The God Who Sees Me

The Old Testament story of a slave woman, Hagar, is a difficult story to unpack. We are introduced to her in Genesis 16. To say her story is complicated is an understatement. She was done very wrong by people who eventually wound up for being commended for their faith. The people who mistreated her were Abraham and Sarah, the Father and Mother of the Jewish faith. Before we get into it, let me just say that I am thankful that God doesn’t kick us to the curb and write us off when we mess up. He didn’t give Abraham and Sarah a one strike or even a “three strikes and you’re out” edict. He gave them grace and mercy in their time of need.

What they did showed poor judgment. What they did was wrong on multiple levels. They sinned against God, and they sinned against Hagar. What they did revealed a lack of faith AND YET, they wound up becoming people who were heralded as examples of faith. I’m glad God sees the end from the beginning and the end from the middle. Some of you here today might be in the middle of a mess or mistake. Don’t allow it to become the end of your story or to determine what happens next. Each of us can purpose to do the next right thing and to let God determine how we will be evaluated in the end.

So, the messy story begins in Genesis 16. God had made a covenant with Abram, the guy we know best as Abraham. Even though Sarah, Abraham’s wife was barren, God promised them a son. He had said that Abraham’s descendants would become as many as the stars in the sky, and when God told Abraham that, Abraham believed it by faith. However, ten years had passed, and he and Sarah, Sarai, as she was called in Genesis 16, they hadn’t had any children.

Abraham and Sarah lived in a culture where having servants was common. We don’t know how they acquired the Egyptian slave, their servant, Hagar. There was another whole royal mess of a story in the second half of chapter 12 where Abraham and Sarah lied to the Egyptian Pharoah about them not being husband and wife, but they made the claim they were brother and sister. I’m just here to tell you that God used a lot of messed up people for His Divine purposes which ought to encourage all of us, I suppose. Anyway, the Pharoah had taken Sarah as a wife, not knowing she was married to Abraham, and when it was found out that they were indeed married, the Lord caused Pharaoh to suffer, and Pharaoh wound up sending Abraham and Sarah away. He sent him with gifts to make up for what he had done by taking Sarah as a wife, and one of those gifts was likely Hagar, the slave.

So, Hagar somehow had already been displaced from her home and life in Egypt and had been taken to Canaan to live with Abram and Sarai. Knowing that time was ticking and that no children had been borne to Abram and Sarai, Sarai concocted a plan. While it was culturally customary for ancient men to have more than one wife, that wasn’t God’s plan for His people. While surrogates were likely used to help barren couples have children, that wasn’t God’s plan for Abram and Sarai, but Sarai, using human wisdom, told her husband to have sex with their slave, Hagar.

Notice something in verse 3 where we read: Abram’s wife, TOOK Hagar the Egyptian, her servant and GAVE her to Abram her husband as a wife. That is very reminiscent of what happened in the Garden of Eden. Eve took the fruit and gave it to her husband, right? Just like Adam should have said to Eve, “Slow your roll, woman. We need to trust what God has said. Let’s not sin against God by going against what He has said.” Abraham should have said to Sarah, “God has already spoken on this matter. You are my wife. We are in this together, and God has said we will have offspring. Let’s not sin against God and sin against our marriage by using this Egyptian slave woman. Let’s wait on God.”

But he didn’t. Both Abraham and Sarah acted in unbelief, and executed a plan out of their flesh, a plan that violated and devastated an innocent woman. It’s hard to read, but it is what happened. God’s people did the wrong thing, and Hagar was going to suffer for it. Abram had sex with her, and she got pregnant. No one asked Hagar how she felt about being a surrogate. No one got her permission for any of this to happen. The child she would now have to carry for nine months wouldn’t even be considered hers. It would be considered the child of Abram and Sarai.

The fact that Hagar got pregnant revealed that the infertility issue did indeed reside in Sarai. That would have added insult to injury to Sarai. Conflict between the two women was inevitable as mothering the child of a wealthy and influential man like Abram was going to give the slave woman, Hagar, a greater status. She may even have been perceived to somehow be more blessed than Sarai.

Things between the women definitely changed. Verse 4 says that Hagar, the now-pregnant slave, looked at Sarai with contempt. Scholars say that means Hagar began to have an elevated view of herself over Sarai. Things were going to go from bad to worse for her.

