A God of Seeing

Gen 16:6 – 17

 

Connection/Tension

My seminar program at Bethlehem was one of the most challenging things I’ve done- the workload and the standards were so high. And it was a wonderful place, with godly professors and students.

And, there was another way it challenged me- a more significant one. You’re literally scored based on how proficient you are at biblical knowledge and explanation. The classroom setting revolved around such pursuits. Do you think it took me very long to start comparing myself with my classmates?

When that happened, I noticed my relationships with them took second priority and my personal success came first. Envy and a competitive heart sacrifices other people to achieve what it desires.  

Do you not think that we have the exact same struggle in our community? I’m one of five on a team of some of the most gifted guys that I know, and I still struggle not to compare and compete (which is just insane because we are all pastors together).

So, I want to ask: how can we protect our community from the destructive power of envy? How can we maintain peace when competitive spirits want to disrupt the unity of the Spirit in our church?

We’re going to find out from God’s word this morning:

Context

In last week’s sermon, we heard the events that led up to where we are this week. Abram had experienced blessings of all kinds from God. Yet, the one matter of not being to have a child go to him and Sarai and shook their trust in God.

Rather than wait on God to keep his promise, they decided to take matters into their own hands. Sarai took one of their Egyptian maidservants, Hagar, and gave her to Abram as a wife.

Hagar conceived by Abram. Yet, when she conceived, she began to elevate herself over Sarai, treating Sarai contemptuously. And, Sarai responded with harshness and hatred, so mistreating this woman Hagar that she drove her out into the wilderness alone.

That’s where our story picks up with Hagar now in verse 7, 

 

Revelation

7 The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur.

We find Hagar at her lowest. She’s alone and thirsty in a desert. Likely, she’s just a few steps from death in this desolate and desperate place.[1] She’s “on the way to Shur,” which is a road that leads from southern Canaan back to Egypt.[2]

She has journeyed from the place of life (Abram’s household) to a place of death (the desert).[3] Abram’s household was the place of life because that’s where God decided to put his presence and blessing at that time (Gen 12:1 – 3). Yet, tragically, that’s the very place where Hagar was deeply sinned against. It’s where Abram took her as a second wife, treating her as a possession much like the violent kings of the earth all around them (cf. Gen 4:23). It’s where Sarai delt with her with such harshness that Hagar was ready to throw away her life on this hopeless journey.

Yet, Abram’s household was also the setting of Hagar’s sin. After she conceived a child, she treated Sarai as if she were “insignificant”[4] and dishonored her. The ESV says she, “looked with contempt on her mistress.”

The Hebrew word for “contempt” here is the same word from Gen 12:3 (translated “dishonor”) where God says to Abram, “whoever dishonors you, I will curse.”[5] The wilderness Hagar is in is also of her own making. She responded to belittling, dishonoring treatment with belittling, dishonorable treatment and God kept his word to bring curse on those who dishonored his people.    

This situation brings some important insight into our own lives:

Are we sinners or the victims of sin? Yes. Like Hagar, we often are the victims of others sin, and also the perpetrator of sin against others. Our lives in this complicated world are a story both of committing evil and evil happening to us.

Sometimes, horribly, that evil even happens in the very place where it should happen least- among the people of God. Abram is a great hero of the faith at this time and something like this should have happened in this household least of all!

Though we fight against the influence of the serpent in this community, sometimes it seeps in, wreaking havoc.

These moments of stress or pain in our present church community or one from the past can tempt us to want to depart from the church and the way of Christ and return to our old lives- like Hagar. If that’s happened to you or describes your past- I’m sorry. This text is going to reveal God’s heart for those who are injured even by his own people.

This passage is going to reveal to us what both Hagar and we need to know most: The sins of others against us don’t have the final say; Our own sins don’t have the final say. The God of creation does.

Hagar is about to encounter him in a fresh way: the beginning of this verse says, “the angel of the Lord found her.” God does not leave this mistreated, banished immigrant to suffer alone (He doesn’t forget someone the rest of the world forgot- after all, no one went after her).

Yet, she had joined the household of Abram, and now God’s heart is committed to her for her good. And at her lowest moment, in the driest desert, his angel finds her. He comes with a message from another world- a message that will completely change her heart.

8 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.”

So, the messenger, speaking on behalf of God, asks a question. It’s not a question asked from ignorance, but one he means to use to draw out her heart. The question will summon both what sin Hagar has experienced and what sin she committed. In the story, God’s questions represent his patient pursuit of sinners- this question echoes the first question God asks to Adam after he rebelliously ate the fruit- “where are you?” (3:8).

Hagar answers honestly and lays bare the decision she made, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” (no one has yet been honest in the story when God asks them this question besides Hagar).[6] By calling Sarai her “mistress,” Hagar confessing that her flight is a rebellious act, since as her mistress, Sarai had authority over her.[7] Yet, by using the word “fleeing,” she alludes to the great mistreatment she received at Sarai’s hand.[8]

The angel then gives Hagar a surprising response,

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

Here, the angel calls Hagar to repent.[9] One way to think of repentance is to be going in one direction and to turn around and go the other way. When we are using that language, we are talking about the direction of our hearts, of our attitudes and decisions towards God and other people. Yet, here, the story vividly illustrates repentance since the angel calls Hagar to literally turn around and journey the other way.

