Hagar: The God Who Sees

Children’s Bible Page 25

story about plastic bad stuck on side of car to give Robin

It does not always feel like God is providing like that.

Have you ever felt like God was holding out on you?

Maybe it was that...

Job promotion that you deserved but got passed over for

Or maybe you so desperately want to be healthy but health problems remain

Or maybe you desire to be reconciled to your child, yet there is still tension

Or maybe you have been faithfully sharing Christ with a friend, and they continue to resist

Or maybe you desire to be married, but the prospect of that happening seems less and less likely

Or maybe you just want to find mental and emotional stability, yet that continues to allude you

Or maybe, like in this story, you desperately desire a child, yet you are not getting pregnant

It could be a million other things in life that leaves you feeling like God is holding out on me, and I don’t know why. 

In those moments, it is so tempting to take things into our own hands.

In today's passage, Sarai believes God is holding out on her, so she takes things into her own hands.

We’ve seen before in this series that there is only one true hero in the Bible.

God himself. 

I warn you: there are certainly no heroes in this story other than God. That aligns with what Jesus said when someone called him good. He said, “Why do you call me good? There is no one good but God.” Praise God he has made a way in the gospel to give us His goodness, for we have none on our own.

So, as we dive in, I want you to see today, that even when you feel tempted to believe that God is holding out on you, you can leave matters in His hands as you grow in your trust of the God who truly hears and sees you.

Here we go.

Genesis 16:1–6 ESV

1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. 2 And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3 So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. 4 And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. 5 And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!” 6 But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.

1. Don't Take Matters Into Your Hands That Should Be Left In God's Hands

It's a sad scene all the way around.

Let’s think about Sarai first.

Here she is the wife of Abram, man of faith and the promises of God, and so much of the promise rides on her having a baby. But, she can do absolutely nothing on her own to make it happen.

I’m sure some of you have experienced this, and it is a difficult thing when you desire a child so desperately, yet you can’t make it happen.

Sarai had experienced the difficulty of seeing all her friends get pregnant and have babies. She has experienced the times of being invited to the baby shower’s and not wanting to go. 

It’s so hard to watch other people have and experience what you want so desperately.

And the temptation of our hearts when we don’t get what we desire, especially when we see others being blessed with those things, is to believe that God is holding out on us. He is keeping something from us. And it is easy to begin to compare yourself with others. Once you start comparing yourself with others, it is easy to get so self focused where you become consumed with your desire. And the more you are consumed with you, the more a bitterness toward God begins to grow.

Because if your desires are the center of the universe, and God is not giving you what you desire, you judge Him unfair and unjust, which leads to anger and bitterness.

Did you see what Sarai said in verse 2? It’s God fault that I have no children! He’s holding out on me!

And when it seems like God’s not giving, not working, not moving, it is tempting to try to take matters into our own hands.

This is the reason you will see a really godly woman in a relationship with a guy that it is clear she should not be in.

What happened was she was afraid of being alone, she saw others getting engaged and married, she started believing God was holding out on her, so she took matters into her own hands, even though the relationship is not honoring to God.

It’s why you see a pastor go from preaching God’s word and God’s gospel to giving people whatever they want to hear so that they will come. The desire for ministry success and a large church became central, and he felt God was holding out on him, so he took matters into his own hands to get people in the church any way he could.

It’s the reason you see some people come to church, accept the gospel, and stick around until that first trial comes, then they bail and you don’t see them anymore. God was good for them as long as He was giving them the things they wanted, but when things got hard, they believed God was holding out on them, so they bailed on Him.

Sarai is angry and bitter.

They had received the promise and moved to a foreign land ten years ago, and they still have no child to show for it. Of course, they had been given a relationship with God and the ability to know him and worship Him with their lives, but Sarai was so focused on what she wanted.

So what did she do? Here they were, living amongst a pagan people. So, surely Sarai had met other women in her position. And those women would give a servant girl to their husband as a wife, so that she could bare a child, then they would claim the child as there own. They took matters into their own hands and got what they wanted. So, finally Sarai said, everyone else is doing, so I’m going to do it.

So, Sarai takes Hagar, an Egyptian servant they had obtained along the way, and gave her to Abram as a lesser wife, so that she could have a baby that Sarai could claim as her own. She said, “God is holding out on me, so I’m taking matters into my own hands.”

Cue Abram.

How does Abram respond to all this? Well, sadly, he responds like most us husbands respond. Instead of leading well, leading Sarai to seek God and renew intimacy with the Lord, he takes the passive role like we men so often do, and essentially says, “Alright. Whatever makes you happy babe.”

If you want me to sleep with this young servant girl, I’ll just listen and follow along. 

