The main point of Genesis (and the thrust of the Hebrew Scriptures, for that matter) is centered on highlighting God’s covenant with God’s covenant people led by God’s covenant leaders. These leaders of Israel are Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel), Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, and the prophets to name a few. However, in the midst of God’s attention being focused toward Abraham in the beginning of Genesis, something strange happens. What looks like a disaster and possible de-railing of God’s grand plan for God’s people ends up being a story of redemption, grace, and love.
Abraham (Abram) was promised early on (and multiple times) that he would be made into a great nation. That he would be the father of many and that blessing and land would be his to inherit, even as the surrounding nations seemed to be too powerful to conquer. God makes a covenant promise with Abraham to ensure that Abraham knows full well that God is the one who will surely do what God has promised to do. Abraham’s wife Sarai (later Sarah) strays from the plan and gets fidgety. She wants a son now. She is unable to fully trust that God will build a family through her and Abraham, even though Sarai is barren and old. So, in a moment of restlessness she tells Abraham to sleep with her Egyptian slave Hagar so that God will at least build a family through Abraham this way. Hagar does what she is told and becomes pregnant with Abraham’s son, Ishmael. Sarah realizes that Hagar has inherited the promise that she was told would be hers and she mistreats her slave, causing the pregnant Hagar to flee to the desert.
This is one of those family drama stories that we would sometimes rather skip over. Similar to all of our family stories, there are cracks and bumps and warts. The bible is brutally honest about the ways humanity chooses to deny God, run from God, doubt God and how people feel toward God. This story is no different. Hagar, although not a main character, was made in the image of God and so was Ishmael. But it seems in this story they are discarded and thrown to the side so that the main characters in God’s story can do what they are destined to.
Every human has had these moments. Moments of doubt and distress. Where they feel hurt and abandoned. By God, people, loved ones. This passage, if we let it, can speak into the hurt parts of our lives. The confused parts. The discarded parts. The parts of us that fear and are angry toward God. Hagar is pregnant, hated, a slave, abandoned, and fearful.
As the story continues something interesting begins to unfold. Hagar and Ishmael leave the presence of Abraham and Sarah but God goes with them…
God follows the outcast and the discarded out to the desert.
Located in Genesis 16, the text says that “the angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, ‘Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?’” (Gen. 16vv7-8). She tells the angel she’s running away from her mistress and the angel instructs her to return to her master. The text goes on to say, “She (Hagar) 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.’” (v.13).
God sees you.
A couple chapters later Hagar goes back to Abraham and Sarah, has her kid and continues to live there until half-brother Isaac is born. Again, a super climactic moment for the story and people of Israel as God makes good on his promise to Abraham and Sarah. He provided a child to them even though they were way past baby-making age. This is an exciting time…for Abe and Sar. However, Sarah loses her cool again and tells Hagar to kick rocks for the second time. Abraham has an anxiety attack because it’s technically his kid but he doesn’t want to make Sarah upset so… God tells him it’s going to be alright because God will still make Ishmael into a nation too. Abraham gives Hagar and Ishmael a couple of supplies but those quickly run out as they find themselves in the desert… again.
After the two run out of food and water they become hopeless. Hagar goes a bowshot away to die as her son does the same. She can’t handle the shame of watching her son die, as she feels responsible for creating this mess of a situation. The next part of that scene is incredible. It says, “God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, ‘What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there.’” (Gen. 21v17)
God hears you.
The story goes on to say that God opens Sarah’s eyes to see the well of water in front of her. Refuge. Safety. Provision. She recognizes that she mattered in that moment.
God was not preoccupied with Abraham and Isaac in that moment. He was with Hagar and Ishmael, the slave woman and her son.
It even says, in verse 20, “God was with the boy as he grew up.”
God is with you.
As you fear, question, doubt, lament, and respond in sadness and anger God is with you. If you are excited and things are going great, God is with you too. But in this particular story, we need to hear that God is with those who no one else is with. Those who have been abandoned and forgotten and left behind.
God meets us where we are at. God condescends to our level and becomes like us. This is the very essence of the “gospel”. That God locks eyes with us face to face on our level and becomes acquainted with our grief, suffering and pain. This God is embodied in the Christ. The Cosmic Reality that became a Jewish man that was abandoned, forgotten and discarded. Who questioned, doubted, and expressed lament. This actually allowed Jesus to grow in intimacy with God, not bitterness. We must be honest with where we are at if we are to see that God is actually with us in those times.
REFLECT
Do you believe God hears you? … Do you think God sees you? … Do you know that God is with you?
Your fears and anger and doubt and questions are not illegitimate. They matter because you matter.
What are your fears? What are your questions/doubts? What is your expectation/hope set toward as you begin to recognize God has not abandoned you and that you are seen and heard and with God?
Ask for God to expand your awareness of the forgotten and vulnerable and discarded around you. If you feel this is you, ask God to comfort you with his hearing, seeing, and with-ness.
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