Isaac Mwaniki

Genesis 16:1 - 15

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, (Ishmael means God hears)
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 [b] 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 (seen the back of) the One who sees me." 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi (Beer Lahai Roi means well of the Living One who sees me); 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.


Introduction
Whenever we are in problems, there is a tendency to feel alone. Remember the Panadol advert? It states that when in pain, one feels all alone. When someone is engaging in something bad, especially in a new place, the last person they want to see is a familiar figure. This is complicated even more if the familiar person knows you well enough.

Abraham had a covenant with God that he would have a son through who his descendants would be like the stars of the sky and the sand of the seashore. Abraham had wanted his servant Eleazar to inherit his estate but the Lord told him that He would give him a son. Anyway after the promise, it ten years lasted before the story we just read happened.

Sarai continues being barren because “The LORD has kept me from having children.” She therefore encourages Abram “Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her." This looked a smart idea and Abram, as Adam had done earlier chose not to confirm with the Lord. He repeated the mistake that Adam had done.

Hagar began behaving differently when she realized that she was pregnant. She began despising her mistress. Sarai complained and Abram gave the servant over to Sarai. She mistreated her until she decided to run away. She must have been going back to Egypt.

The angel meets her along the way and asks her, "Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?" She is reminded that being a servant to Sarai gave her identity. She answers only the first part of the question maybe because she did not yet know where she was going.

One would have expected God who was with Abram to be so mad with her and banish her. However the instructions are simple. She is to go back and submit to her mistress. The angel also spoke of blessedness to her descendants.

Hagar is so overwhelmed by having engaged in a conversation with the Lord and gave him the name Jehovah Roi. Seeing the face of God was a recipe for death those days and yet Hagar had survived.

God had promised to bless Abram’s seed and it appears that the blessing stood regardless the garden it was planted.

Some quick lessons
 Some smart looking ideas are not necessarily godly
Sarai having lived with Abram for long knew very well what the latter lacked. She knew that he was desperate for a child of his own. This put her in a very difficult situation because she could not give birth. This made her decide to assist the husband to attain his goals. I want us to know that contrary to the New Testament teachings, in Abram’s days, getting a child with a maid servant seems to have been the norm.

 God sees our struggles

God is not detached from the world He created. He is in touch with it. He sees what we are going through and it is in His plan to come through for us. Someone would have expected that Hagar would not feature prominently in God's plans. However she did. God was not oblivious to what was taking place in Abrahams house. God is not also blind to our needs. He sees us and he knows our desires.

 God supports submission

However we also need to say that God supports submission. God is the creator of authority and therefore expects us to obey structured authority. While it was clear that Sarah was mistreating Hagar, one would have expected God to instruct Hagar to ask for her rights. However the angel of God instructs her to go back and submit. I am persuaded that there are some levels we will never reach unless we are willing to submit to established authority.

Submission is in the modern world percieved as being weak. However I beg to differ. Submission is a strong belief in oneself or in God in this case to a level that what people think about us becomes immaterial. We are willing to do what is right regardless what is done to us. Our culture today is full of people clamouring for their rights. I have no issue with standing up against oppressors. However some of them are more touched by our submission even at the height of their torture. It makes them to ask, what is different with this one?

 There is a future for us when we respond in obedience.
The Scripture is all about responding in obedience. What is obedience? Obedience to me is a choice to act as per instructions despite the consequences. Many people know what ought to be done but few respond in obedience. God is calling us to respond in obedience. This might difficult at times. For Hagar, obedience meant going back to a mistress who could throw her out of the house again. To some of us responding in obedience might mean facing aspects of our past that we wish we would not have to face. Others have to face people who they have never spoken to in years.

However, God is committed to give us a future as we respond to his Word. What is the use of asking God for His plan for our lives if we already know what we want to do? God sees us even when we respond in disobedience.

Conclusion
Jehovah Roi for me is manifestation of God’s mercy. God allows himself to come down and meddle with our failures and weaknesses. God chooses to reveal himself to us and not reward us as our deeds deserve. God comes to us in the midst of our rebellion but far from condemning us, gives us the way to a new life but also gives a promise to us.

It is very humbling to know that we cannot escape from the face of God. Even when in deepest pain, the Lord still remains focused on us. My Prayer is that it will be evident that He sees us.

As the year begins, many are the times when we are misunderstood. We feel very alone. Sometimes it is out of the bad choices that we made but some other times not. Lets be comforted to know that the Lord sees us in such moments and we just need to listen to his kind words to us because he not only “know my name” but also “sees each tear that falls and hears me when I pray”. And this is meant to be taken personally by all of us.