In the Hebrew text, it is so clear how this passage resembles the third chapter of Genesis where we see the original sin of Adam and Eve. Satan tempts Eve to believe that God is holding out on her, and if she would just eat the fruit God said not to eat, she would be like God, knowing good and evil for herself.

So, Eve takes matters into her own hands. And it says Adam, who was right there with her, instead of stepping in and claiming God’s promises, passively says, “Whatever you want sweetheart,” and he eats too.

Men, God created us to lead, claim faith in God’s promises and lead our family to trust and follow Him, yet so many times, we are way too passive and all the while, women don’t know what to do but take matters into their own hands. This is a result of the fall. God said in Genesis 3, “Your desire shall be against your husband, and he shall rule over you.” That meant that coming together as one and leaving matters in God hands as a couple was not going to be easy and is going to be a fight of faith.

So what happens?

Abram goes into Hagar, and Hager gets pregnant.

Perfect right? Isn’t that exactly what Sarai wanted? Listen, when you take matters into your own hands instead of leaving them in God’s hands, even if you get what you wanted, you will come to find, it won’t satisfy. It won’t bring peace. It won’t appease the anger and bitterness like you thought it would. When you take matters into your own hands, life gets tougher.

Let’s think about Hagar for a moment. Here is this servant woman taken from her homeland to serve Abram and his family. No doubt she felt lonely, used, and small. No doubt she felt resentment toward Abram and Sarai who were free and wealthy. Now, here she is: pregnant with Abram’s baby. She finally has something that Sarai always wanted but could not have. So the texts says, she looked down on Sarai. She took Sarai lightly. She now had a reason to stick her nose up and feel proud. And this made Sarai furious!

Because an action that is rooted in anger and bitterness will only breed more anger and bitterness. First, Sarai lashes out on Abram. Of course, she had gotten what she wanted in a sense, but it cause more hurt than help. She turns on Abram and blames him for Hagar’s contempt of her. Abram once again takes the passive, I just want to make you happy at all costs route, and says, “If you hate Hagar, whatever, do what you want with her.” Hagar had probably hoped her status would be better now that she was having Abram’s child, yet Abram still sees her as an object to be used and abused in order to make his wife happy.

So Sarai, out of anger, bitterness, and hatred, became abusive toward Hagar and abused her to the point that she ran away. And remember, Sarai had been treated like an object when she and Abram went to Egypt and was given over to the Pharoah, so now the abused becomes the abuser.

We now find Hagar used, abused, treated as an object, and left in a desperate situation, so she flees with no plan for what to do next.

Listen, taking matters into your own hands that should be left in God's hands 

can make things messy in a hurry. And you may find yourself doing things you never thought you would do. 

Out of hurt and pain, Sarai took matters into her own hands, but it only led to greater hurt and pain.

So, what happens from here? What is going to happen to Hagar?

She is now pregnant, a runaway slave due to being used and abused, she flees into a wilderness toward Egypt, probably heading back to where she came from, but she had no assurance that she would not just be picked up and mistreated there as well.

Can we all just pause for a moment to realize God’s word back in this time is not so different from our own time? 

We are all still heartbreakingly broken (I don’t know if that’s a word). The families in the Bible can really identify with many of our families. Broken, no heroes, no easy answers, messy.

The hard truth is there are countless women and girls and boys today even right around us whose lives are ravaged by domestic violence, labor trafficking, sexual slavery, and other abuses. And in the midst of it, we wonder what God thinks, where God is, and why God doesn’t seem to always act. The rest of our passage gives us a clear picture of what God thinks and feels toward the abused, the hurting, and the destitute.

For the first time in the story, God shows up. He doesn’t show up to Abram this time. He doesn’t show up to Sarai. He shows up to Hagar in the wilderness.

Genesis 16:7–16 ESV

7 The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” 9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” 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. 12 He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.” 13 So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” 14 Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered. 15 And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.

2. Submit All Things To The God Who Sees And Hears

Imagine just how alone Hagar felt in that moment before God showed up.

Imagine how desperate, pregnant, journeying toward Egypt not even knowing if she would ever make it. 

She had been a servant of Abram and Sarai, God’s chosen blessed people, who treated her so poorly that she had to escape. Surely, she not only felt alone but forsaken by God after being treated so by His people.

At first, the scene seems strange, but it's actually beautiful.

Those who have been treated as objects of abuse oftentimes feel alone, abandoned, invisible, they have no voice, they have no identity.

Here is Hagar in the middle of this wilderness, surely feeling hopeless, alone, abandoned, invisible and God shows up and says,

Where did you come from and where are you going? Surely she thought: 

I don’t know. 

