Welcome to a year in the Bible with Daily Grace. The Bible tells one big story of redemption.

And we want to spend five minutes every day journeying through the Bible from start to finish

and exploring how all of it points to Jesus.

Hey, hey, everyone. Welcome back to a year in the Bible with Daily Grace. This is Joanna

Kimberl here at your host through the book of Genesis. And today we're covering chapters

16 through 18. So God promised Abram and Sarah more offspring than they could count, but

10 years have gone by and no babies. Now Sarah was getting a bit antsy, so she decided to

take matters into her own hands. Instead of trusting in God's timing, his power and

his promises, Sarah tells Abram to sleep with Hegar, her Egyptian servant. And the crazy

thing is Abram listened to her. He slept with Hegar and she got pregnant. And then Hegar

looked down on Sarah with pride. They dehumanized Hegar and took advantage of her. But now she

had something Sarah didn't and she flaunted it. Sarah was jealous and she blamed Abram

for the bitter sting she felt. And the truth is they both were at fault. Sarah retaliated

and Hegar fled to escape the abuse. Now we might expect Abram and Sarah to kind of count

their losses and move on. But God graciously pursues Hegar. He comes to her in her grief

and he calls her by name. He promises her a blessing not unlike the blessing of Abram.

And he tells her to return to Abram and Sarah. Hegar rejoices in the Lord and is the only

person in the Old Testament to give God a name. El Roy, the God who sees me. When Hegar

was rejected and abused, God saw and He drew near. When Abram was 86 years old, Hegar

gave birth to Ishmael. 13 years later, God appeared to him again and restated his covenant

promise. This time, He gave Abram a new name, Abraham, which means Father of a multitude

of nations. Abraham's failures didn't diminish God's promises, but in his grace, God actually

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