She must end her rebellious journey towards Egypt and return to Canaan. In the story so far, Egypt is the place people go when they want to do things on their own terms on their own timing. Canaan is where people go when they surrender to God’s will, God’s timing, and God’s plan. In Egypt, it seems like (at least) you have control, and you are in charge- but you lose God’s presence. In Canaan, you give up your control, but you get God. God is inviting Hagar to make the biggest surrender to him of her life. He’s calling her to go put herself again under the authority of someone who’s mistreated her and with whom she’s at odds, since he has a purpose for her in Canaan (and plans to care for her there).

We refuse to repent when we want control more than we want God- when we want things done our own way in our own time more than we want to have deep connection with our creator.

We repent when we decide that knowing God is better than controlling our lives. His words rather than our own judgement become our lifeline and we do everything we can to get closer to him.

What’s one area in your life this morning you are seizing and grasping for control that God wants you to let go of and trust him instead? Or using worldly means to get your way like Scott preached about last week?

Now, we are going to move onto Hagar’s repentance and how God moves her to repentance by winning her trust. It’s when we trust that God is better than our own solutions that we give in and surrender to his good rule over our lives,  

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

 The angel of the Lord speaks to her a second time, promising how God will provide for her if she listens to his voice and returns to Abram and Sarai. She will not be a forgotten servant. She will not remain a victim and nothing more. She will become a mother of a nation. She will occupy a place of honor and legacy. In a moment, her future is transforming before her eyes, it’s changing from death in the wilderness to abundant life in Canaan. The same thing happens to us when we repent and follow God- our future changes from death and despair apart from him to hope for things greater than we could imagine. And like Hagar, he will give us everything we need along the way to get there.

We see here ‘s one reason why everyone should repent and follow God no matter the cost: because of his boundless generosity. God wants to share with her and offers her the same blessing of Abram. He’s not stingy with his blessing. He also keeps his word to Abram that, “I will bless those who bless you.”

Why is God’s generosity the biggest reason any of us should repent and do things in God’s way and God’s timing rather than our own? Because if you’re going to give up control of your life to someone who’s not you, it better be someone who’s going to provide for you better than you could ever take care of yourself.

Christianity is the coming to the end of yourself, realizing you’re not sufficient on your own, and turning to the one who is all sufficient in your place.

And next the angel speaks again and gives more definition to God’s promise to Hagar,

11 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 says she’s already pregnant- God’s already begun to fulfill his promise to her to make her the mother of a multitude. He gives her exactly what she needs to know in that moment to be able to obey him. Our journey in following God is often so similar- we don’t know everything we want to, but God shows us everything we need to know to be able to take the next step of obedience.

She’s to call his name, “Ishmael,” a name that is made up of two words that mean, “God hears.”[10] God means for this child to be a living monument to Hagar and the family of Abram that God cares about the afflicted and the crushed in Spirit. He is not a distant, unfeeling God, but one who is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in Spirit. God’s heart breaks for the afflicted. The reason why Ishmael gets the name he does is “because the Lord listened to your affliction.

The messenger’s next words to Hagar are not as favorable.[11]

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.”

 

A donkey is a picture of stubbornness. He will live in hostile relationships with his neighbors and will have conflict with his relatives (meaning likely the Israelites to whom the Ishmaelites would have been related). A sibling rivalry and conflict will characterize his people’s life.

This part of the message is mysterious to say the least. Perhaps it’s the messenger’s way of communicating with Hagar that her offspring and her line will not supplant the line of Sarai’s offspring as the child of promise. She must abandon her attitude of superiority towards Sarai. God will still use Sarai to bring into the world the offspring who will bring peace to the nations - Ishmael and his descendants will not fulfill this purpose. God has blessing available for them- but it will come through the line of promise, not through Ishmael.

So, Hagar has received a mixed blessing (which so often depicts our own lives, great blessing amid great struggles). One that brims with hope and foretells conflict. Even at this moment of receiving great blessing from God, her heart is undergoing a test. How will she respond? Will she receive God’s provision even though she may have wanted more? Oh how beautiful are the next words that come from this young woman’s mouth,

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.” 14 Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered.

Hagar is the first person to give God a name in the story.[12] Not Adam, not Noah, not even Abram, but this afflicted, Egyptian immigrant. God seeks her out, and she goes from fleeing to Egypt to naming the God of Israel, “You are a God of seeing.”

Hagar does not spurn or despise the blessing God had given her; rather, she joyfully accepts it and her whole heart towards the Lord changes in an instant. She no longer sees God as distant and unable to help her (so she has to flee to Egypt), but as the one who sees to all her needs both now and forever. Hagar is a model to us of accepting a blessing that may not be all we want, but is good, and is far better than we deserve.

