Abraham, Part 11 - God Meets Us in the Desert
Genesis 16v7-16
20th November 2010
Our ancestors in the faith, Abraham and Sarah, had sinned grievously against Hagar, Sarah's slave girl and Abraham's second wife. Although she was carrying Abraham's child, Hagar had been so abused by Sarah that she had run away.
Genesis 16:7-8
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, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?"
"I'm running away from my mistress Sarai," she answered.
Hagar had run away from her home in Canaan, back to the land of her birth, Egypt. But a desert lay between Canaan and Egypt. How could a single, pregnant woman expect to cross it? Hagar must have been desperate, or she would never have tried. She found water near the road and stopped to drink. And the angel of the Lord met her there. He spoke to her by name, and asked two questions, "where have you come from?" and "where are you going?". Hagar answered only the first question. She was running away from Abraham and Sarah, but she didn't know where she would end up, or even if she would get across the desert alive.
Genesis 16:9
Then the angel of the LORD told her, "Go back to your mistress and submit to her."
Astonishingly, the angel told Hagar to return to the home where she had been abused. We would never offer an abused woman such advice, but God had great plans for Hagar and her son.
Genesis 16:10-11
The angel added, "I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count."
The angel of the LORD also said to her: "You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name
him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard of your misery.
"Ishmael" means "God hears". Ishmael would live because God heard Hagar's cries.
Genesis 16:12
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 towards all his brothers."
As Hagar had had the arrogance and cruelty to despise Sarah (verse 4) and the strength to run away and face the desert road, so her son would be a "wild donkey", belligerent and unpopular. Our sufferings and our character strengths and flaws are often reflected in our children. Nonetheless, Ishmael would know God's blessing; he would be the father of people "too numerous to count".
Genesis 16:13-14
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.
What a great name for God, "The one who sees me"! She was just an abused slave girl, pregnant and alone in the desert, but God saw her, and met her, and saved her life. No matter who we are, no matter what we've suffered, no matter how lonely we are, no matter where we are, God cares. And He hears us when we cry to Him. And He meets us where we are.
Genesis 16:15-16
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.
Hagar obeyed the angel. She returned to her home. But we don't read Sarah's name in the account of Hagar's return. It seems that it was Abraham who took care of her.
So often, it's in the desert places of our lives that we meet God, because it's there that we acknowledge our need of Him, and cry out to Him. It's there that we're willing to accept His help, and do what He says, even when human wisdom would suggest a different course of action. God knows best, and He leads us on. Sometimes that involves going back to a difficult situation. But His plans for us are good.