Genesis 16: The God Who Sees

Reading through Genesis 16 reminded me of this… from Spring Luncheon 2009.

… I believe God has a word for us of comfort, of hope, of life, from Hagar’s story today.

So let’s do a quick overview of what we know about Hagar. Abraham and Sarah, right? You with me? God tells Abraham, when he’s 75 years old, Go to a land I will show you, and I will make you a great nation (i.e. the Jews) and your descendents will be like the stars in the sky. Now in order for your descendents to be like the stars you have to start with what? A child. Yes! In fact, the name Abram means Exalted Father, and Abraham means Father of Multitudes. But, they had no children. So that was a really annoying name to have, right? Kind of like a cruel joke. “Hi I’m Father of Multitudes” “Oh, where are your kids?” Yeah.

Hagar is Sarah’s maidservant. Her slave. On their journey, Abraham and Sarah had gone to Egypt during a famine, so it’s likely that they picked Hagar up there and she left her home and traveled with them. So we jump into the story in Genesis chapter 16 and by this time Abraham and Sarah have waited ten years so far for children, ten years to see God fulfill his promise. Abraham’s 86 now. And they’re growing a little tired of waiting. Anybody relate? So Sarah, who’s 76, comes up with this ingenious idea: V.2 so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I shall obtain children through her.”. Does that strike anyone else as the most asinine idea on the planet?? This is her husband. The only way I can understand Sarah having this idea is that she was delirious with desire for a child. And that’s not our main point here today but I believe somebody here needs to hear that. Ladies, we can be so emotionally driven by a desire for something we do unthinkably stupid things. Anybody been there? Sarah’s 76 years old, and she takes Hagar who is probably a young girl—like a high schooler. I don’t even like my husband talking to younger women…Talk about setting yourself up for some jealousy and insecurity in your marriage! It says Abraham listened to Sarah and went into Hagar and she conceived. Now just so we can understand the emotional climate right now. Imagine Sarah’s insecurity now—hmmm. Abraham agreed to my plan a little too readily. Was he just doing his duty??? Hmm. You cannot tell me that now Sarah & Hagar’s relationship isn’t absolutely ruined. You introduce sin, everybody loses. And while yes, a main point of this story is the sin of taking matters into our hands, the story doesn’t end here!! We say, “Don’t make an Ishmael” but there’s so much more to the story.

And I can just imagine Hagar hearing all the sermons on this passage, “See don’t make an Ishmael.” And I can almost hear her shout from the page, “This is my LIFE! I’m a WOMAN here.” I remember when Jeff and I went through a seriously difficult and painful time in our life, and everybody had a moral to our story and a neat lesson and even now I can look back and see that, but at the time I just wanted to shout, “This is my LIFE! And I know there’s a neat lesson in my pain but I’m dying here.” And Hagar was a woman. A woman. Not just a slave. A WOMAN. She’s a woman who was utterly and completely USED. Imagine how Hagar must have felt. In fact Sarah’s words in v. 2 are revealing: “that I shall obtain children by her.” Where is her consideration of Hagar’s well being? Nowhere. Hagar was like an animal used for breeding.

What woman on earth doesn’t dream and long to be loved for something more than her body? There is nothing to me like when Jeff kisses the top of my head. It’s nonsexual love and affection and protection and tenderness and true care all wrapped up in one sweet gesture. What woman doesn’t want to be desired. Some women are willing to be used sexually because it makes them at least feel loved and desired for a short time. Hagar didn’t even have that, girls. We studied how Esther sent in to please the king because she was beautiful, desirable. Hagar wasn’t used because she was desirable. She was used for no other reason than that she was there and she had no rights. She had no choice. She was used. No redeeming value. That, dear ladies, is the epitome of demoralizing.

So Hagar conceives, and as any of us with half a wit could have predicted—the whole triangle gets really awkward. Hagar treats Sarah with contempt—which shows us one thing…Hagar was unspeakably wounded. As Sarah’s female servant, with no husband or rights of her own, her well being was solely in the hands of Sarah. And instead of being cared for, she is used like an animal. The one person who had the power to take care of her, betrays and uses her instead.

