Podcast Introduction

Our reading today is Genesis 16-19, and I’m calling the episode “The God Who Sees Me”. We’ll be reading about_what can happen when we decide to help God, Sodom and Gomorrah, and some other very important happenings. We’ll do our “On This Day In Church History” segment, and we have another praise report.

Thoughts on Genesis 16

Years earlier, God had promised to Abram that he would have as many descendants as there are stars in the sky. But now, Sarai has begun to doubt God’s promise. She does what comes so easily to human beings. She rationalizes. She decides that God must need some help, so she tells Abram to have a child with her servant, Hagar.

Of course, Abram, being a great man of faith, says to her, “No Sarai. God knows what He is doing. You are my wife, and it would be wrong of me to do this with Hagar. Let’s wait on the Lord.”

Except that is not what he did, is it? Once again, Abram also doubts God. He too is weary of waiting on God. 

So Abram does what Sarai suggests, and Hagar becomes pregnant with Abram’s child. 

Now Hagar becomes prideful because she considers herself to be greater than Sarai, who had been unable to conceive. Being childless was considered to be a shameful thing in their culture. So since Hagar had conceived, she thought that she was “all that”. And she began to rub it in. She mistreated Sarai.

And Sarai did what so many of us do. She shifted the blame. She blamed Abram. “This is all your fault!”

Of course, Abram, being a man of great character said, “No Sarai. This was your idea, but I’ll tell her to shape up.”

Except that is not what he did, is it? No, he washed his hands of the whole thing and told Sarai to do as she saw fit. And of course Sarai mistreated Hagar so badly that Hagar ran away.

We don’t know how far Hagar got, but she stopped by a spring of water, and The Angel of the Lord appeared and said, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

Let’s stop here for a moment. This is the first time we read of “The Angel of the Lord”, but it will not be the last. He’ll appear to Abraham in Genesis 22. He’ll appear to Moses in Exodus 2. He’ll appear to Balaam in Numbers 22, to the nation of Israel in Judges 2, to Gideon in Judges 6, to Samson’s parents in Judges 13, to David in 2 Samuel 24, and to Elijah in 1 Kings 19. 

Who is The Angel of the Lord? In these contexts, where The Angel of the Lord appears to someone in physical form, it is the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. Later in the chapter Hagar says, “You are the God who sees me.” So she understood that this was God. And since John 1:18 says, in speaking of God the Father, “No one has ever seen God. But the unique One (speaking of Jesus), who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.” 1 Timothy 1:16 also tells us that no human has ever seen God the Father. So, when God physically appeared to a person in the Old Testament, we believe that it was Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, before his incarnation in Bethlehem.

Let’s continue, “…The Angel of the Lord appeared and said, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

Notice that in saying this to her, the angel of the Lord let Hagar know that He knew who she was by addressing her by name. So when He asked where she was coming from and where she was going, He probably knew those answers, too.

When she told The Angel of the Lord that she was running from her mistress, Sarai, He told her to go back, submit to Sarai, and He would give her more descendants than she could count. He told her to change her direction. She was running *from* Sarai, but He told her to *go back* to Sarai. To change one’s direction is to repent. And with this instruction came the implied promise of His protection, because of the promise He made that she would have all those descendants. 

The Angel of the Lord told Hagar to name the son she was pregnant with Ishmael, which means God Hears. This is the first time in the Bible that a child is given a name before they are born. What does that tell us? It tells us that God had a plan for him. Ishmael was to become the father of the Arab people.

Now, the conflict between the Arabic people and the Jewish people has been going on since the birth of Isaac (which will happen in chapter 21). So was the birth of Ishmael a fly in the ointment of God’s plan? Consider this: God could have allowed Hagar and her unborn child to die in the wilderness. But He showed up to her by the spring here in chapter 16. He could have told Hagar to run for the hills, and never be seen by Abram and Sarai again. But He told her to go back to them. No, God had a plan for Ishmael.

And then Hagar said, “You are the God who sees me.” The God who sees me. And Ishmael means God Hears.

Beloved, I’m so glad that our God sees us, and hears us. He sees our troubles and He hears our cries. And as He did with Hagar, He responds. And as He did with Hagar, He has a plan for each of us, and He will accomplish that plan. It would be good if each of us allowed Him to work out that plan in His time. We just need to  follow His direction.

Hallelujah!

Today’s Bible Translation

Bible translation used in today’s episode: Ch. 16-18 NLT, Ch. 19 GW

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