Hagar. An Egyptian servant girl who found herself caught in the middle of a bitter, marital dispute.
“The Lord has prevented me from bearing children! Go in unto my handmaid, that I shall obtain children through her.” A bitter, tired Sarai yelled to her old husband. Grief; the source of her spewing words.
Only one chapter before this drastic moment, God performed a covenant-marking act and promised that a great nation would come from Abram’s life. Abram didn’t look down at his wrinkled hands, or the years of waiting-- he simply looked at God and trusted.
It is recorded that Abram believed because he had confidence in the righteousness of God. He was familiar and comfortable with the character of God. He knew God wouldn’t lie. Couldn’t.
But as soon as he was approached by his wife’s desperation, he folds to her desperate schemes without a fight. His faith wavered, He took his eyes off of the One who promised, and instead took the Plan B that Sarai offered him. He set in motion his own solution to the “problem” God promised to resolve.
Hagar found herself in the crosshairs of Sarai’s disbelief. She was given over to Abram for the purpose of bearing his heir, Sarai’s son-- a child that wouldn’t be raised as hers. When she discovered that she was pregnant, she was filled with contempt towards Sarai. She was cast out of the household, and fled into the desert. Alone, lost, and pregnant she collapses at the well at Shur, and an angel comes to her-- an angel sent by the Lord to speak kindly to her and to defend her. The angel says,
“Behold, you are pregnant
And shall bear a son.
You shall call his name Ishmael,
Because the Lord has listened to your affliction.”
Hagar chooses to trust, unlike her master, and she replies,
“You are a God of seeing," for she said, "Truly, here I have seen him who looks after me."
God is a God who hears the cries of the marginalized. He notices. He doesn’t miss the injustice done towards His creation. He is actively involved in every moment.
Do you feel misunderstood? Forgotten? Stuck in the crosshairs of someone else’s irrational decisions? You have a Defender, an ever-present Help-- you have a Witness.
He is a seeing God.
His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me
Kate Foster,
ARH Staff Writer
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