something of little account, to see something as despicable, to see something as if it's trifling.

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    That's how she saw Sarah. And can you not imagine, because this is a large community, it's not five, six people moving around in a tent or two or three tents. It could have been hundreds of people together, 318 fighting men, men born in the house or born in the group. well, you could have had at least seven or eight hundred people.

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    Might not the women have been together cooking, washing, doing their different things? Might Sarah have not walked by and heard on the inside of a tent women's voices, laughter, mocking, imitation of her voice, the word princess, spoken out with absolute disrespect. Hagar, elevated as she was, losing touch with reality, entitled, and forgetting her responsibility, speaking against her, saying, look, they've been trying for how many years?

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    We're pregnant already. Look at that, the princess, some princess, huh? And the women could have been particularly cruel to each other sometimes. So you can just imagine the hurt that Sister Sarah would feel, and the times when Hagar might speak up out of turn with Abram, and say something, and weigh in, and Sarah would pull back, and then look at Abram waiting for him to say something, finding him saying nothing, and then following that, leaving, aggrieved, realizing, he doesn't realize, he doesn't realize how bad this looks, and what she's just done to me.

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    And over time, bit by bit, the building blocks of division between them occurred. And it says, she says to him, my wrong be upon you. You see this happening, you could do something about it. You don't open your mouth, you don't stop her when she's saying the things she says. You don't stop her in her attitudes.

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    You've given her the right to feel she can say and do what she wants. You've made her feel as if she's just like me. my wrong be upon you. I have given my handmaid. That's all she was. I gave you my servant girl, my slave girl, into your bosom that belongs to me.

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    I put her there. And when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes, and you knew it. And you didn't correct her. And you didn't stop her behavior.

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    May Yahweh judge between you and me, between me and thee. And what she's saying is, Abram, you have hurt me so badly. After all we've been through together. After the kind of wife I have been at your side.

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    This is unbelievable. May God be judged between us in this matter. Because you don't seem to have any judgment right now. You don't seem to have the ability to see right from wrong in this situation. Abram realizes once again through bad decision making or absence of decision making, through inadequate leadership or no leadership, Abram is in a situation like he was in Egypt and like he will be in Gerar where he's powerless and can't even do anything.

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    He stops and thinks the only thing I can do is just put her back into her hands completely and say look, she's not my wife anymore. She's now in your hands. She's your servant girl. That's what she is. That's what she is. Which must mean the relationship between Abram and Hagar radically altered in this situation where he acquiesces and pulls back.

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    Behold thy maid is in thy hand. Do to her revised version that which is good in thine eyes. And Sarah dealt hardly with her. it means to afflict, to oppress, to humble, to be bowed down. And Hagar no longer had access to Abram. And Hagar who doubtless saw herself as better than and above Sarai because she was fruitful and Sarai was not.

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    And Hagar who had boasted of her prowess and of who she was versus Sarai to the community of women was beaten down small. It is as if Hagar has all of Sarai's spleen and frustration vented on her. Sarai, this wonderful sister, this beautiful from the heart out sister shows us that she's only human like all of the rest of us.

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    And for all of the sorrow of the narrative it draws us very close to her and her very close to us. She beat her so badly she fled from her face and the angel of Yahweh found her. And so God went looking for this girl. He didn't just let her go. She was not just abandoned because she carried in herself a child for Abraham.

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    Now she and the child would eventually have to be evicted but God who is honor personified sends his angel out looking for her. He found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness by the fountain on the way to Shur. And Hagar and he said Hagar and he doesn't say Abram's wife.

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    That may have been Sarai's horrendously failed plan but it wasn't God's plan. He calls her by her appropriate title. Sarai Sarai's handmaid. Whence camest thou? Where will you go? And with tears she says I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai. She's so angry with me. Every time she looks at me her face is filled with rage.

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    I'm so afraid of her. And it says the angel of Yahweh said to her return to your mistress. And submit yourself under her hands.

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    So what he's just told her is go back home. Endure through the mistreatment. Because God knows, the angel knows, Sarai being who she is, she will stop.

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    And it will come to an end. And so it goes on, the angel of the Lord said unto her, I will greatly, not just multiply, Revised version says, greatly multiply thy seed, and it shall not be numbered for multitude. So she is going to have a vast amount of descendants. She too is going to be the mother of a multitude, but not equal to Sarah, not equal to Sarah's multitudes.

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    Hers will be fleshly descendants. Sarah's multitudes will be multitudes of faith, multitudes of faith, and the fleshly descendants likewise, but primarily multitudes in the faith. and she goes back home, and she has a son, and it says in verse 11, the angel of Yahweh said to her, behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael, because Yahweh hath heard thy affliction.

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    And so the name of this boy was a rebuke, but gentle to Sarah. Every time Sarah heard that name, a conflicted feeling would be in her heart.

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    That boy's name means God heard his mother. God heard his mother. And heard what I did to her. And so it would work as a check, but at the same time, give her a feeling of conflict inside. Every time she heard that name, that conflict would get to its peak when the 14 year old Ishmael would be saying foul things about Abimelech and his mother to Isaac, the little boy.

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    And now we go quickly to chapter 20. In chapter 20 we see played out for us the reality that we do not always learn the lessons we learn well enough to not repeat the same mistakes again. Every one of us. And if you sometimes feel this terrific frustration with your inconsistencies with the problems you struggle with with the failures that you experience with your stumbling and falling about the place spiritually speaking just think of Abraham just think of Abraham Isaac Jacob and everyone after them except for the Lord Jesus Christ who thanks be to God was sinless.

