Seeing the God Who Sees

(Genesis 16, Preaching: Pastor Nathan Snyder, November 9, 2014)

Sarai had become impatient.  She was getting up there in years, quite possibly beyond the natural years of childbearing.  God had promised her husband an heir, but apparently this was not going to come about through her.  God had kept her from having any children.  So there must be another way to make sure God’s promise of an heir came to pass.  Sarai had a strategy.  She would give her servant, Hagar, to her husband as a wife so that Hagar might bear Abram a son who would be considered Sarai’s own.  This practice was accepted in the culture.  When Sarai proposed the idea to Abram, he went right along with it.  At first the plan seemed to work beautifully.  Hagar became pregnant.  At last, Sarai would have a child to call her own.  The only problem was that Hagar was going to bear this child, not her, and Hagar began to rub it in.  She had a reason to feel superior to her mistress.  She began looking with contempt on Sarai and Sarai could feel it.  Sarai’s strategy to deal with her barrenness was now making life miserable for her.  So she complained to Abram.  “I gave my servant to your embrace and now she is acting like she is superior to me.  You are responsible for this!”  Abram responded, “Do whatever you want to her”.  So Sarai began treating Hagar with harshness and the woman fled.  So much for Abram’s child, still in Hagar’s womb.  So much for Sarai’s plan.

Sometimes we become impatient with God or discontent with the afflictions he has brought into our life.  Sometimes we think his promises need a little help from us.  So we come up with strategies that God never wanted for us and only make things worse.  Can we trust God to take care of us and fulfill his promises without our strategies?  Or think about this: Can we trust him to secure forgiveness of sin and eternal life for us?  He does not need our help in this.  All we brought to the table was our sin and need.  God supplied all the grace through his Son.  If we think we can add to what he has already accomplished through Christ, we insult him.

The story now follows Hagar.  She fled the oppressive hand of her mistress and headed toward Egypt, her home country.  Yet God had other plans for her.  While his intention was to give Abram an heir through Sarai, Hagar’s offspring was still Abram’s, and God desired her to return to them.  So he sent after her his messenger, the angel of the LORD, who it seems was himself a manifestation of God.  The messenger told her to go back and submit to Sarai.  God would bless her and multiply her offspring.  If you were Hagar, would you want to go back?  Yet her response was not complaint.  Her response was wonder and amazement that God took personal interest in her, that God saw her and cared for her and her child, that God even appeared so that she might see him.  She calls him a God of seeing, for she had seen him who saw her to watch over her.  There might be difficult days ahead, but Hagar could face them because she had seen the God who cared for her.

God has made promises to us which he intends to keep.  He has also appointed affliction for our life according to his good purposes that may be far bigger than we can see.  Rather than invent our own strategies which only cause more problems, let us find strength looking to this God who cares for weak and lowly people like us in our affliction.  He has even come after us to show himself to us in the person of his Son, who is the very image of God and the manifestation of his glory.  The wonder of seeing this great God who looks after us is enough.

Put the Word to Work: We often try to handle our afflictions with our own strategies, which does not turn out well.  Yet God does not need our help in fulfilling his promises.  Seeing this God who sees and loves us gives us strength to face the afflictions he has appointed for our lives.

Memory Verse from the Psalms of Ascents: Psalm 124:8 – Our help is in name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

Gospel Reading: Matthew 15:29-31 – Jesus Heals Many