God Hears You; God Sees You

When you think about it, it is surprising that Scripture would give such attention to the story of Hagar (in Genesis 16).

Those who wrote and passed along the scriptures were adamant about this fact: God’s redemptive work was done through the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  The record of Ishmael’s birth could be considered a distraction, at best, from the redemption story, or, at worst, an ugly stain on the reputations of Abraham and Sarah.  Yet this story is preserved in the pages of holy Scripture. 

Moreover, all the cultures that surrounded Abraham and Hagar viewed slaves merely as tools to be used and discarded.  In some of the royal tombs in Ur, the city God had called Abraham away from, archaeologists found as many as 60 to 80 skeletal remains of escorts, guards, musicians and servants who had been marched into the royal tombs with a deceased ruler to accompany the king or queen into the afterlife.  According to the thinking of the day, slaves’ lives had no value other than what they might do for their master.  Yet Genesis 16 speaks of God commissioning an angel to find Hagar and to speak with her.

Why is this story included in Scripture?  What does God want us to learn from the story of Hagar?

Here’s what Hagar discovers:

Hagar discovers that her agony is heard by God.  In verse 11, the angel says to Hagar, “Now you have conceived and shall bear a son; you shall call him Ishmael, for the Lord has given heed to your affliction.”  The name Ishmael means, “God hears.”  And the angel explains to her that “the Lord has given heed to your affliction.”  The fact that God “has given heed” to her affliction implies that God has not merely heard the words she said but that God paid attention to the agony in her tears and that God acted in response to her cry.

Hagar discovers, also, that she is seen by God.  In the angel who appears to her, Hagar recognizes that she is dealing with God, so she identifies God as El-roi, “the God who sees,” and she asks, “Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?”  And she names the well Beer-lahai-roi, which means, “the Well of the Living One who sees me.” 

Hagar discovers that she matters to God.  Though, as a slave, the law gave her no value, and society gave her no significance, though Abraham used her and Sarah abused her, God pays attention to her.  She matters to God!

A young woman, whose blog site is titled “The Journal of My Insignificant Life” writes,

“If I don’t need love, why am I crying?

If I don’t need love, why am I suffering?

When I’m all alone, I feel like dying.

My soul is ripping, so heart-breaking.

‘Cause I dream of love, though I tried to hate it.

Yes, I dream of love, and I know I’ll never find it.”

That could have been written by Hagar…until she discovered that her life was not insignificant, that her cry had been heard, and that she had been seen by God. 

In Hagar’s story, we discover that we, too, matter to God, that God hears our cries, and that God sees us. 

A.W. Tozer asserts, “We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God.  He is nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret thought.”  This is true because of the fact that we matter immensely to God!

As Brennan Manning prays in Abba’s Child, “Today on planet Earth, may you experience the wonder and beauty of yourself as Abba’s Child and temple of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ our Lord.”