The God Who Meets Us in the Wilderness
Notes
Transcript
Have you ever felt like a pawn in someone else’s schemes? Maybe it was at a job, where you felt like just another cog in the machine. You felt like the work you did wasn’t valued or noticed. Maybe it was in your family, where your needs didn’t seem to matter as long as someone else got what they wanted. Maybe it was in a relationship where you were used instead of loved. Those moments leave us feeling unseen, unheard, or even discarded like we don’t matter. We start wondering, “Does anyone see me? Does anyone care?”
Today, the story centers not on the main characters, but on the supporting character, the Egyptian woman Hagar. She is one who is caught up in Abram and Sarai’s schemes. She has no voice. She has no vote. When things come to a head and she runs from the conflict, God meets her in her moment of crisis. As we look to his story I want to show you the God who meets us in the wilderness.
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar.
So Sarai said to Abram, “Now behold, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Please go in to my maid; perhaps I will obtain children through her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
After Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife.
He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her sight.
And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done me be upon you. I gave my maid into your arms, but when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her sight. May the Lord judge between you and me.”
But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your maid is in your power; do to her what is good in your sight.” So Sarai treated her harshly, and she fled from her presence.
Abram and Sarai were promised a child. It had been ten years since they settled in the land of Canaan and still they had no children. Abram’s life has been marked by times of great faith and great doubting. In this story, Abram and Sarai are getting impatient. Can we blame them? Abram was 75 years old when the journey started. The clock is ticking. The time for having children has perhaps already passed. They are hoping for a miracle.
But then Sarai gets an idea. If Abram sleeps with her Egyptian servant, the child she produces can be hers, and just like that, the problem is solved. Abram goes along with this. What you should know is this was not uncommon practice in Abram’s time. We think it cruel today, but this was everywhere in ancient times. The culture thought this acceptable. The slave woman doesn’t have individual rights, so the owner could claim the son as her own.
As we all know, sex complicates relationships. Hagar’s pregnancy makes Sarai jealous, and she mistreats her. So Hagar flees to the wilderness.
Crisis has come. Hagar is pregnant. She’s run from her only source of stability and provision, and she finds herself at a well in the wilderness. Verse seven says it is on the way to Shur, which based on where Abram and Sarai lived, and the direction Hagar was headed, it seems like she was on her way back to Egypt. But it is at this well that God shows up. He has a way of showing up in moments of crisis. In those moments, we can feel unheard and unseen. But what does God do for Hagar? And what does God do for us?
When we enter into moments of crisis, we can be sure of two things.
God hears our cries.
God hears our cries.
This angel of the Lord shows up and asks a question (which he already knows the answer to). He tells her to return and submit to her, but ensures her that the same promise regarding offspring he gave to Abram is being given to her as well. God is faithful to his covenant promises, even when we are not. Abram and Sarai are attempting to circumvent the process. They think maybe they are doing what the Lord wants by using a culturally acceptable method of giving Abram a son. The problem is God always intended to give Abram and Sarai a son. But because Abram has chosen this, and this son is going to have Abram’s blood in his veins, he’s a recipient to the promise as it pertains to multiplying offspring.
The angel of the Lord said to her further,
“Behold, you are with child,
And you will bear a son;
And you shall call his name Ishmael,
Because the Lord has given heed to your affliction.
“He will be a wild donkey of a man,
His hand will be against everyone,
And everyone’s hand will be against him;
And he will live to the east of all his brothers.”
God intends to multiply her descendants starting with this son, who will be named Ishmael. Now, names in the Bible often have deep meaning, even if we don’t always understand them. In this case, the name Ishmael means, “God hears.” His name represents a characteristic of God in that God hears our cries.
Oftentimes, we don’t know God hears us in times of desperation. Have you ever thought in a time of great need God wasn’t listening? That he didn’t care? But I want to remind you that you are a son. You are a daughter. Why would he turn a deaf ear to his children?
The righteous cry, and the Lord hears
And delivers them out of all their troubles.
