The Story of God: The God Who Sees

Waiting. Life is made up of a lot of waiting. We wait in the grocery store. We wait in traffic. We wait at the doctor’s office. We wait for a table. All of us know what it’s like to wait. And most of the time we don’t mind waiting. And the reason why is that we really don’t have a choice: circumstances are beyond our control. So we are forced to wait whether we like it our not.

But then there are those times we find ourselves waiting on God. We find ourselves waiting on God to answer our prayers, waiting on God to mend a relationship, waiting on God to change our circumstances. And for some reason, waiting on God is hard for us. Even though we are used to waiting for so much in life, we are also used to getting immediate results. We know how to fix things, we know how to solve problems, we pride ourselves in being resourceful. And sometimes rather than trust God to work things out, we think we know better. So we take whatever we are facing into our own hands rather than to trust God to work.  And that’s where we return to Abram’s journey of faith today in the story of God where we are going to see the mess Abram makes when he and Sarai refuse to wait on God’s plan to bring about an offspring. And as we do, we are going to see how God can take a messy situation and turn it into something beautiful.

Compromise:  Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.

Ten year’s a long time to wait to conceive a child; especially if you’ve been barren all your life. If you’ve ever had difficulty conceiving, you have some idea of the pressure Sarai was under.

So when she heard of Abram’s most recent encounter with the Lord, and His promise that the offspring would come through Abram’s “own” body… well, she saw an escape clause. What she heard is that this child didn’t necessarily have to come through her. So she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.” This was perfectly legal option to consider. It was common for the husband of a childless woman to take her servant as a second wife. “The child born of that union was regarded as the first wife’s child. And if the husband said to the servant-wife’s son, ‘You are my son,’ then he became the adopted son and heir.”

This was Sarai’s suggestion.  Abram didn’t have to agree to it. But he did. It sounded reasonable to him. The promised offspring would still come from his own body. So he took Hagar into his tent and in so doing compromised God’s plan. But soon there would be consequences to this compromise.

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

That’s the first consequence. Once she was pregnant with the supposed child of promise, she began to look down her nose at Sarai. The Hebrew word here is the word for contempt, and carries the idea of treating someone as small or insignificant. Now according to ancient standards, Hagar had a greater worth to their culture than Sarai.   Having a child was a big deal. It meant she was bringing something of value to her culture, whereas Sarai, had nothing to justify her existence. And so Hagar treated her with contempt.

This didn’t sit too well with Sarai. Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my maidservant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.” Even though this was Sarai’s idea, she now blames Abram for the situation she finds herself in. This may sound like sour grapes on her part, but it’s not. She’s simply stating an injustice. Abram should be taking the necessary steps to keep Hagar in her appropriate place in the household. But he was not.  So Sarai is actually in the rights to state that Abram is responsible for the wrong she is suffering. So now we have a real rift in Abram’s and Sarai’s relationship. Things are evolving into a mess. So, what does Abram do? “Your maidservant is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” What does Abram do? Once Sarai brings up the Lord as judge, Abram realizes he has not done right by Sarai. After all, Hagar is Sarai’s maidservant. As Sarai’s maidservant, Hagar is actually legal property of Sarai, and is not answerable to Abram. She is answerable to Sarai. So, Abram acknowledges this and gives her permission to do whatever she wants to do with Hagar.

So what does Sarai do? Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.   Sarai is harsh with her. Think about this for a moment: Hagar’s pregnancy has magnified Sarai’s barrenness. Her social standing in the community is tarnished. Hagar has been treating Sarai like dirt. And Abram’s done nothing to help the situation. Sarai must’ve felt like Abram, Hagar and God had all turned their backs on her. What’s that saying? “Hell hath no fury as a women scorned.” Well now, Abram has given Sarai permission to unleash her scorn on Hagar. The victim becomes the victimizer. And Hagar can’t handle the heat. So she flees. She runs away taking Abram’s offspring with her. What a mess.

This story should give us pause. It should make us think twice about doing an end run on God’s will. It should make us think twice about the disappointments and delays we face in life. God had a good reason for delaying the child of promise through Abram. And God just may have a good reason for delaying some of His purposes in your life. We live in a “You can have it all and you can have it right now” era. But that’s not necessarily good for any of us. Too often we settle for less than God’s best. That’s what Abram did here. And it certainly wasn’t good for Abram, it was horrible for Sarai, and it was disaster for Hagar. And yet, God has a way of imparting His grace when things are the bleakest. And that’s what we will see next. And what we see next is compassion.

Compassion: The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.  The road to Shur was the road back to Egypt. Hagar was running back to Egypt when the angel of the Lord found her. This is an amazing piece of the narrative. “The angel of the Lord found Hagar” that means God Himself sent His messenger to find this pregnant victim of Abram’s faithlessness.   Hagar. She was probably purchased by Sarai when she was in Pharoah’s court years before. Hagar had no rights. She was far from her family. She’d been used by Abram. She’d treated Sarai with contempt. And when the tables were turned, she was abused by her.   If anyone fits the description of someone of a sinful and rejected woman, it was Hagar. This is whom the angel of the Lord finds in the desert…

And he said, “Hagar, maidservant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.

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

This is a story of God’s grace. God seeks out the sinful and rejected, and the first thing He does is to restore her to relationship: “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” Then He gives her a blessing similar to the blessing he gave Abram: “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” Even though she was a pawn in Abram’s story, the angel of the Lord calls her by name, and gives her a promise beyond her wildest dreams. Both of these things are significant to her, and yes to us. Hagar is the only woman in the ancient Near Eastern literature ever called by name by God. Hagar is the only woman given such a blessing.

I think this encounter by the angel of the Lord should also give us pause. Because it reveals to us of how God looks at the sinful and rejected. It also reveals to us of how God looks at every Muslim in our world today. For the blessing of descendants too numerous to count are the people we populate most of the middle-eastern countries today. They are many of the refugees looking for a home today. Listen to how God describes her offspring: 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. 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.”

Then name Ishmael has significance here. The name means, “God Hears.”   And he describes by saying he will be a wild donkey of a man. This is a metaphor of a free life of a tent dwelling nomad. But his relationships will be characterized by hostility as he will live in constant conflict with those around him.

And so God not only finds Hagar. God not only calls her by name and hears her in her misery, but God is going to restore her and bless her beyond her wildest dreams. And so we see now the impact of God’s grace upon her life:

She has found comfort from the Lord: 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.” That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered. So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.  Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael. Genesis 16:13-16

Out of the comfort of God’s grace, Hagar responds by giving God a personal name: El Roi, “You are the God who sees me.”   And she memorializes His name at this spring by naming it Beer Lahai Roi, which means, “Well of the Living One who sees me.” And the comfort Hagar receives is the same comfort God wants us to experience today: Since God heard Hagar, He hears you. Since God found Hagar, He finds you. Since God saw Hagar, He sees you.

In fact, God’s Word is very clear on this. He has always seen you. And because He sees you He is always watching over you. He watches over you, not to be your cosmic policeman, but to be your protector and your comfort. Listen to is His promise to you from Psalm 121: He will not let your foot slip— He who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you— the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm — he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. 

He is the God who sees. He knows exactly what you’re facing right now. He hears the cry of your heart. He knows what you are waiting for right now. He sees the longings of your heart. You are not alone. He sees you and is with you. This is our God.

So trust Him. His ways are not our ways. His timing is not our timing. And if that means waiting on Him to work when there seems like another way… then wait. It will be worth it.