Verse 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.”

Sarai was blaming Abram for the change in the atmosphere between the two women. To soothe Sarai, Abram told her to do to Hagar as she pleased. He gave her freedom to “put Hagar in her place,” and the text says at the end of verse 6, “Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.”

We don’t know what Sarai did to Hagar that was harsh, but it had to have been bad. Who flees by themselves when they are pregnant? She didn’t have a way to support herself. Abram could have at least provided for her during the pregnancy. She would have had shelter and help to give birth. It doesn’t appear from the text that she had a plan. It rather reads like she was desperate to get away.

All of that was groundwork for what happens next: ⁷ The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur.

Hagar was fleeing in fear, maybe even in fear for her life. Hagar was desperate. She was alone. Hagar was running away from her pain, but God, found her!

Friend, you might be running this morning. You might be dealing with pain that has been inflicted on you by people who have used you, people who have had a personal agenda of which you have become a human casualty, but I want you to know God is coming after you. You don’t have to live on the run. You don’t have to deal with your difficulty alone. You don’t have to be afraid for what will happen next. God is coming after you because He has seen what you have endured, and He has a word for you. On top of that, He has a blessing for you.

My best understanding of the Angel of the Lord is that this is actually the pre-incarnate Jesus who finds Hagar and speaks to her. Notice where the Lord found Hagar. He found her in the wilderness, literally in a desert place. There just happened to be a spring of water in that spot, and she had stopped there to refresh herself.

⁸ And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?”

First off, we notice that the Angel of the Lord knows her by name. He called her by her name. “Hagar” is a name that means, “stranger.” She may have felt insignificant and worthless, but she wasn’t either of those things to God. She wasn’t a stranger to Him. She was ONE God was seeking.

She was not only found by the Angel of the Lord, but she was known by the Angel of the Lord. I wonder what was going through her mind in that moment. I wonder if she thought, “How does this stranger in the desert know who I am, and why does He care where I have come from or where I am going?”

She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” 

You can tell by her words that she didn’t have a plan. I don’t think she knew where she was going. Some scholars say she was headed in the direction of Egypt, so may she thought she should try to go home and see if any of her old connections would welcome her. I don’t know, but I don’t really think she was thinking ahead. She was just thinking about escaping her place of torment.

⁹ The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” 

At first read, that can sound cruel and insensitive, but I will suggest four positive things that could result from her returning:

1. Her best chance to have a healthy pregnancy and to deliver a healthy baby was to be in Abram’s house where she could be provided for.
2. Facing things, rather than running from them, are the way to work through pain and trauma.
3. “Submitting” to Sarai meant changing her attitude. She had a role to play in the fact that things got worse between her and Sarai. It wasn’t only that she got pregnant that riled Sarai up, but it was also how Hagar’s interaction with Sarai changed that escalated the situation. Yes, she had been a victim and had suffered, but she needed to have a change of heart regarding some wrongdoing on her part.
4. Her son would be provided for in Abram’s household. What other way would she have for taking care of him than to be in the place where his father would provide for him?

¹⁰ The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.”

That promise of a legacy, of descendants, of a multitude, wasn’t only for Abraham. It was given to Hagar as well. God started making promises in the desert to a slave woman, a woman on the run. Something about being connected to Abraham was going to bring a blessing. Something that had brought her pain, being connected to Abraham, was also going to bring her blessing.

I won’t dwell on this long, but the question entered my mind as I was preparing, “Could it be that the greatest blessing is often born from the greatest pain?”

I’m reminded of the song that came out about fifteen years ago that asks these questions:

What if Your blessings come through raindrops?
What if Your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near?
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?

What if that thing you are going through right now, that thing that is breaking you is going to become a source of blessing in your future? It would be just like God to make it so!

God had a word for Hagar in the desert. Despite what she had been through, God had a plan for her and for her baby.

In verse 11, God told her she was going to have a son. How about that for a gender reveal? There was no balloon popping to reveal blue or pink confetti. There was no cake cutting to announce whether she was having a boy or girl, but the voice of the pre-incarnate Jesus told her she would have a son! And she was told to name her son, Ishmael, which means, “God hears.” Look at it: You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your affliction.

