You are the God who sees me. (Genesis 16:13)
This is the
story of Sarah’s Egyptian slave girl Hagar. Abraham and Sarah lived in Egypt
After Hagar got pregnant with Abraham’s child, she despised Sarah and in return Sarah mistreated her, provoked by jealousy. When Hagar (Forsaken) could take it no more, she ran away to the most forsaken place she could find – the desert. There she had an encounter with God, who assured her that her cries had been heard.
As a woman, a foreigner and a slave, Hagar had no standing in society, and yet the God of the universe found her in the wilderness, met with her and comforted her there. And in the loneliest place on earth she gave God a new name: You are the God who sees me. Can't you almost hear her? Even though I am forsaken, you are the God who does not forsake me. Even though I am rejected, you are the God who does not reject me. Even though I am unseen, you are the God who sees me.
The next time you feel forsaken, rejected, forgotten and maybe even invisible, can you take comfort in knowing that God sees you?
After Hagar got pregnant with Abraham’s child, she despised Sarah and in return Sarah mistreated her, provoked by jealousy. When Hagar (Forsaken) could take it no more, she ran away to the most forsaken place she could find – the desert. There she had an encounter with God, who assured her that her cries had been heard.
As a woman, a foreigner and a slave, Hagar had no standing in society, and yet the God of the universe found her in the wilderness, met with her and comforted her there. And in the loneliest place on earth she gave God a new name: You are the God who sees me. Can't you almost hear her? Even though I am forsaken, you are the God who does not forsake me. Even though I am rejected, you are the God who does not reject me. Even though I am unseen, you are the God who sees me.
The next time you feel forsaken, rejected, forgotten and maybe even invisible, can you take comfort in knowing that God sees you?
When Hagar encounters God, it was through "the Angel of the Lord." When Abraham encounters God, it says that God appeared to him in Genesis 17, and then again in 18 with the 3 visitors. It sounds like this was an encounter with a "person" rather than a dream or vision or angel. Also, God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden. Am I reading this right that God met Abramham face to face? If God was in bodily form, would this then be Jesus?
ReplyDeleteTim, How should we interpret the angel's prophecy about Ishmael? It sounded to me like it was almost a curse laid on her for running away?
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