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    The story begins with Abraham following the destruction the obliteration of Sodom and Gomorrah and all that happened to Lot and his family journeyed from thence towards the south country and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur and sojourned in Gerar. Now Gerar means a lodging place and it's located at the edge of Philistine territory territory that's that's the general area of it.

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    He's in this area and there's a king and Sarah's beauty is clear to everyone. Now look what it says in verse two and Abraham said of Sarah his wife she is my sister.

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    Now it does say later on that Sarah likewise said this to Abimelech and confirmed the story but the person who starts off by making this clear to everyone is Abraham. Abraham how had he forgotten what had happened in Egypt?

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    In actual fact he had misjudged the situation completely in Egypt and been completely humiliated because of it. Now he's once again in Gentile territory where he's afraid in this territory in this town and he brings up the half truth the semi lie again and it says Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.

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    Now the one interpretation of the meaning of the name of Abimelech is my father is king but another interpretation of it and this has been suggested by brother Jim Cowley is that it means father king father king right just a suggestion that has been made but what we do know is this this man has a loftiness of character and integrity like very few people that are described in scripture and he's a Gentile he's that person who sits in the desk beside you who when he hears you lose your temper or get frustrated on the phone and use language you shouldn't turns to you and says Dev should you be speaking like that aren't you a Christian dolphin or something Christadelphian is that what you are and you sit there in shame and say yes thank you for that I'm sorry I shouldn't have said that Abimelech it says takes him and God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him behold thou art but a dead man for the woman which thou hast taken for she is a man's wife and the Hebrew behold thou art a dead man is very brief and very very clear and very simple it says look you are dead and then he continues now God takes the time this loving God now of course God could have said well how many times do I have to teach you the same lesson that I'm with you I'm with you I'm your shield and your great reward what is wrong with you what more do I have to do to prove to you I'll take care of you

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    but he doesn't do that doesn't do anything like that because God knows that we are made of dust and how weak and frail we are and still loves us and even though you or I might feel like that was a slap in the face because once again your son doesn't come and ask you for help and he's in trouble you heard from someone else that he's done this or that or the other nonsense to get himself out of trouble I'm right here how many times have I already done it never once saying don't ask me for help that's what we would feel not God because God understood they were in a process works in progress to become full fledged and fully mature in faith and we have our problems along the way and he speaks to Abimelech he hadn't done that with Pharaoh when he smote his household with plagues but he speaks to Abimelech and Abimelech says Lord wilt thou slay also a righteous nation now he said to him you're a dead man and if he was an egocentric fool who thought I am the center of the universe then well you could interpret it that way I being as incredibly important as I am I am the nation itself therefore you're killing everybody but in fact this is a man of such fundamental integrity this is a man who sees himself as responsible for the entire community that he rules over this is a man who has established in his community principles and behaviors that are all about law and keeping the law and it says are you going to kill a

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    righteous city too in other words will you destroy us like you destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah you know we're not like them you know we are law abiding we're about the rule of law in this town and you know that I would not have done this if I had known who this woman really was said he not himself unto me she is my sister and she even she herself said he is my brother in the integrity of my heart and the innocency of my hands have I done this and he not touched her why because God made him sick before he could how do we know that because it says at the end verse 17 and God healed Abimelech so God made him sick so that he would not approach Sarah and cross the boundary line now another aspect that may be possible as far as Sarah is concerned is that meaning of her name demonstrated itself in how she carried herself in her wit in her conversation in her respectfulness brother Roger lays it up beautifully in his book but imagine a very regal woman she looked like a queen she looked like a princess she wasn't just desirable for her beauty only and so to Abimelech this is the kind of woman I would like to have as my queen or one of my queens and he lays it out for God and then God says yes I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart for I also withheld you from sinning against me therefore I didn't allow you to touch her and so what God is acknowledging is by making

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    you sick I prevented you from sinning so this is a man not even a man of the faith who has a concept of sin right and wrong a standard of behavior there he is a Gentile doing the will of God without knowing the God yet that he is doing the will of and now therefore he says restore the man his wife for he is a prophet and shall pray for thee and thou shalt live and the psalmist in Psalm 105 verses 14 and 15 comments on this and says he suffered no man to do them wrong yea he reproved kings for their sake saying touch not mine anointed do my prophets no harm no harm and so Abraham is a prophet because he speaks forth the word of God in talking about the promises he gives messages from God to the community of people around him after he has been given the promises in their unfolding comprehensiveness he shares that with the community so they all know he's a prophet and so the story continues verse 9 Abimelech calls him he says what have you done to us what did I do to offend you what did I do to offend you the end of it all because we don't have time to get through all the words is that with such kindness and integrity and honor Abimelech unlike Pharaoh who said go your way in brackets get out of my country Abimelech says the whole land my country is before you choose any part of it and live in it and he gives he gives publicly Sarah a whole batch of silver 25 pounds

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    of it in weight he says that is to demonstrate to your community nothing inappropriate happened to you this is a message to you and to them a covering of the eyes now Hagar's son will not see it that way and will make vile accusations that he shares with his little half brother but Abimelech's intents were honorable he wasn't just content to let them go he wanted to make sure her reputation was secure and she lied to him and put him in an untenable situation and got him sick and he still did that so the message from all of this is for us the redeemed are people who make mistakes and make mistakes and make mistakes even the greatest of us our mother and our father in the faith made mistakes along the way and they were imperfect but they still got up brushed themselves off and kept on moving forward in the faith and so must we