The God who seeks after Hagar

Today, in my daily bible reading, I came to the story of Hagar in Genesis 16.

Tired of waiting for God to fulfil the promise of Abraham becoming a father, Sarah gives Hagar her maid-servant to Abraham as a means to continue the family line. Abraham and Sarah instead of waiting, try, through their own means , to bring about God’s promise of a son. Sure enough, Hagar conceives. Yet instead of the pregnancy causing joy, it causes tension in the household. So much so, that Hagar flees to escape Sarah and runs into the desert.

Hagar is alone in the desert. Her plight is hopeless.

Yet, in this desert place, God meets with her. Don Carson writes, “In all of Ancient Near Eastern literature, so far as I am aware, Hagar is the only women whom Deity directly addresses by name(Genesis 16:8, 21:17).” (Carson, For the Love of God volume 1, page 53).

Hagar isn’t carrying the child of promise - that is still to come through Sarah. But, God promises blessings on the child in her womb, saying that the child will be a son and his offspring will be unnumbered there will be so many. (In Genesis 21 verse 19, God promises that this son will be a father of a great nation.)

Yet more than that God reveals himself to Hagar. He says the name of the son will be called Ishmael, which means God hears (Genesis 16:11). Hagar responds to God’s promise by calling on the name of the LORD who spoke to her and saying, “You are the God of seeing” (Genesis 21:11).

Whilst Hagar is in the desert place, God meets with her. The God who hears her and the God who sees her. He is the God who hears and sees you too! In this week of prayer and fasting take heart. God sees you. God hears you.

Looking forward to seeing many of you this evening as we gather to pray to the God who is attentive to our prayers and turned towards us.