So Sarah’s mad that Hagar is upset, so she decides to blame Abraham, verse 5: May the wrong done to me be on you!” Sarah is just in rare form right now, isn’t she? Wrong done to HER? Um…may I remind you Sarah the wrong was YOUR wrong and it was done to Hagar! In Esther we talked about how doubly wounding it is to be hurt by someone, and then the very person who hurt you criticizes you for feeling hurt. You ever been there? That’s Hagar right now. Doubly wounded So Abraham says, verse 6 “Behold your servant is in your power, do with her as you please.” So, “so Sarah mistreated her and she (Hagar) fled from her”—

So here’s the scene—Hagar, a young girl, sold as a slave, taken from her home, treated as a piece of property, entrusted her well being to her master, then given over to be used, then the very woman who used her gets mad at her for being upset and then abuses her. So Hagar runs away. Hagar was pregnant, with no provision and no transportation, and now alone in the wilderness where she will likely die. And in this point, at her lowest point, absolutely desolate and without hope, the story has just begun, because now, ladies, now apart from our two famous Bible characters, where no one is but this pregnant, single, female slave—the GOD of the universe shows up. Verse 7, And the angel of the Lord found Hagar.

Now tell me ladies, why do people run away? I can remember growing up, when something would upset me, I’d feel so hurt I’d run to my room, because I always saw on the Brady Bunch that when one of the girls was upset they would run to their room and slam the door and cry, and then a few moments later the parents would come upstairs, gently open the door, and come and sit next to them on the bed comfort Jan or Cindy or whoever it was. And I always thought if I ran away then maybe someone would chase me. Maybe they’d find me. And then I would know that I was valuable enough for someone to come looking for me. Oh how our hearts LONG for someone to come after us! We run away so that someone will please, O God please, let someone care enough to come after me! We run away so we can be found! Because our worst fear is that we run away and no one really cares that we’re gone. And what breaks my heart about Hagar running away is that no one came after her. Not Sarah, not Abraham. Not a single human being came after her.

But, verse 7: The angel of the LORD found her.

Ladies, we must know with every fiber of our being it is GOD who finds us. That is the gospel. A relentlessly loving God comes after us. The good shepherd searches for his lost sheep. He RUNS to meet us. HE initiates, HE comes after us, HE came to earth, died on a cross, so that you could be found. The story of the gospel is God coming, stepping down from heaven, to seek and save that which was lost. Amazing grace how sweet the sound.. I once was lost but now am found. The angel of the Lord found Hagar.

And then ladies, the first thing he said was the most beautiful and meaningful word she could ever hear. A word, she had probably never heard since she left her home in Egypt. He said her name. Vs. 8 And He said, “Hagar” The first word she hears. “Hagar.” Never, in either account of Hagar’s life, nowhere in her story does another person call Hagar by name. She is only referred to as the servant, the slave. And as a slave she wouldn’t have been called by her name. But God knows her name. When no one else comes after her, God finds her. Speaks to her. Calls her by name.

The most important word in the English language, to us, is our own name. The church I chose to attend in college I chose because the pastor remembered my name. On Friday I’ll finally graduate from seminary (!) and they’ve emailed me several times to check on exactly how I want my name written and announced during commencement. I have old friends who still call me “Zyp” my maiden name, and an old friend who calls me Karina, my full name. And it just does something to me when I hear that because there’s something amazing about people who not only know your name but your maiden name, your knickname, your full name. It’s a reminder—I know you, I knew you even before you were who you are now. A lot of people won’t say my name because they can’t remember whether it’s Carrie or Kari—but how blessed we are when people care enough to know our name.

But God knows us by name.

And God speaks to Hagar and tells her to return to Sarah. Basically saying, You can do this, you can submit to a master who mistreats you, because I am with you. I will multiply your offspring. You’ve been used and mistreated, but it is I, the GOD of the universe, who will bless you, look after you, and defend you.

