Her life hadn’t turned out anything like she had dreamed when she was a young girl. Instead of having her own family, along with a servant to help with housework, she was someone else’s servant in their home. Like a piece of jewelry, she was given as a gift to a foreign couple and taken from her homeland of Egypt to live in Canaan. There, she would endure many sorrows at the hands of Abraham and Sarah.
Within the following year, Sarah, who was in her mid-seventies, realized that she’d never bear children to provide Abraham an heir. Desperate, she employed a custom of that time, in which one of your servants could bear a child for you. When Sarah suggested that Abraham get Hagar pregnant, he didn’t put up any resistance. But once this servant girl became pregnant, Sarah’s attitude changed and she began to mistreat her.
Hagar couldn’t take the mistreatment anymore, so one night she ran away. Out in the desert, God confronted her and told her to return to Sarah. God told her to name her boy Ishmael, which means God hears, to remind her that the Lord was aware of her plight and had “HEARD of her misery.” In response, “she gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: ‘You are the God who SEES me.’” (Genesis 16:11,13)
During her nine months of pregnancy, Hagar enjoyed the attention she received from others in Abraham’s household. But her popularity was short-lived and ended when her baby was born. Shortly after his birth, Ishmael was whisked away and placed in the arms of Sarah. Few people can relate to the depth of Hagar’s heartache. In fact, probably only another mother who has given birth, and before she can even hold her child, it’s quickly taken away for adoption.
Years later, Sarah miraculously gave birth to a son, naming him Isaac. Ishmael was a teenager. One day he made a snide remark about little Isaac and Sarah exploded. She said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.” (Genesis 21:10)
At Sarah’s insistence, Abraham sent Hagar and Ishmael away. She and the boy traveled in the desert until their water ran out. Hagar left Ishmael in a bush’s shade and “she went off and sat down nearby, about a bowshot away, for she thought, ‘I cannot watch the boy die.’ And as she sat there nearby, she began to sob. God HEARD the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, ‘What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has HEARD the boy crying as he lies there.’ Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.” (Genesis 21:16-17, 19)
God hears and sees you, too. He is not like a mean-spirited bully looking for an opportunity to harass you. Rather, He loves you, so much so that He sent Christ to die for your sin. Those of us who have become Christ-followers are comforted by the fact that He HEARS and SEES us, bringing us comfort and peace. Nothing can sneak into our lives without the Lord’s permission and His promise to work everything for our good. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
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