The God Who Sees Me
Opening Prayer
God, help me to show forgiveness and love to those in my life every day.
Read Genesis 16
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
[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. Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
What motivated Sarai?As Abram and Sarai face the reality of their barrenness, Sarai acts without seeking God (unlike Abram in Genesis 15:2). Abram listens to Sarai’s plan, also without seeking God.
Although Sarai’s plan to ensure an heir through her maidservant was common at the time, this decision leads to problems: the loss of respect for Sarai, the loss of a home for Hagar, and Abram fathering a son who will always be on the edges of family life.
The conflict causes Hagar to flee (6), but God seeks out the rejected and mistreated Hagar. Then God’s messenger addresses Hagar by name. She has despised her mistress and run away from the conflict, but God knows who she is.
We might think of the compassion that Jesus shows to the sinful Samaritan woman in John 4, who is also outside of Abram’s family. But here, in verse 13, Hagar is the only person in the Bible to name God – “the God who sees me”. This is a story of the grace of God being shown in the midst of a sinful situation.
Apply
God finds Hagar when she least expects it. Pray for someone you know who needs to experience the grace of God in their lives.
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