Every time she called his name, she would remember that God had heard and seen all she had been through, and He brought her words of hope when she was at her lowest point.

The ear of the Lord is tuned to your cry this morning. The eyes of the Lord are on you and your situation.

Then, the Angel of the Lord went on to describe the kind of person Ishmael would be.

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.”

I’m not sure how encouraging this description would have been to Hagar. I doubt that “Most likely to be stubborn like a donkey and live in contention with everyone” was what she was hoping for her son’s legacy, but at least she knew he would live. That was never a given back then. A lot of babies and their mothers died in childbirth. Hagar would have at least heard that her son would live to see a future. Even though there would be conflict, he would come out on top. He would rule, AND being the son of Abraham, he wouldn’t be born a slave.

And Hagar’s response to the encounter and the news about all of this is amazing. Look at verse 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.”

What changed everything for Hagar was the reality that she knew she was known by God. She knew her suffering hadn’t gone unnoticed. She knew she had a hope and a future because she heard it first-hand from the God who found her in the desert, the God who knew her name, and the God who would return with her back to Canaan.

No one in Hagar’s life truly saw the pain she was enduring, but God did. She said, “You are a God of seeing. You are the God who sees me.”

Hagar wasn’t a prominent woman. She didn’t wind up in the Hebrews 11 “Hall of Faith.” She wasn’t a woman of virtue or power. She isn’t credited with writing a book of the Bible. She wasn’t educated or wealthy. Hagar wasn’t someone anyone esteemed. Hagar was a slave. The fact that they had bought her or had acquired her in some transaction and that she was serving in a state of insignificance only added to her invisibility. She was used. She was taken advantage of. She didn’t have a voice. She couldn’t control her own destiny. She wouldn’t even be in the Bible if Sarai hadn’t been barren, but God never took His eye off of Hagar. And in that moment, Hagar saw Him who saw her. That was a defining and empowering moment.

When Hagar called the Angel of the Lord, “The God Who Sees Me,” or the “God of Seeing,” she used the Hebrew term, “El Roi.” This is the only time anyone directly confers a name upon God. Abram didn’t. Moses didn’t. Hagar did.

Giving someone a name, that’s a weighty privilege, and for God to record that it happened for all time is quite profound. Hagar had been known by God as she had been heard and had been seen and had been named. In response, she heard and saw and named Him in response, and He let her. He let her experience Him in a profound way.

Well, Hagar went back. She bore Abram the son, and Abram called his named, “Ishmael.” She was no longer invisible to Abram. He listened to her about the name the Angel of the Lord said the child should have. Abram went from giving Sarai permission to take charge of Hagar to listening to Hagar and believing her about her experience with God in the desert. In the ancient culture, I will call that redemption.

Sometimes I think people think that experiencing God fully comes on a mountaintop when everything is going wonderful and there is no pressure, stress or discomfort. But it has often been my experience that our best opportunity or at least the times we are most receptive to encountering God in transforming and life-changing ways are in uncomfortable places and in times of struggle.

What Hagar gained from being seen by God and from seeing God enabled her to return and face what had been and embrace what God said would be. Yes, a word from God can change everything, but I don’t necessarily think it was the words she heard that made the difference for Hagar. I think what made the difference was the fellowship she had with the God who saw her, the God who would never take His eye off of her.

Who knows but what Hagar’s encounter with the Angel of the Lord, when recounted to Abram, became the catalyst for a recommitment of his own faith in the God who sees. Abram was 86 when Ishmael was born, and when the next chapter begins, he is 99. As he fathered Ishmael and took care of him, as he received Hagar back and took care of her, God did some more work in his heart. I’m confident of that because in the next chapter, God renewed His covenant with Abram and changed his name from Abram to Abraham. A year later, Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah, was born. I believe because Hagar was faithful to return to a hard place, and to return as a different person, God not only took care of her and Isaac, but he readied Abraham to become the man we come to know who was called, “Friend of God.”

Do you feel invisible this morning? God has seen every crushing moment you have endured. As you have faced every trial, He has never taken His eyes off of you. He understands why you are running, why you have isolated yourself, why you are afraid, why you are hurting. He is here right now to speak your name and to give you hope about the future that is waiting for you. Will you put your trust in the God who sees you?