Jesus in Genesis: Stopping Stupid

OUTLINE

• Problem 16:1

• Plan 16:1-3

• Pain 16:4-6

• Provision 16:7-16

QUESTIONS:

1. What stuck out to you from today’s passage?

2. 16:1 We all face problems in this world. What is your go-to thought when you have a problem? We saw that stupid starts small, it starts with a thought. How can we stop stupid before it begins? (2 Corinthians 10:5)

3. 16:1-3 We all come up with plans when faced with problems (fight, flight, freeze, frenzie). What is your go-to plan or method of dealing with problems? How has this coping mechanism impacted people closest to you? What would it look like to repent and walk in faith instead?

4. 16:4-6 There is a plan that looks good to us, but always ends in death. The wages of sin is death. Whatever you sow you will reap. Our plans in our wisdom will never work out well. When your plans don't work out, what is your go-to response (blow up, melt down, blame)? Where do you struggle to own failure? Where do you tend to cast the most blame? Why do you think it is so difficult to see our own faults and flaws? How does the gospel free us?

5. 16:7-16 God is a God who sees and cares for the least and last among us. He asks Hagar to return to the difficult situation. Are you alright with that? Why does God’s plan often involve pain? Why is pain part of the process of growth? How does James 1:1-3 inform us on this topic?

SCRIPTURE REFERENCE:

Genesis 16

Sarai and Hagar
1Now Sarai, Abram’s wife had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar. 2So Sarai said to Abram, “Now behold, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Please go in to my maid; perhaps I will obtain children through her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3After Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife. 4He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her sight. 5And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done me be upon you. I gave my maid into your arms, but when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her sight. May the Lord judge between you and me.” 6But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your maid is in your power; do to her what is good in your sight.” So Sarai treated her harshly, and she fled from her presence.7Now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. 8He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from and where are you going?” And she said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.” 9Then the angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority.” 10Moreover, the angel of the Lord said to her, “I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count.” 11The angel of the Lord said to her further,“Behold, you are with child,And you will bear a son;And you shall call his name Ishmael,Because the Lord has given heed to your affliction.12He will be a wild donkey of a man,His hand will be against everyone,And everyone’s hand will be against him;And he will live to the east of all his brothers.”13Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God who sees”; for she said, “Have I even remained alive here after seeing Him?” 14Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.15So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.