The God Who Sees and Hears the Hurting

Crying out into the void

Context of the promise

75 when the promise was given

85 when it was reaffirmed

86 in this account

Genesis 16 (NIV)

1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said.

Sarai is about to do something evil, but consider her pain

God has made a great promise to Abraham and she’s the one who’s stopping it from being fulfilled

She’s done everything

Moved with her husband

Gave up herself to Pharaoh’s household to protect her husband

Why now does she not receive a child?

She sees divine providence in her barrenness

Sarai’s faith has reached its limit – it’s been so long and she still is unable to conceive so she develops a plan – her slave will become pregnant by her husband

Consistent with ANE laws of the time

Of course we see the horror of this plan

Sarai has already been mistreated similarly

Abraham gave her to Pharaoh

Abraham likely even got this Egyptian slave from Pharaoh in exchange for Sarai

3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.

This account parallels the account of the fall

Listened to his wife

Genesis 3:17 “17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.”

Genesis 16:2 “2 so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said.”

Took and gave the fruit

Genesis 3:6 “6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”

Genesis 16:3 “3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.”

God has made good promises, but mankind continues its habit of doing it themself

Even the best people sin and specifically sin against

4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.

The providence of God which had kept Sarai barren for his purposes does not keep Hagar barren and she becomes pregnant

Hagar is understandably happy and this creates rivalry between her and Sarai

5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”

6 “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.

Abraham and Sara respond with a legal negotiation

Sarai gave Hagar to Abraham so he bears responsibility for her attitude. Abraham gives her back.

Abraham and Sarai refuse to use Hagar’s name. Only the narrator will name her.

Sarai responds to her repossession of Hagar with abuse so Hagar flees

7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.

9 Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”

11 The angel of the Lord also said to her:

“You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. 12 He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”

13 She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

Anonymous and uncared for, Hagar is not alone or unheard

The Angel of the Lord finds her and hears her

The Angel of the Lord is God himself

He promises to bless her in ways only God can do

Hagar calls him god

The angel of the Lord blesses her

She will have many descendents

Her son will be called Ishmael (The Lord Hears)

He will be a wild donkey of a man with his hand against everyone – nomadic warrior

15 So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

Ishmael is born but his story isn’t over.

Genesis 21:1–21 (NIV)

1 Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. 2 Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. 3 Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. 4 When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

6 Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” 7 And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

Eventually Sarah’s son is born and is named Isaac (laughter)

8 The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. 9 But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, 10 and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”

11 The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. 12 But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. 13 I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”

The rivalry is reignited when Ishmael is mocking Isaac

What exactly he was doing is unclear

The word for mocking is a word play with Isaac

Paul says in Gal 4 that Ishmael was “persecuting” Isaac so it was clearly negative

Sarah is angry and demands that Abraham once again expels hagar

Sarah’s motives are wrong, but her goal is right

Ishmael is not the child of promised and should not share the inheritance

God uses sinful people to accomplish his purposes

Abraham doesn’t want to send Ishmael away but God assures him that he should and that Ishmael would also become a great nation.

14 Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba.

15 When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there, she began to sob.

Here is another account of Hagar’s sorrow

She assumes the boy will not survive and lays him in the shade to die as comfortably as possible

You can see the love of a mother who cannot care for her son present in the story

Again, uncared for Hagar is heard by God

17 God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. 18 Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”

19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

20 God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. 21 While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.

God sees her and reiterates his promises to her

Even when she is alone, she is not alone

God reveals a nearby well and the boy survives to become a nomadic archer who marries an Egyptian woman.

Conclusion

God gives grace to sinners

God hears our suffering

God is in control of our suffering

God himself has suffered for us