THE GOD WHO SEES ME
Genesis 16:1-14
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. Paul Dickson has written a book entitled, What’s In A Name? In that book he shares some of the most unusual names he’s come across. How would you like to have any of these for your name? Cletus Clodfelter, Rotten Earp, Jinglebells Kaplan, and Boomfa Umfumpa. Can you imagine? "Hey Boomfa!" Dickson, also writes that some people seem to be destined to certain occupations by their names. Joe Bunt became a baseball coach. Dan Druff became a barber. Two men with the last names of Goforth and Ketchum actually became partners in a police force. Would you feel secure hiring a plaster contractor by the name of Will Crumble?
What’s in a name? Well, God says there is a great deal of importance to a name when it’s His name.
2. An atheist was out fishing in Scotland, when all of a sudden a huge Dragon type Amphibian began to emerge from the water. With snarling teeth it slithered closer to the atheist.
3. In desperation he cried out, “Dear God, Please save me!” All of a sudden, the heavens opened and a deep voice said, “I thought you didn’t believe in Me.”
4. To that the atheist responded, “Give me a break, two minutes ago I didn’t believe in the Loch Ness Monster either!”
5. That may be how the main character in today’s sermon felt. Turn with me to Genesis 16:1-14.
B. TEXT
1 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, "The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; 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 maidservant 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 servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me." 6 "Your servant 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, servant 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 so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count." 11 The angel of the LORD also said to her: "You are now with child and you will have 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.
C. THESIS
1. The book of Genesis tells about different people who heard directly from God. God spoke face to face with Adam and Eve in the Garden. He spoke to Noah and gave him instructions about building the Ark. God spoke with Abram and made a Covenant with him.
2. This morning we’re going to look Hagar --- a woman who never thought God would take notice of her. Hagar was not an important person. She was not wealthy. She was not full of faith. In fact, her only claim to fame was that she ended up in the middle of a big, ugly, complicated, mess. Hagar’s story is not a pretty one. But we can learn some important lessons from her story in Genesis chapter 16. The first thing we can learn is:
I. HAGAR REPRESENTS THOSE OFFENDED BY GOD’S PEOPLE
A. PRODUCT OF AB & SAR. FEAR & MISTRUST
1. EGYPT. Hagar was an Egyptian woman, probably one of the maid-servants who were given by the King of Egypt to Abram at that unhappy time when Abram’s faith failed him, and he went down into Egypt, and requested Sarai to conceal the fact that she was his wife. Sin, whenever it is committed by the child of God, is sure to involve him in sorrow. In the long run, the result of any false dealing comes home to the believer, and it did here also.
2. UNBELIEF IN GOD’S PROMISE – SON. Hagar became the special maid of Sarai. God had promised to Abram that he should have a son, and that thus he should be the father of nations: that blessing did not appear likely to come to him, for there were no children born to Sarai, nor did there seem to be the possibility of any. Husband and wife were both old and well stricken in years. No special mention had been made of Sarai in the promise as it then stood; and therefore it was not clear to Abram but what some other might be the mother of the expected seed; and when, in her unbelief, Sarai proposed that her maid should become his secondary wife, Abram listened to her. According to the custom of the times, this act was right enough; but it showed the littleness of Abram’s faith, and again, sorrow soon came of it.
3. It is a mistake to USE HUMAN MEANS TO ACCOMPLISH DIVINE AIMS.
B. SARAI ABUSES HAGAR
1. Hagar was an Egyptian, raised in a pagan environment. We have no record of her ever praying to God until after she met God at this spring. She was abandoned or orphaned by her father and mother, for she was sold into slavery at a young age. She had no reason to believe in God.
2. But God so ordained that she should be bought or given to Abram. She entered into the household of faith. This was one of the only households in the world that worshipped the true God. It was the chosen family. She undoubtedly became aware of the faith of Abram & Sarai, and possibly joined with them in worship.
3. But after she became pregnant with Abram’s child and showed her pride to Sarai, Sarai began to slap her, yell at her, and demean her in every way in front of the other women. This was the Sarai who had talked so loftily of God. Hagar could see how thin her religion really was.
4. Maybe some of you have been hurt by a Christian or church member. Those mistreatments can hurt more deeply than outright worldly people because you’re not expecting Christians to behave in an unchristian way. That’s how it was for Hagar.
5. Hagar did like many people; she decided to abandon the House of God and go back to heathen Egypt. At least there people were not hypocrites.
II THE APPEARANCE OF THE ANGEL
A. THE ANGEL = JESUS
1. She is sitting there by the well; it is in a desert; it may be a little oasis on the road; but there is no one within sight, nor any probability of any caravan passing that way. As she sits quite still she hears a voice, “Hagar.” She starts, she looks up, and there is a brightness like the sun above her; brighter than the sun at noonday does it shine. She can scarce bear the light, and she hears it again, “Hagar, Sarah’s maid.” Whoever it is that is speaking knows who she is, and what she is, and all about her.
2. Who is this “Angel of the Lord”? In the Old Testament, there are many times that Jesus Christ appeared before he was born. These are called theophanies. The term “angel” in Hebrew and in Greek also means “messenger”. Jesus is specifically called “the messenger of the covenant” in Malachi 3:1. He’s this messenger also.