The righteous are the ones who belong to him, not based on our own merits, but on a righteousness that has been (fancy church word) imputed (attributed) to us by God based on the righteousness of Christ and the work he has accomplished on the cross. So if you are in relationship with Christ, you have been made righteous, and therefore, God hears your prayers, and delivers you from all your troubles.
This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.
Notice there is a right way to ask, but we should have confidence that God hears us if we are in fact asking according to his will.
Come and hear, all who fear God,
And I will tell of what He has done for my soul.
I cried to Him with my mouth,
And He was extolled with my tongue.
If I regard wickedness in my heart,
The Lord will not hear;
But certainly God has heard;
He has given heed to the voice of my prayer.
Blessed be God,
Who has not turned away my prayer
Nor His lovingkindness from me.
Notice there are times in this example in which God doesn’t hear. If you are wicked, that is in active rebellion against God, you should not expect that God will hear your prayers. But the one who has been made righteous can be confident that God does hear their prayers.
God even hears you when you are not praying on someone’s behalf, or praying for your own needs. You can rant to God and he will still listen. You can read the psalms and see people, particularly David, pour their hearts out to God. There is virtually every emotion present in the psalms, but there are often times there is anger and frustration, and God is there to hear it. You don’t have to hide your emotions from God. He is the God who hears our cries.
So lean into letting him hear your cries. Be confident that he wants to hear it. He’s not hiding from it. Be confident that in crisis God has not abandoned you. He is drawing near to you.
God sees our pain.
God sees our pain.
This well where God meets Hagar gets a special name: Beer-lahai-roi. The name means “well of the living one who sees me.” It is unclear whether Hagar gives this place that name or if it took on that name some time later. But it is named that to commemorate this meeting. God is the living one who sees us. Hagar went from feeling like a pawn in someone else’s game to finding a plan and purpose of her own. She went from feeling unseen, unheard, and discarded to seen, heard, and valued. Everyone else in your life may look to use you and get rid of you, but God is a Father who wants you for his own, not to use you as a pawn, but to develop you into the person he created you to be, one with dignity, value, and worth.
God saw Hagar when she felt alone, scared, and useless. No one likes feeling like a pawn. When you properly understand and walk in your identity in Christ, you are not a pawn, but a critical part of the mission he has called you to. There is not a single person in this room who is unimportant. You were called to a greater purpose and mission. The job you have or had was not pointless. God is using it and will use it. The friction you feel in your family is not pointless. God is using it and will use it. The person who used you and discarded you like you were a dirty shop towel didn’t see your value, but God does. He is using it and will use it. God is in the redemption business. He is capable of taking all your pain and turning it into beauty.
God heard the affliction of his creation. He saw our pain. He sent his Son into the world to identify with our struggles.
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
God is no stranger to suffering. Jesus was rejected by his own people. He was rejected by the people in his own hometown. He is the most misunderstood person in all of human history. He knows better than anybody what it is like to be used, abandoned, and forgotten. Yet the supreme being of the universe has invited us to draw near to him, promising to take our pain and turn it into beauty. He is making all things new. God met Hagar in her brokenness and gave her a glorious future. He has done the same for us.
Christ doesn’t erase the pain. We are not promised an easy life. We are granted strength to stand and push forward in spite of the pain. When crisis falls, may we run to the God who hears our cries and sees our pain.
Are you facing a crisis today? The temptation is to focus on the crisis. But what can you do this week to take a step back and listen for the God who meets you in the wilderness?
Maybe you are in a crisis today, but you don’t know Jesus personally. Maybe you are looking for rescue and don’t know where to turn. Jesus is the only one who can provide true rescue. The truth is every one of us stands condemned for our own sins. We deserve God’s justice. But because God lived us while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He was buried and raised from the dead three days later, defeating death and creating the pathway to reconciliation with God. The God who knows you and created you has given you an invitation to come to him and receive rescue. He will take the broken crisis you find yourself in and restore it to something beautiful.
Will you choose rescue today?
