January 23, 2024 | Be God's Light
Hagar and Ishmael
Scripture: Genesis 16(NIV)
1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”
Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.
When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”
6 “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.
7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.
9 Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”
11 The angel of the Lord also said to her:
“You are now pregnant
and you will give birth to a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
for the Lord has heard of your misery.
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
toward all his brothers.”
13 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.” 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.
15 So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.
Devotional
Time marched on. Abram was seventy-five when he relocated to Canaan. God promised offspring to him and his childless wife Sarai. Now it’s ten years later. Abram is eighty-five and no spring chicken. If he is going to have descendants, he would have to take matters into his own tent. That’s where he impregnated Sarai’s Egyptian slave Hagar.
There was no joy in Mudville when the slave girl conceived so easily and the aging wife remained barren. Contempt. Jealousy. Abuse. Escape. Return. Submission. Birth. It was a messy scene. It looked like the messianic line would pass through an Egyptian slave, not a faithful wife.
At her lowest point, Hagar named the Lord, “You are the God who sees me.” Have you ever wondered if God sees you when things are going badly? Psalm 33:13 says, “From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind.” The Lord is not distant in our times of need; He is right there with us.
Hagar would need that memory of God speaking with her in future times. For fourteen years her son Ishmael was the heir apparent to Abram. But when her mistress miraculously had a baby in her extreme old age, Ishmael became expendable. She would recall that God told her that Ishmael would live a contentious, hostile life among his relatives. Yet she would remember that God sees her no matter what.
Is there anything you are hiding from God? Maybe something you wish God would notice? Know that “the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cry” (Psalm 34:15).
Poem
It's All Your Fault
It's all your fault
It can't be me
You're in my way
Oh, can't you see
I'll just blame you
For the mess I'm in
It's not my fault
It's not my sin
That got me to
This messy place
It must be you
Taking my space
Don't make your list
Don't try to be
The one who's right
Or make me see
My contribution
To this mess
I'll just blame you
I think that's best.
