THE GOD WHO REALLY SEES (GEN. 16:1-16)
Are you suffering, weak, or troubled?
At the lowest point of my ministry, I took a course co-taught by two professors that required all students, mainly pastors, to stay together in a retreat center for two weeks, and every night we had a designated time for singing, fellowship and prayer. A few testimonies stuck in my mind. A Midwest Lutheran pastor was so frustrated, shaken and disgusted at how his ministry was going. He was a popular pastor, and people lined up to see him every day and, in that small rural community, they appeared on his doorstep for something as minor as fixing a toilet seat. On the denominational front, he was exhausted from ugly politics, battling feminist groups, gay rights, abortion supporters, and other interest groups. He had thought about taking a long break, especially the last few months, when he would get up early Sunday morning before dawn, write his sermon before the congregation arrived, and avoid a major embarrassment.
Another pastor dramatically confessed, for the first time in his life, on the last day that he was sexually abused as a kid. One of the professors talked about how he often reacted angrily to his wayward son’s up and down battle with drugs, and the turning point in the unhappy father and son relationship when God finally questioned the professor himself, "What about your anger?"
At the end of the two weeks, the Lutheran pastor echoed the determination of the group when he said, “When I first arrived, I was determined to go home after this class and quit my church. But, after hearing these two weeks?fellowship, prayer and testimonies, I think I’d rather stay in my own church.?
Do you know God understands your misery more than you think? Abram and Sarai had a maid by the name of Hagar, and all of them were dissatisfied with their conditions. Sarai was the pushy wife who was paranoid for an heir, Abram was the passive husband who blindly followed his wife’s ill-advised instructions, and Hagar, the ambitious Egyptian who discovered a way out of her outsider status.
Sarai and Abram were not getting any younger. Abram was eighty five years old (16:16) and Sarai was seventy four (17:17). So, Sarai had a plan. How about taking a concubine for her husband so that a baby by her husband and the maid may be considered Sarai’s (16:1-3)? In the end, no one way happy, especially Hagar. Hagar lived a more miserable life than before because things in the new family worked out quite differently than she expected. She was not as important once she got there.
What happens when we use human solutions to replace God’s way to a better life? How does God want us to live even when the quality of life is questionable? Why is it better to trust God even at the worst of times?
LIVING YOUR LIFE THROUGH OTHERS: FOOL MYSELF AND OTHERS
16:1 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." (Gen 16:1-5)
Sarai’s mistaken notion was that she could live her life through Hagar, that she could build a future on an abnormal relationship, and that her husband would be happier. Abram and Hagar did not protest. Abram, on the one hand, wanted her wife happy, their marriage to work, and a baby to keep things quiet. Hagar, on the other hand, thought her status would be upgraded, her fortune would change, and motherhood alone would satisfy her.
In the end, all the participants were fooling themselves and others.
A friend of mine knew a young couple who was a perfect match for each other, and their home, the picture of an ideal family. The couple knew each other since teenagers, married after their careers quickly took off, and had enviable perfect jobs. She was a capable counselor and he was good in sales. They had two smart and lovely kids-the oldest 10-, zoomed to the top of their profession, and bought a nice home in a middle-class neighborhood. They were compatible, genial, and successful. My friend’s respect, admiration and idealization of the romance story were set. One day, it all went wrong. The husband came home, told the wife that he was seeing someone else, and wanted a divorce.
The strangest thing was hearing my friend’s words. My friend went home after hearing the news for the first time, could not sleep, and found peace after turning to God in prayer, saying: “Lord, how foolish I was. Please forgive me for adoring what they had!?
Building a life through others is foolishness because we ignore people’s problems, imagine our own problems, and therefore inherit more problems. When we desire the lives of other people, we foolishly ignore the price they pay for success, the constant sacrifice they make to stay at the top, and the constant vigilance over everything - their possessions, kids, and competitors.
Hagar imagined a better life was ahead of her. She thought, “Isn’t it better to be part of the family, instead of being a foreigner, an outsider, and a maid??Abram and Sarai, also, foolishly thought that the exotic things they had received from Pharaoh, including Hagar (Gen 12:16), would improve their lives.
To their surprise, they inherited more problems. Before they were dissatisfied, now they were downright miserable. No one was happy when the plan succeeded. None of them was the same. And sadly, it was the point of no return. Their lives were depressing. Hagar was conceited, Sarai was contentious, and the marriage conspiracy failed.
Is there something you sought that you did not work for? Have you prayed earnestly about it? Or think long and hard about it?
LIVING A LIFE FOR ONESELF: FIGHTING MYSELF AND OTHERS
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. (Gen 16:6-8)
Hagar was fighting mad. Sarai was giving her a hard time. This time, Hagar had it. Nothing had changed or improved. Sarai was still her owner. Things were worse than before. Sarai was now her rival, and she punished Hagar physically like never before. Hagar fought her mistress?contempt, jealousy, and mistreatment, and decided to run away.