3. Hagar called Him “the God who sees me” and she was not corrected; and said “I have seen God”
4. How special that Jesus would come to this woman at the well, very much like He did another woman at a well in John 4.
B. JESUS’ ENCOURAGEMENT
1. He called her by name, “Hagar!”. What would it mean for God to call YOU by name out loud?
2. He knew her history; “Servant of Sarai”. He knew everything about her; what she’d done and said and where she’d run away from.
3. Asked her questions; “What are you leaving behind?”; “Where are you headed?” God may be speaking to some of you this morning asking you the same questions. “Do you really want to go back into the world?”
4. And Hagar answered honestly: "I’m running away from my mistress Sarai.” Genesis 16:8
5. HUMOR. I like Peanuts cartoons. I remember one where Linus and Charlie Brown are chatting with one another. Linus says, "I don’t like to face problems head on. I think the best way to solve problems is to avoid them. In fact, this is a distinct philosophy of mine. No problem is so big or so complicated that it can’t be run away from!"
6. A lot of people probably feel that way. If they don’t like their job, they want to quit. If their marriage is difficult, they want a divorce. If their parents are too strict, they want to sneak out of the house. Drugs and alcohol and gambling and even working or shopping --- can all be ways of running away. We usually run away because we don’t think there IS any solution.
7. Jesus’ command to her was “Go back and work through it”. There is a place God intends for us to be in service for Him.
C. JESUS’ PROMISE: REWARD FOR OBEDIENCE
1. Read Vss. 10-11. There is a reward for obedience. God has a great future planned for her if she will just obey Him.
2. Listen to what God knows; “Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!” Deut. 5:29.
III. HAGAR’S CHANGE OF HEART
A. SHE HAD A ONE-ON-ONE WITH GOD
1. When Hagar realized who was speaking to her and felt His divine presence, she couldn’t help but exclaim, “You are the GOD! You are the GOD!” “I am not alone, I am not friendless after all, there is a God, and a God who sees me and who takes such notice of note that he speaks to me.”
2. It is one thing to believe there is a God, but it is quite another thing to know it by coming into personal contact with him. They give you books to prove that there is a God — all well and good; be convinced by them. They tell you to study nature and see the works of God. Do so. You cannot better employ yourselves; for God is everywhere. His breath perfumes the flowers, and his pencil sketches them. But you will not really know God by those means, if that’s all you do. To go from nature up to nature’s God is a long step for broken legs: we are so mangled by our fall that we can never take that step without divine help.
3. But when we’ve been in His presence, felt His power, and tasted of His love then we will know Him as He wishes us to.
B. HER CHOICE
1. She made her way back to the tent of Sarai. Her mistress is hard; but sin is harder. She will go back and bear the reproach and rebuke, for she has a promise hidden in her heart to sustain her; she shall yet be the glad mother of a father of nations who shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.
2. She returns surrounded with God. Bathed in the sense of the divine oversight, she resigns herself to her work. Though Abram should not encourage her, and Sarai should not acknowledge her, yet the Lord’s eye would be upon her, and God’s favor was preparing great things for her. Her heart was light within her, because of the divine favor, and in that spirit she was subdued unto the will of God.
C. THE MONUMENT OF HER FAITH
1. This spring or well had undoubtedly been named before, but she renamed it “Well of the Living One Who Sees Me”. It tells of her personal experience. She wished to always remember it.
2. She must have told her story (witnessed) so widely, that the new name stuck and became famous as the place where God revealed Himself to Hagar.
3. Every traveler who stopped there drank from the well of her experience of meeting God face to face! We need to drink from that well!
CONCLUSION
A. PROBLEMS
1. The main thing I want you to hear today is this: no problem is too big for our God. You will never hear God say, “I can’t see any solution to this big mess. Why don’t you just give up!” God knows exactly what you need to do to turn your problem around.
2. I’ve known people whose lives were completely transformed after they “Consulted” with God and followed His advice. On the other hand, I’ve met people who started out doing what God said. But then --- after things got better --- they decided they didn’t need God any more. And --- like Hagar --- they ended up right back where they started.
3. When you face difficulties in your life, are you aware that somewhere above you is the watchful eye of “El Roi,” the God who sees? Will you allow God to be your Consultant? Will you obey Him?
4. No matter how ugly or complicated or hopeless your situation seems, remember that God sees YOU. He will show you what to do --- step by step --- if only you will listen and obey.
B. ALTAR CALL
1. Has some Christian brother or sister hurt or offended you? Have you ever quit serving in a position because of someone?
2. Have you experienced, like Hagar, a personal encounter with God/Jesus? Do you know that God loves you?
3. Are you tempted to run from your marriage, job, parents, etc.? Do you need to go back and submit to God’s will for your life?
C. EXTRA HUMOR
Maybe you think about my preaching sometimes like this minister I heard about.
He gave an unusual sermon one day, using a peanut to make several important points about the wisdom of God in nature.
One of his members greeted him at the door and said, "Very interesting, Pastor. I never expected to learn so much from a nut."...
[This message drew some material from K. Edward Skidmore’s message of the same title.]
