Hagar - God Sees

We live in a society where people want to be seen right? How many views do you have??? How many likes??

We’re coming back to Sarai and Abram in a moment where they don’t look good.

Micah 6:8 ESV

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

They are doing the opposite of all this in their interactions with Hagar. But here’s what we learn about God from this story…

The Lord sees us in our suffering and remembers us.

With a passage like this it’s important to remember that some Scripture is prescriptive… and other Scripture is descriptive…

read ch 16 & pray

When we try our own way and ignore God’s way people can get hurt.

Sarai decides that she is tired of waiting on God to give them their promised son and she takes things into her own hands. Or you might say she puts someone into her husband’s hands! … Hagar becomes the victim of Sarai’s disobedience.

Have you ever been cooking something according to a recipe you found, but skip a step without realizing it? The results can be different depending on what you’re making…

But the end result when you don’t do things according to the recipe can be pretty bad! What we see here is Sarai trying not to skip a step in a recipe, but to substitute something that can’t be substituted.

notes in Bible

...sometimes the people of God try to pursue the promise of God apart from the plan of God. -Phillip Bethancourt

There are lots of examples of people not doing things according to God’s plan and it going horribly in the Bible!

Saul not waiting on Samuel.

Peter cutting off the guy’s ear.

We often try to do things our own way. Maybe because we are impatient. Maybe we don’t like God’s plan. Maybe we want something different. Maybe we think we can accomplish it a better way. But we can’t, it’s never better.

We must trust that the way God leads us down.

Psalm 119:4–6 ESV

You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes! Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.

What happens to Hagar here is really really awful. She may have been a willing participant in Sarai’s scheme, she may have seen it as a way to be provided for, but it’s just as likely that it was forced upon her.

She ends up feeling like no one cares about her, no one wants her, no one sees her. All because of the sin of Sarai and Abram.

This can happen to any of us…

But there is hope for us in this story…

God sees us in our trouble.

God sees Hagar as she flees her situation. God sees us, He doesn’t forget us, in our trouble. Whether it was caused by someone else or we caused it ourselves. He sees.

The show Nashville 911 was on in our house last week and there was a tornado at an outdoor concert and they’re all trying to rescue everyone, and just when they think they’ve got them all, someone hears something, someone somewhere who still needs rescuing. This is kind of a cliché in movies and shows, whether it’s one last person trapped in the fire or floating in the ship wreckage. Someone who is in trouble and just waiting to be seen. To be saved. Hopefully you’ve never been in a fire, but you may have been in some other situation where you needed to be seen and you wondered if anyone would see you. That’s where Hagar is as she flees. But the Lord sees her!

notes in Bible

David wrote this…

Psalm 31:7 ESV

I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul,

So when you face troubles for different reasons and of different kinds…

Remember that God sees you. Call out to Him. Seek Him… Trust Him! Follow where He leads!

God remembers his promises

We’re skipping over some chapters, here’s what we’ve missed that pertains to Hagar…

And then here is what happens…

read 21:8-21

When we find ourselves in trouble, we can always turn to God’s promises, to remind ourselves of what He has for us. What He has guaranteed us in Jesus.

We will find ourselves in trouble because we are sinners living in a world with other sinners, but there’s a promise of rescue in Jesus…

Nothing can snatch us from his mighty hand Jesus tells us!

In Revelation, we are told that those whose names are in the book of life will be brought into his eternal Kingdom. He will not forget the promise He has made to his people to save them!

Revelation 3:5 ESV

The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.