Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
Desperate situations are designed for the grace of God.
Wednesday, December 12, 2001
`ayin – the eye of the individual, one’s outlook or perspective, mental and spiritual faculties being refreshed by a spring, a fountain, an oasis.
Beth – a house, the plan of God.
Gimel – a camel in the ancient world, travel with great gifts, intense wisdom through experience.
Daleth – a door, an entrance into the plan of God = God has provided for every need you will ever have.
Vau – a peg or a nail; a support or something used to fasten things together.
Zain – a sword, weapons in the ancient world.
`ayin = the eye of the individual.
Shur = the desert on the border of Egypt.
When people are desperate they always go back to something they know, even though what they know is worse than what they left.
2PE 2:22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”
1. Jesus Christ found Hagar in a hopeless situation; minus water, minus food, inadequately clothed, pregnant, exhausted, helpless in the desert.
2. You never solve your problems by going back to Egypt, a type of the world or the cosmic system.
3. Desperate people are irrational, even when they’re smart.
4. Hagar did not find Jesus Christ, but Jesus Christ found Hagar – this is grace.
HAB 1:13 Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You cannot look upon sin.
JOH 1:29 “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
JOH 3:17 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.”
2CO 5:19 God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
2PE 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
The first solution is salvation – Hagar is going to receive doctrinal information from the Lord.
5. Hagar has stopped at the oasis for water and rest, but her spiritual thirst will be satisfied.
HEB 12:17 For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.
6. Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.
7. Desperate situations are designed for the grace of God.
Love does not produce the action of grace. Justice produces the action of grace.
Honor and justice are the means by which great love is expressed.
Life is a desert, and we all need the oasis of spiritual refreshment and the water of the Word.
PRO 11:30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, And he who is wise wins souls.
DAN 12:3 “And those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.”
MAT 16:19 “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
All of you have the power to save others, snatching them out of a place described as a place of torment, LUK 16:28.
A place where desire is never met, LUK 16:24. A place of unspeakable misery – “everlasting fire,” MAT 25:41.
A place where the worm [conscience] never dies and the fire is never quenched, MAR 9:44.
All of you have the power to save others, snatching them out of the Lake which burns with fire and brimstone,REV 21:8.
A bottomless pit, REV 9:2.
MAR 9:49 “For everyone will be salted with fire.”
REV 14:11 “the smoke of their torment ascends up for ever and ever and they have no rest day or night.”
2CO 6:2 “Now is the time of acceptance; now is the day of salvation.”