The God who sees you (Genesis 16)

Do you ever feel invisible?  Maybe you have sat in church, and no one welcomes you.  Maybe you were welcomed, but not asked how you are.  Maybe they asked you were asked you are, but you weren’t sure that they actually cared.  Or maybe your life is in a bit of a mess at the moment, and you fear that you would simply be judged if you told people about your troubles.

You may seem invisible to people, but you are not invisible to God.  God sees you, and He cares.  He pities us in our misery, even when we have made a right mess of things.  As one commentator points out, ‘his grace does not dry up simply because we have been stupid.’

In Genesis 16 we see a servant girl, Hagar, whose life is in a mess.  She has gone on the run, but God has come and found her.  He loves her and has compassion on her.

1.     The God who doesn’t give up on us, even though we mess things up

One of the first things that struck me when I read this passage is that everyone does things that are wrong.

God had given Abram a promise, that involved descendants, but Sarai lacks faith to wait on God and comes up with a plan that was definitely not God’s will.  Abram and Sarai are not demonstrating faith, as they take matters into their own hands.

Abram, like Adam, goes along with his wife’s foolish plan.  Hagar despises Sarai.  Sarai, like Eve, shifts the blame.  Abraham abdicates his responsibility to care for Hagar.  Sarai mistreats her servant.  This is one big mess, and everyone here has some share in the blame!

How long will God put up with such people?  He will put up with us as long as it takes!  He has always involved flawed and wicked people in the bringing about of his promises and the building of his kingdom.

Maybe other people are responsible for the misery you face.  Maybe you are responsible for it.  Most likely, it is a bit of both, but God has not taken his eyes off you, and he cares about your pain.

2.      The God who finds us, even when we weren’t looking for him

Hagar was an Egyptian.  That is important.  She was an outsider to Abram’s people.  But God had promised Abram that through him all the people of the world would be blessed (12:3).   God will give this Egyptian woman a promise of many descendants, that reminds us of His promise to the patriarch Abram.

Hagar is not looking for God.  She is simply running away from Sarai.  Yet God sees her misery and is moved by compassion.  ‘The angel of the LORD found her’ (7).

Who is the angel of the LORD?  Some people look at Hagar’s words and think that the angel must be God.  She says, ‘the LORD spoke to me … I have seen the One who has seen me’ (13).  Is this Jesus in come as a messenger from heaven? 

Whether the angel of the LORD as mentioned here is Jesus or not, we can say that he is acting like Jesus.  Jesus left heaven and has come to our wilderness, to find.  Jesus said that he has come,’ to seek and save that which is lost’ (Luke 19:10).

3.       The God whose grace is challenging

‘You are to give him the name Ishmael, for the LORD has heard your misery’ (11).  Ishmael means ‘God hears’.

She responds to God’s kindness with obvious love.  She gives God a name, ‘you are the God who sees me’ (13).  She calls the place Lahai Roi, meaning, ‘the well of the living God who sees me.’

But just because God has found her, does not mean that life is going to be a bed of roses.  This son is going to be like a wild donkey, and he will fall out with his brothers (12).  Then there is the fact that God’s love comes with a challenging command, ‘go back to your mistress and submit’ (9).  Sarai had been very unkind to her, but she is going to have to forgive.

I recently read Tim Keller’s book, ‘Forgive’.  There Keller writes, ‘if you believe the gospel – that you are saved by the sheer grace and the free forgiveness of God – and you still hold a grudge – at the very best it shows that you are blocking the actual effect of the gospel in your life, or you’re kidding yourself and perhaps you don’t believe the gospel at all.’

Conclusion

You may feel invisible to people, but you are never invisible to God.  God sees you, he cares about your misery, and he has come to find you.  ‘The LORD watches over your coming and your going both now and forevermore’ (Psalm 121:8).

But sometimes it is hard to believe that he is watching.  I was recently thinking back to a time when I was twenty-two, and my life was in a mess.  I was dealing with crippling anxiety, and I no longer wanted to live.  Where was God?  Why would he have allowed me pass through that?  A friend bravely admitted to me, ‘sometimes I feel bitter, I think to God, “you see my pain.  So why does this happen?”’

I want us to respond to this passage by first of all seeing.  Sometimes we do see what God is doing.  Sometimes the answers to our prayers are obvious, and as we hoped for.  Then we should respond like Hagar with joyful love.

Other times we need to search.  As I looked back at that time of despair, at age twenty-two, I began to see evidences of God finding me.  I don’t know why I had to go through that time, but God did send people who listened to me and cared for me.  One way to see for God seeking us is to develop a life of thanksgiving, where we look for evidence of God’s goodness.

Finally, there are times when all we can do is trust.  The story that centres around Abraham, in this part of Genesis, focuses on faith.  Abram was called to hold on to the promises of God, even when it looked like God was not acting.  In the darkest times we ask God to help us trust the Jesus who cried, 'my God. my God why have you forsaken me', in order that we never would be forsaken, and we trust the Jesus who promised, that he will never leave us nor forsake us (Matthew 28:20).

‘The eyes of the LORD are on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His unfailing love’ (Psalm 33:18).