The God Who Sees (Genesis 16:1-16)

Introduction: Short cuts are not always short

I have a friend in another city, who I often traveled with to do ministry and mission. He was a good friend and good ministry partner while we lived there. However, to be honest, I hated it when we traveled in his car. He almost always had a short cut. We’d be traveling the usual route, then he would take an unexpected turn off of the main route. I’d ask, “Where are you going?” And he’d always answer: “Short cut.” More times than I could count, that “short cut” either got us lost or late. Short cuts are not always short.

There are people in this world, and we’re all probably guilty of this, who seemingly are always looking for a work-around. Sometimes that’s good. Sometimes it’s not; especially when all that is needed is a little patience with the process. Yet, impatience and the tyranny of the urgent will, at times, send us on what we think is a work-around, a short cut, only to find out, we’ve turned our vehicles, our lives, toward disaster.

That is what happened in this story in Genesis. God promised Abram and Sarai that they would have a son who would be the first among many, so many that no one would be able to count them. However, ten years had passed, and there was no son; and Sarai’s womb was still unable to conceive. So they designed a work-around, a short cut, to the problem. The story reminds us that …

God doesn’t need our help. (1-2)

Sarai took the initiative to devise another plan (other than God’s) to produce an heir. Apparently, she had given up hope on God, or had at least become impatient with Him. Notice also she blamed God: "The Lord has prevented me from bearing children"(v. 2).

Abram was complicit with Sarai's plan to work around God. She sees God as the problem, not the promise, and definitely not the process. Abram abdicated his spiritual leadership. Though this was originally Sarai's idea, Abram is the person in a covenant relationship with God, and is responsible for obeying God's will and way. This is really surprising considering what just happened in Chapter 15: a dramatic covenant ritual in which God put Himself on the line. (He was the only one who passed between the carcasses.) We would expect Abram to be completely convinced of God's promise and power. There are a few lessons here:

(1) the fickle nature of human faith. We don’t always keep our promises. Remember the scene in the upper room? “Jesus,” Peter said, “I’ll follow you anywhere.” Only a few hours later he’s falling asleep while Jesus agonizes in prayer; and then he denies him three times during the trial. Our faith is sometimes fickle.

(2) the spiritual vulnerability we're in after a spiritual high. It is often the case that when we have a mountaintop experience with God, we, for some reason, become vulnerable to Satan’s attack. It happened with Jesus; but he didn’t take any shortcuts.

(3) And a third: the power of the tyranny of the urgent in our lives! Pressure, stress, impatience. If we’re not careful, they will drive us to huge mistakes.

Hagar conceived quickly. We can imagine how Sarai and Abram must have felt: We did it! Now, at last!, we will have a son. Disobedience sometimes results in what we assume is instant success. Our plans sometimes look better than God's, at first. However, the satisfaction drawn from our accomplishments (apart from God) fade fast: Sarai became contemptible “to Hagar. Here’s what we learn:

What is expedient is often the enemy of God’s promise. (3-6)

Hagar began to despise Sarai and treat her accordingly, with dishonor. That word means "to be light, small, or scanty."

Ironic, isn’t it? The one who is light, small, and scanty—a servant in that culture—was treating as such one who was not, but had power and authority over her life. Being treated as nothing compelled Sarai to complain to Abram. (By the way, Sarai and Abram were treating Hagar as nothing but a baby factory, denying her personhood, and autonomy; she had none) Sarai blamed Abram: "You are responsible for my suffering"(5). Abram refused to take blame, still acted as a passive leader, and turns it back on Sarai: "She's your servant, you deal with her." What should Abram have done? Perhaps be a leader. Acknowledge the disaster they created and asked God for forgiveness. That’s not what he did, though.

The way this story goes is similar to Adam and Eve in the garden, isn’t it. Eve initiated eating the fruit; Adam abdicated his leadership and ate the fruit. Then, when God called them to account for their sin, they played the blame game. Like Adam and Eve, Sarai and Abram acted on their desires, stretched their autonomy as persons into direct rebellion against God. They chose expedience over faith.

Moses wants us to see that their plan was not a solution to the problem. Problems like this are God-sized problems and require God-sized solutions. When we ignore God's plan and do things our way rather than His, we don't solve anything. We really mess things up not only for ourselves, but also for others. We who have read the story know what will happen between Israel and Ishmael. In fact, we only have to watch the nightly news to witness it. The conflict right now in Middle East. It is a consequence of Abrams and Sarai’s disobedience. Arab peoples are descendants of Ishmael. Like a pebble thrown into a pond, our sin creates a circle of rings that expand over time and space.