I just had to get away. 

I can’t do this anymore.

I’m a nobody, and I have nothing, and I’ve been used, and forgotten.

Then, God says, “Go back to your mistress, and submit to her.” 

A few thoughts here regarding wrestling with God telling Hagar to go back:

Hagar may not have survived the journey if she continued. Though it is difficult to imagine God telling Hagar to return, we read that she was heading toward Shur, which was a hilled desert. Shur literally means Wall, like running into a wall, because a hilled desert would have been difficult to survive through. It is very likely a pregnant woman with nothing would never survive the journey. At least Hagar had food, water, clothing, and shelter with Abram and Sarai.

Any situation dealing with abuse is messy and there are no cut and paste answers. In Hagar’s case, she may have no better option at the current moment. And God was more than able to make the situation better between Hagar and Sarai as well.

God continues His conversation with Hagar

telling her he will make her offspring multiply, and tells her she should name her son Ismael, because God had heard her affliction. 

He has come to broken and used Hagar, one who had no voice and felt so invisible, and he says to her, “I hear you. When you call to me, I hear you. You are someone to me. When you speak, I stop, I listen, I pay attention. You are not nameless, faceless, or voiceless to me.”

Listen, if you have ever felt like an object, used, alone, abandoned, invisible, voiceless

Hear God tell you in this moment, “I hear you. When you call to me, I stop, I listen, I pay attention. You are not nameless, faceless, or voiceless to me. I am near to the brokenhearted and I save the crushed in spirit.” 

Church, if this is how God views outsiders, victims, and the voiceless, we should as well. How many times have you looked on someone in this position and thought, “Well, it’s probably their fault. They are probably just reaping the consequences for their own bad choices.”

Listen, maybe they are and maybe they’re not. But Jesus’ gospel says, “All we like sheep have gone astray and turned to wicked ways.” Praise God when he saw us in the desperate situation we put ourselves in, he didn’t say, “Well, that’s their fault. They are just reaping the consequences.” No, while we were still sinners, he looked on us with compassion and sent His son for us! So, that when we call out to him, he doesn’t say, “I’m not listening to you, you did this to yourself.” No, he says, “I’m here and I hear you. I love you. Your sin does deserve punishment, so my son was punished in your place, so that I could always be here for you, to hear you and be for you.”

May we show that depth of compassion and mercy to others as God shows it to us!

God hears you! You have a voice with God, you should use it and call out to Him!

God goes on

He says, “Your son is going to be a wild donkey of a man.” We read that and think, “Oh gee thanks God! How encouraging!” But no, no, no, the English translation of the Hebrew words don’t really do this one justice. The Hebrew words connote “a wild donkey of a man” as simply one who is fiercely independent and free.

What is Hagar? A slave. She thinks, “I’ve never been free, but my son, my son will be free?”

His hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against his, and he shall dwell over all his kinsman.

My son will not only be free, but a ruler? A leader? He won’t be voiceless like me? He won’t be looked down on like me? He won’t be invisible like me? He’ll be influential?

Sure, he will have conflict, but what leader and what nation doesn’t? At least he will have something in his life to fight for! She didn’t know just how much conflict that pretty much continues to this day in the Middle East, but, by His grace, God doesn’t always tell us the full weight of things all at once.

And, remember in these days, having a son was seen as an expression of God’s blessing and favor toward a woman. 

God comes to seemingly worthless, voiceless, forsaken Hagar and says with grace, “I hear you, I’m here. You are blessed with a son who will be free and a sign of my favor in your life.” What a picture of what God offers us all in His gospel!

Then, verse 13, Hagar says

“You are the God who sees me. Truly here I have seen Him who looks after me.”

As Hagar has this encounter with God, she realizes, not only has he heard her cry in the wilderness, but He is the God who sees.

God is not just some abstract thought out there in the universe somewhere. He is personal, and He is near, and He sees you. 

Then, that second phrase she says, in the original, speaks to the fact that Hagar has been seen by God, and now she truly sees God and has lived. 

That’s important, because anytime you see someone in the Bible see God, their greatest concern is if they are going to live, because in the presence of the all holy God, our sin shows in all its contrast, and we realize we deserve death. 

What did Adam and Eve do in the garden after they sinned? They hid from God! They didn’t want to be seen by God! 

So, that fact that God sees her is not comfort in itself, because maybe he sees her in all her sin and will punish her with what she deserved: death.

But no, she says, “I have seen God and yet I live!” He has shown me favor and grace!

Because of the gospel of Jesus, we can say the same! It is only through the cross and resurrection where Jesus took the penalty for all our sin that now it is good news that God sees us, and he look on us with judgment or condemnation, but with love and favor!

