The God Who Sees

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go into my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 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. Genesis 16:1-3

Doubt and Impatience

It had been 10 long years. Abram and his wife Sarai had been obedient to God and were following him into the unknown with the anticipation that they would soon have a son and that their family would be expanding, but month after month they had been met with disappointment.

In this time and culture, the greatest honor for a woman was to have a child, and infertility was her greatest curse. Children were considered a woman's worth, validating her as human. To be without children meant that you were inferior, that you were somehow sub-human, and that God had turned away from you with displeasure.

Month after month Sarai's hopes would rise and fall, she wasn't getting any younger. Already in her 70's, any hope of having a son was quickly fading. Sarai's faith began to give way to unbelief and impatience.

Impatience implies doubt. In a restaurant, when our order is placed and our wait begins to exceed what we believe is acceptable, our first thought is that we have been forgotten. When we are impatient, we are conducting a negative assessment of an individual's nature, quality, and ability while asserting our own superiority and expertise regarding the matter at hand.

Sarai was tired of waiting. It wasn't that she did not recognize God's sovereignty as the one who opened and closed the womb, notice she says it was God who had prevented her from having children. If God could restrain her, could he not also enable her to conceive? However, we don't see Sarai asking for God to intervene, rather she questions his wisdom and timing.

As Sarai decides that God is late on delivery, she decides to give her servant to Abram in an effort to "obtain children," literally seeking to be built up by Hagar in her quest for validation and worth. Impatience, it would seem, has a way of getting us to trade in our convictions for convenience.

It's far easier to harbor an attitude of hate towards our enemies but it is extremely difficult to choose to love them. It is often more convenient to hide behind a lie but owning up to the truth can be quite painful. The desire to serve comes naturally but becoming a servant can require great effort.

As Sarai shares her plan with Abram, we might be expecting him to stand strong in God's promise and rejuvenate Sarai's faith in God but He does no such thing. Rather, he agrees to go along with the plan and with no counsel from God, no time spent in prayer seeking God's will for their situation, they decide to proceed.

The Outcast

Hagar, whose name means stranger, was one of Sarai's household servants. Most likely presented as a gift to Abram and Sarai during the time they spent in Eygpt as they sought relief from the famine in the Negeb. In the Ancient Near East, it was culturally acceptable for a barren woman to give one of her servants to her husband as a lower-level wife as a type of surrogate for her master. Children that were born to these servants would grow up to be servants themselves, but the master also had the ability to adopt a child if they desired, providing an alternative means of extending the family line in circumstances of infertility.

Although this practice was culturally acceptable, God does not advise or endorse Abram to follow through with this course of action and here the emphasis is being placed on Sarai's decision to place matters into her own hands at the expense of her servant. Hagar was considered property, she had been removed from her family and all that was familiar to her. She truly was a stranger in this land, a servant with no voice and no choice in the matter. To Sarai she was just a means to an end, a "womb" to be exploited for her own personal gain.

Collateral Damage

And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. 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!” 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. Genesis 16:4-6

Sarai's plan was a success. Hagar's belly begins to grow, and Abram will finally have a son, but rather than feel validated, Saria feels violated. After all, it would be Hagar who would get to experience the glow of motherhood. Hagar would be honored while Sarai felt humiliated.

In Isaiah, God gives a warning to those who think they can become the source of their own salvation:

Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches! Walk by the light of your fire, and by the torches that you have kindled! This you have from my hand: you shall lie down in torment. Isaiah 50:10-11

God says that in the darkness of our trials and hopeless circumstances that we are to place our trust in him. Similar to the childhood game of Marco Polo, we should call out to God, listen and step. It is a continual dependence, a continual process of calling, listening, and stepping towards him in the midst of our darkness. The alternative is that we attempt to equip ourselves with a torch of our own construction and a fire kindled by our own hands, walking autonomously from God onto paths we do not know, and He promises that it will not end well.

We see here Sarai's sin of commission and Abram's sin of omission. As Sarai again gets Abram's ear he passively informs her that her servant is not his problem. So this time Sarai takes vengeance into her own hands and deals harshly with Hagar. It is not clear what she did, but the idea behind the wording is that it resulted in violent acts, harder labor, and possibly stricter rationing of food. Whatever happened, it was severe enough that Hage decided it would be better to run 100 miles away from their camp in Hebron into the harsh desert wilderness than to live under Sarai's oppression.

It is important to note that Abram and Sarai had received the promises of God. They were the people of God, but here we see them mistreat the outcast because she doesn't meet their expectations. They had minimized their own sin while pointing out that they had been sinned against and somehow they perceived that Hagar's sin was much greater than there own. It is this treatment that moves Hagar to take her chances alone in a desert wilderness rather than stay with "God's people."

This should give us reason to reflect on how we treat others around us. How we treat others matters. We are called to be a people of love; our enemies, the stranger, the outcast, the refugee, we are called to show greater love to others because we have been shown a greater love by Jesus.

The God Who Sees

The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 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.” The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” 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. 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.” 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.” Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered. And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram. Genesis 16:7-16

So now Hagar is 100 miles away, in a harsh wilderness. She is pregnant, she is a fugitive, and she is hurting. Emotionally she had been removed from her family and homeland, used, and betrayed. Physically she is exhausted from working, from running, and from carrying a child in her womb. As she sits by a spring of water it is as if a dark cloud hangs over her head. Her situation seems hopeless... and then God speaks.

Not only does he speak, he calls her by name. When Sarai and Abram have only referred to her as a servant, God calls to her in a personal, intimate way. She isn't just a "womb," she isn't just property, she is a person... made in his image.

God will ask where Hagar is heading. He already knows what she is doing, but he gives her an opportunity to pour out her heart to him. She tells him her story, of her pain and the abuse she has experienced and he speaks gently to her. After hearing of her pain, he tells her to return to Sarai and before she can question him or respond he tells her why. God assures Hagar that he will bless her in the midst of her suffering.

We must not read this as God desiring that we stay or return to an abusive relationship. If we find ourselves in a potentially dangerous relationship we should seek help and remove ourselves from danger.

What should be read here is something that we all need to store away for those seasons of personal suffering. God is telling Hagar that he sees her and that he will sustain her during her affliction, and that she should cling tightly to what he promises for her future.

For Hagar, God's promise was for a son. Not just a son, but grandchildren and great-grandchildren, she too would have a large family. This son would be a "wild donkey" of a man, which seems peculiar, but when we look at how the donkey is described throughout Scripture we see that her son would be strong and untameable. Her son would not be a slave. He would live among his brothers and his people would resist being put under the authority of any other man.

this is what God has in store for Hagar's future, but for now, she would have to trust him through her trial. For now, until her son was stronger, this would be how God would provide for her, how he would protect her, and eventually bless her.

Hagar is amazed that in her hopeless situation, God sees her. He came to her rescue and she worships him. She will be the only woman in Scripture to give God a name. She calls him El-Roi, the "God who sees." This was the God who would sustain her and give her and promises a better day ahead.

Hagar was to return to Saria's side, and when she faced affliction she was to remember God's promise. After all, he gave her a convenient reminder that he was with her. She was to name her son Ishmael, which means "God hears." Every time she would call her son's name she would be reminded that the God who sees, is listening. He cares for her and has not abandoned her in her pain.

Emmanuel

In the New Testament, we are reminded again that God sees, and that God hears but now he will do more, he will enter into our suffering. Jesus will wrap himself in human form, and walk among us. He will be our great high priest who is able to intercede to God on our behalf and who can sympathize with our struggles.

He sees, He hears, He Came, and He lives