Genesis 16.1-16

Genesis 16:1-16

The God Who Sees

By: Lindsey Bell

As I read through the Bible, there are some stories that—plain and simple—don’t make sense to us. This story we are looking at today, for example. Every time I read it, I can’t help but think to myself, “Really, God? Did Sarah really think giving her husband another wife would solve her problems? And how could Abraham, the hero of the faith from Hebrews 11, possibly go along with it? What in the world happened to his unshakable faith?”  

Let’s go ahead and read through the entire chapter, and then we’ll break it down. Maybe once we understand the culture in which Abraham and Sarah lived (or Abram and Sarai as they were called before God changed their names), we’ll understand a little bit better why they acted as they did.

Genesis 16:1-16:

“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; so she said to Abram, ‘The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.’ 

  Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 

Then Sarai said to Abram, ‘You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.’ 

  ‘Your slave is in your hands,’ Abram said. ‘Do with her whatever you think best.’ Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her. 

  The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, ‘Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?’ 

  ‘I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,’ she answered. 

  Then the angel of the LORD told her, ‘Go back to your mistress and submit to her.’ The angel added, ‘I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.’

The angel of the LORD also said to her: ‘You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard of your misery. 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.’ 

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.’ That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered. 

  So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.” 

I want to look at this text from two different angles: Sarah’s and Hagar’s. 

We’ll start with Sarah. The one thing you need to know about Sarah is this: She had infertility. Now to us, infertility is painful. Sometimes excruciatingly so. Those struggling with infertility often ache for a baby. They wonder why God seems to grant babies freely to other families and withhold from theirs. I by no means want to minimize the pain of those who today are unable to have children. It’s torture. However, I think it’s important to understand that infertility back then was even worse than it is today.

Infertility in Abraham and Sarah’s culture was viewed as a curse from God. When someone wasn’t able to conceive, their neighbors assumed it was because of some sin they refused to repent of. Medical condition? No. Absolutely not. It was rebellion that caused their infertility. 

Can you imagine what that must have been like? Not only did Abraham and Sarah have to deal with the intense longing for a child they doubted they would ever receive, but they also had to deal with judgments from those around them. And probably a lot of self-doubt as well. I’m sure they both wondered from time to time, “Maybe we did do something wrong…” 

For Abraham and Sarah, it was pain that led them to make such a poor decision. They longed for something, didn’t think God was going to answer their prayer, and took matters into their own hands. 

I wonder if we ever do the same thing. We long for something to happen in our lives—maybe even something we feel like God has led us to. But he doesn’t seem to care anymore. Our prayers seem to land on closed ears. So instead of wait, we take matters into our own hands. Abraham and Sarah’s brokenness led them to contrive their own solution. Where does your brokenness lead you? 

For Hagar, her brokenness led her to the One Who Sees. When Hagar was alone in the desert, broken and defeated, God heard her prayers.  He saw her tears. Look at what the text says: “The Lord has heard of your misery.” 

Today, in whatever situation you’re going through, you can know the same thing. God has heard of your misery. No tear has left your eyes without him knowing about it. No prayer has left your mouth without him hearing it. He is the God Who Sees. And believe me…He has seen you. All you have to do is wait for him to act on your behalf. Because eventually, the God Who Sees will stop watching and start acting.