It’s been said, a man’s worst enemy will never do him the harm he does himself. (Scholem Alechem- Yiddish Tales, cited in Christianity Today 8/11/97)
A traveler nearing a great city asked an old man seated by the road, “What are the people like in this city??The man replied, “What were they like where you came from??
“A terrible lot,?the traveler reported. “Mean, untrustworthy, detestable in all respects.?
“Ah,?said the old person. “You will find them the same in the city ahead.?
Scarcely had the first traveler gone on his way when another stopped to inquire about the people in the city before him. Again, the old person asked about the people in the place the traveler had just left. “They were fine people, honest, industrious, and generous to a fault. I was sorry to leave,?declared the second traveler. Responded the wise one, “So you will find them in the city ahead.?(Leadership Summer 96)
Hagar fought herself just as hard as she fought Sarai. Her three negative attitudes hurt her more than it hurt Sarai. First, Hagar was understandably defiant. Her mentality at this point was: "I have something to do, I have somewhere to go, and I will make it on my own." However, she was doing nothing new, going nowhere fast, and pursuing nothing promising. All she did was to return to her pagan roots. Bible scholars tell us that Shur was a place between Beersheba to Egypt, and Hagar was on the way to Egypt (16:7), where she was regarded, treated, and sold as a slave.
Next, escaping was a poor way to handle her problems. No wonder the world’s longest running and most intense battles in history were fought between the Jewish people and the Arabs, the descendants of Ishmael, Hagar’s son. The two nations till today do not settle their differences well.
Blame, also, had never escaped Hagar’s mind. Note that when the angel asked Hagar a where question ?where she had come from, and where she was going, Hagar responded with a-who answer. "I’m running away from my mistress Sarai," Hagar answered, and dragged Sarai into the matter.
Have you fought senselessly against others and yourself? Have you prayed to God for guidance? Have you asked Him to help you correct the situation when you’d rather take flight, blame others, or strike back?
LIVING A LIFE IN GOD: FORGIVE MYSELF AND OTHERS
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. 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. (Gen 16:9-16 NIV)
Han Xin was a military strategist who rendered outstanding service towards the founding of the Han Dynasty (207 B.C. - A.D. 221). When he was young his family was poor and he was looked down upon. Once a young man humiliated him in front of a crowd of people. He said to Han Xin, “Although you are strongly built and likes to carry a sword, you are inwardly a coward. If you are not afraid to die, come and try to stab me with your sword. If you are afraid to die, then crawl under my crotch.?
Han Xin looked at the man for a long while and then bent down and crawled through the man’s parted legs. All the people in the street laughed at him, thinking he was a coward. Later, when Han Xin became the Prince of Chu, he summoned to an interview the young man who had humiliated him, and appointed him to an official post. To all the civil and military officials, Han Xin said, “This man is a good fighter. I could have killed him when he humiliated me. But there nothing praise worthy in killing him. That was why I endured this humiliation and achieved what I’ve achieved today.?(Best Chinese Idioms Vol. 2, Situ, Tan 163-64 Hai Feng Pub. Co. Hong Kong, 1988)
Warren Wiersbe said, "Life is about 10% what you make it and 90% how you take it." God told Hagar the secret of making a bleak, hopeless, and miserable situation tolerable. He persuaded Hagar to return to her mean mistress and submit to her. Though trouble erupted again more than ten years later when Isaac was weaned, but Ishmael was already a teenager (Gen 17:1, 20:5). Matthew Henry suggested that the Jews weaned their young about three to five years old.
The greatest tragedy in life is to have no one to believe in, to turn to, or call on. God’s presence at Hagar’s lowest point gave her courage, reason, and motivation to live. God had seen her misery, heard her cries, and calmed her fears. He would not stand idly by when those who are lost, abandoned, or helpless.
Hagar’s worry for her son was taken care of. God said to her: “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.?(Gen 16:12) The next time we see Ishmael, he was the one giving his half-brother Isaac a hard time (Gen 21:9). Hagar’s fear was unfounded.
Conclusion: The only biblical response to live when we are suffering, weak, or troubled is to turn to our Lord Jesus Christ. He was oppressed and afflicted (Is. 53:7), and so He can empathize with those who are in distress (Is. 63:9).
God is just. Those who trouble you will have to answer to Him (2 Theses. 1:6) God’s presence and work in our lives is reason for hope. 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 says,
"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." (2 Cor. 4:8-9) And maybe the God of all comfort an use you to comfort those in any trouble. (2 Cor. 1:3-4)
Do you believe God knows your heartaches, understands your situation, and hears your prayers, cries, and tears? We have a God who truly sees. And He will answer you when you seek Him, obey Him, and trust Him.
Victor Yap
Other sermons in the series and other sermon series:
www.epreaching.blogspot.com
preachchrist.com (For Chinese sermons)