In verse 6, Abram is no longer treating Hagar as a wife but again as a slave. He demoted her, and basically gave her back to Sarai, who mistreated her. Here is another touch of irony: Mistreated foreshadows the treatment the Hebrews received in Egypt. Here, a Hebrew is Mistreating an Egyptian. Hagar ran away.

But the story doesn’t end here, because …

The Lord seeks runaways. (7-12)

Verse 7 changes the context and focuses on Hagar by a spring in the wilderness. The angel of the Lord found Hagar. This implies that he was looking for her. The spring was on the way to Shur, which is on the border of Egypt. She was returning to her homeland. Perhaps Hagar was a gift to Abram and Sarai from Pharaoh.

Who was this "angel of the Lord "? Some say this was a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus. We can't be sure about that, but most scholars call this a theophany: n appearance of God. I believe this is correct. God himself is drawing near to the brokenhearted, is seeking a runaway servant, is drawing near to a Gentile Woman, an Egyptian. You see, though God Chose Abram to be the progenitor of a special people, Israel, He did not choose Israel at exclusion of all others. He chose a people to be a light to every people, to make Him known among all the nations. God draws near to every broken person. God so loved the world that He sent Jesus. So God drew near to Hagar—divine intervention in her time of loneliness and sorrow, with a divine message: Return to your mistress and submit to her authority."

In the time of Abraham, runaway slaves in the ancient Near East faced different consequences than in other periods. While some laws and treaties required their return to their masters, the Hebrew tradition, as outlined in the Torah, prohibited returning runaway slaves and instead demanded they be treated equally with any other resident alien. But God pronounced a special dispensation of His law. He sent her back to Sarai. But …

Then, the Lord gave Hagar a divine promise. It sounds familiar doesn't it? “I will greatly multiply your offspring, and they will be too many to count." So similar to the promise God gave Abram. Next, comes a divine declaration: "You have conceived and will have a son. You will name him Ishmael, for the Lord God has heard your cry of affliction.” Ishmael means "God hears." Every time Hagar calls her son, or speaks his name -"Ishmael, come here... Ishmael, eat your peas... Ishmael … Every time, she and he, and everyone near, will remember. "God hears" our cries of affliction. What a divine comfort.

However, the man will be like a "wild donkey. The wild donkey is a desert animal that resembles a horse. The animal is used frequently in the Old Testament as a figure of an individualistic lifestyle, untamed and unattached to any social convention. Ishmael became a thorn in the family peace. That becomes clear in a later chapter when Abram sends Hagar and the son, Ishmael, out of the camp, in effect kicking them out of the family. Ishmael’s descendants were, and still are violent enemies of God's people.Abram's descendants· Thomas Paine wrote: "Immediate necessity makes many things convenient, which if continued would grow into oppressions. Experience and right are different."

Abram and Sarai did what was expedient, according to the acceptable customs of the culture, rather than what was right. They were impatient and arrogant to think they could, on their own, produce what God had promised to do.

Yet, God did not abandon Sarai's servant, Hagar. He heard. And He also saw. And there is the point of the story:

God is the God who sees. (13-16)

God sees! God gave Hagar's son a name that would always remind her of this moment. Then, Hagar gave God a name that expressed her wonder:

El-roi, "the God who sees.” For she said, "In this place, have I actually seen the one who sees me? "Even the well near the spring would later be named, Beer-lahai-roi ,” which means, “the well of the living one who sees me."

God saw a runaway Egyptian slave named Hagar. He heard her cry of affliction, and not only consoled her but gave her an awesome promise. God sees.

He saw Sarai and Abram fumble their faith and design a scheme that was no work-around, but it rather worked against them. Yet, we’ll see in the next Chapter that God didn’t give up on Abram and Sarai. He keeps His promises. The Lord saw Peter deny him at the trial. But a few days later, Jesus reinstated Peter and sent him into the world to feed His sheep. And God sees us.

He sees our struggle. He sees our futile efforts to make a way for ourselves. He sees our heartache and pain. And yes, He sees our sin. But God is full of compassion, slow to anger, and is merciful and gracious. Seeing our sin, He sent His Son to take our punishment.

Wherever you are right now, God sees you. However foolish your ways, God sees a new path for your life. Whatever your pain, whatever your disappointment, whatever your heartbreak, God sees; and God cares.

Throughout Scripture we read similar stories of God’s seeing eye: observing, searching, examining, but also finding and loving.

Watch this movie short about our God who sees.

Movie

Application: putting God’s Word into practice

Trust in God’s power: If only Sarai and Abram had done that instead of devise a short cut

Obey God’s instructions

Recognize God’s sovereignty

Rest in God’s promise