One small example for me is my habit of losing things and forgetting my schedule for the day (I feel like I am in a losing war against absent-mindedness). I’ve become so frustrated with myself that I am at the point of rage whenever it happens. God has not given me as focused and present as a mind as I would like, but he’s given me more than I deserve and need. I have shelter, I have food, I have a family, I have Christ. These are out of the world riches for so many people, and yet I respond with rage and even vulgarity for such small things because I’m blind in those moments to the generosity of my God and want things to be a way that he hasn’t yet made them.

Everything in this text is shouting that God provides exactly what we need even if it’s not everything we want, that’s why everything is getting a name that means this very thing. Her child gets a name that “God hears.” God gets a new name that he’s “a God of seeing.” And the well where this happened gets a new name that means, “the well of the living one, who sees me.”[13] We all have different needs this morning, and we worship a God who not only will provide for them all, but intimately knows them all.

I want to make one final observation about how God provides for Hagar, he primarily provides for her through his words. If you notice, God changes Hagar’s heart through three words spoken to her by his messenger (vv. 9, 10 and 11).

Hagar didn’t need her circumstances to change as much as she needed to see things from heaven’s perspective rather than her own. If only we had access to the same thing: messages from heaven that show us who God is and what he plans to do with us and the creation… my friends, we have this precious provision in our hands this morning. God speaks to us today through his book as he did through this messenger to Hagar. We don’t get a new view of ourselves, our God, or our life by retreating inside ourselves and giving into our anxiety and depression, we receive it by opening the book of God each day and receiving a fresh vision of who he is and what he has and will give us. Like so many stories, this one invites us to Be with the Father. And if you feel like you are drowning and can’t even take that step- what you need is to lean on the community to help. Please invite someone to come and pray and read with you. Start small and by God’s grace you’ll finish big.

This story of provision, like every story of provision, is meant to lead us to the ultimate provision- Jesus the son of God the sacrifice for sinners. And it is the book of God that takes us there and shows us how God’s provision for Hagar anticipates God’s provision in Jesus. God saw the deep needs of the nations- which is our greatest need to be in a right relationship with the God we have wronged- and he saw to it that there is a way back to life for anyone who walks the road of repentance towards Jesus. He’s not just a God of seeing for Hagar, but for us.

Let’s return to our story for its conclusion.

15 And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.

In these verses, we see the setting change again. Hagar is no longer in the wilderness on her way to Egypt, but back in the household of Abram in Canaan. She was able to walk the road of repentance back home having gained a new view of the generosity of God.

She’s not the only changed person- Abram is as well. Rather than passively sitting back and letting Sarai mistreat Hagar, he’s now taking responsibility for his child and naming him the name the angel commanded Hagar.

Application

You see, family, the repentance of Hagar brought peace and order back to the household of Abram after Abram and Sarai’s sin had brought destruction and chaos. Yes, they will have to live with the destructive consequences of their choices (one of them Abram now having to raise two children from two different mothers), yet, for the time being, the destructive conflict fades into the background- God has brought peace through transforming Hagar.

I have good news for us, God wants to continue to bring peace to our community in the same way. So much conflict and strife can come from jealousy and rivalries (like between Sarai and Hagar). Who is friends with whom? Who is dating whom? Who is better than me at what? Please take note: the envious or jealous heart has a shrunken view of God: God’s not able to fully provide for me and this other person whom I am envious of or in conflict with. We see life as a zero-sum game where we compete with others in our community for relational opportunities, or places of honor or respect in the community.

But not if we learn the lesson Hagar teaches us! We worship a God who is brimming with the blessings of Eden and sees the needs of each of his particular people. You don’t need to want what your brother or sister has that you don’t; you just need to worship a God of seeing and providing. My friends, we need Hagar’s view of God that he’s full to the brim with blessing if we’re going to Love his family well and escape the trap of jealously and rivalry in this community. When we truly believe and practice that, the peace of God will rule in this place instead. Let’s pray.

 

Reflection Questions:

1.      Do you have a daily habit of reading God’s Word and asking God to change your view of who he is for his people?

 

2.      Who in this community do you feel most envious of? Are you believing that God is abundantly able to provide for all your needs and theirs?

 

 

[1] Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 1 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 26.

[2] John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), Ge 16:7.

[3] John H. Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as Narrative: A Biblical-Theological Commentary, ed. Gary Lee (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 155.

[4] קלל…. to be insignificant, pa. to make easier, hurry, af. to have a low opinion of; [4]

[5] Ibid.

[6] Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 16–50, vol. 2, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1994), 10.

[7] Cf. John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries on Genesis, trans. Henry Beveridge (BakerBooks, 2009), 430.

[8] ibid.

[9] Cf. https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/river-of-return

[10] Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 1 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 26.

[11] John H. Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as Narrative: A Biblical-Theological Commentary, ed. Gary Lee (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 155.

[12] Tim Makey pointed this out on his Bible Project podcast.

[13] Derek Kidner, Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 1, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1967), 139.