Have you ever come to the point in your life where you realize no matter what you have been through in your life

No matter how you have been treated

No matter the pain or the trauma of a situation

God was right there, and He saw you then and He sees you now!

Hagar’s life resembled much more depth and darkness than it did light and life, yet in that moment, she realized, “God sees me. He saw me then. He sees me now.”

Is there some time in your life that you look back on and think, “God where were you? I needed you! I needed to see! I needed you to hear my cry! Yet, you felt so absent!”

Psalm 139:7–12 ESV

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” 12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

Some years ago, I had an experience that was traumatic for me. It was one of those experiences that disturbed my sleep, gave me nightmares, and would stop me in me tracks when I thought about it. It haunted me.

A few years after that, a Christian counselor helped me go back to that event in my mind.

I had to close my eyes and describe the details of what happened.

As we sat, she finally asked me, “In your mind, where is God in the midst of the event?”

I didn’t have an answer. I didn’t know. I mean, here I was, a Christian, a seminary student, and a pastor, yet I had no concept of God’s presence when it came to that event. It was as if God was absent.

You see, I knew the verses that He is near to the brokenhearted, and not far from any of us, that he is my good Father, that He would never leave or forsake me, and he would ultimately work all things out for good, even this event, but I had never applied God to that situation!

Yet, now, an event that I used to try so hard to forget, one that brought such fear and anger, I can honestly think back now and see God in it. That even darkness is light to Him. That He was near and embracing me. 

It was yet another event in my life where I had to stop seeing myself as the main character and the center of the universe and remember that God is the main character and the center of the universe.

That was a pivotal moment for me in my walk with Christ

This was a pivotal moment for Hagar! You see me! You’ve always seen me. You hear me. You’ve never left. You’ve always been there. Looking upon me with grace and favor, not anger and condemnation. 

That doesn’t answer all my questions about why you would let what has happened happen. I don’t know why he allows us to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, but I do know that I do not have to fear any evil, because God is with me.

Hagar was able to return to Abram and Sarai with a new story and a new name.

The story is she had experienced God, who has seen and heard her and blessed her with a son.

God provided a name for her son, Ismael, the God who hears.

Hagar incredibly provided a name for God, the God who sees.

God is the hero of this story, as He is the hero of every story, and He is the hero of your story.

If you have to be the hero of your own story, God says, “Okay, I won’t push myself on you, but know that staying at the center of your story is rejecting the God who see and hears you, and you will suffer the consequences and punishment for your sin on your own forever.”

God is the hero, and he has made a way to save you, forgive you, and make you His child, but you have to acknowledge that you can’t save yourself, and acknowledge only he can save you through the cross and resurrection of Jesus. Trust Jesus and his work and He will save you, He will make himself the center of your life, and He will use you for His purposes and glory, and you can know that he sees and hears you with His great love, grace, and compassion.

So how does God's word connect with you today?

Do you have places in your life where you have felt God has been holding out on you?

Have you been tempted to take those things in your own hands because you believe you need them, maybe even more than you need Him?

Hear God say, “Would you leave it in my hands? Would you press in to my love, my grace, and my gospel and believe I have a good plan for you?

Or maybe you are on the other side of it, you took things into your own hands quite a while ago, and now you are dealing with the consequences and the messiness of it. Would you confess that to the Lord, receive that he has forgiven you and is still working even through those things for your good?

Men, especially, have you been way too passive with someone in your life that was under your influence whether it be a spouse or child? You should have stepped up, taken the lead, claimed the truth of God’s goodness and promises, yet instead you just threw up your hands, said “whatever”, and let the chips fall were they may? Would you confess and receive forgiveness as well and cling to the God of second chances, and third chances, and 99th chances?

Do you believe today that God truly sees you, and if you are in Christ, He looks at you with complete favor and acceptance?

Some of you need to receive Christ and his gospel and experience his forgiveness and favor for the first time?

Maybe God wants to heal some past hurts and events by convincing you that He saw and He heard and He was with you then, and He is with you now. 

And when the Spirit of God applies His word however He needs to in you,

you are then ready to go share about the God who sees and hears with someone else who needs so desperately to know that God sees them and hears them and offers them salvation in Jesus Christ.

Don’t just leave blessed by God’s healing work in your own life and heart. Leave so blessed that you desire to be a blessing to someone else who needs to know and experience this God like you are. 

Pray God would give you that opportunity and that you would step into with boldness, love, and great joy.

May we be a church that is filled with the presence of God through His word and Spirit to the brim that when we go from here, we overflow pouring that word and Spirit out to others!

Let’s pray.