I remember a few years back someone profoundly wounded me in a very public manner. And yes it hurt, but what took me a LONG time to get over was that I felt like no one defended me. I felt like everyone knew it was wrong but no one was willing to step up and say it was wrong. And when that happens you know what our hearts hear? I’m not worth defending. I’m not worth fighting for. Ladies, God is our defender. One of the most profound and lifechanging lessons God has drilled into my heart is that HE is my defender. I need no other. And knowing this gives us the strength and courage to face whatever adversity is in our life. We don’t have to run from it. When no human cared that Hagar was used, mistreated, abused, when no one cared that she ran away, God chased her, found her, and assures her He will be with her.

V. 11 And the angel of the Lord said to her, Behold you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael. Because the Lord has listened to your affliction.”

The name Ishmael means God Hears. Every time Hagar lips uttered her son’s name, every whisper of his name as she tucked him in at night, she would be reminded that God hears and listened to her affliction. Ladies you know what the number one communication complaint women have in their marriages? “He doesn’t listen.” Or, how about this, “I don’t want you to try to fix it I just want you to __what?” LISTEN. Don’t we just long for someone to listen? To hear us? Look at what scripture says:

Psalm 34:17 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.

Psalm 55:17 Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice.

Psalm 69:33 The LORD hears the needy and does not despise his captive people

Psalm 145:19 He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them

You are heard by God. Not only does he love you so much he hears you and listens but he knows you intimately that he even hears your silent affliction. The Maker of the Universe can hear suffering. He can hear sorrow. He can hear inward groaning, which human ears cannot. HE is the only one who can listen to the aching of your heart. How often have you cried silently wishing somehow someone could understand without you having to explain? God hears it perfectly. He hears your heart.

So finally v. 13 says “So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You are the God who sees me, for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.”

Jeff and I have had kind of a crazy last five years. We’ve moved nine times, we’ve both been in seminary four years, given birth to two kids. We left our home two years ago to live with my parents in order live on our savings to finish seminary, and we’ve just been nomadic since then. Now we live with Dombrows while we’re waiting for our house to sell, and this past six months of starting at a new job, new church, new friends, finishing seminary (graduation is Friday!), having a baby, entering the terrible 2’s, then the house where we were renting sold six days after Heidi was born, so the first 2 ½ months of her life have been a WHIRLWIND. So the first couple days at Dombrows, I’m sleep deprived, we all moved the same day as the church, Jeff’s busy with work, I’m exhausted from moving, stressed because my two year old was a monster, living with new people, and I’m trying to get up and get the kids out the door for Bible study. And speaking of irrational—my son’s breakfast crumbs on Joy’s new hardwood floor just about give me a nervous breakdown. So I hold back the flood all through Bible study, Heidi cries so I have to take her out and miss the Beth Moore part anyway. I get home, it’s pouring down rain, I get the kids in the door of Dombrow’s house, both are crying, and I just collapse on my knees in front of the stairs and weep. If only someone could SEE me. If only someone could see. And then I thought, no, someone could walk in right now and not really see. If only someone could see in such a way that they felt what I feel. SEE my heart trying to do God’s will and being so tired and weary I’m just at the END. How I’m so tired I can’t even think straight, how I have dozens of papers to grade, research to do, papers to write, books to read, diapers to change—how I just want a home of our own dear Jesus. I need to raise these children and keep Jeff’s shirts ironed and make dinner and then somehow get to church on time looking cute. And I’m burying my head in the carpet and as clear as day Hagar’s words rang in my mind. You are the God who sees.

And it is this God, the God who sees, who looks after us. Hagar’s words in v. 13 are so beautiful because although Sarah turned and used Hagar like an animal to be bred, Hagar now knows the foundational truth that WE MUST KNOW: It is God who looks after me. It is God who looks after me. His eye is ever on me. Nothing can befall me that has not been sovereignly allowed by His gracious hand. Just as God told Hagar to return to her place of pain, or difficulty, to return to her trial, we can leave this place and return to whatever situation we face outside these walls, because God sees. Because the God of the universe looks after me. It is God who looks after you. He is the God who sees.