Coney Hill Baptist Church
Demonstrating God’s Love Together
People on the Edge - Hagar
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
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,
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 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 the One who sees me." 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; 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.
Genesis 21:8-21
8 The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. 9 But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, 10 and 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."
11 The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. 12 But God said to him, "Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. 13 I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring."
14 Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the
15 When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. 16 Then 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.
17 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. 18 Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation."
19 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.
20 God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. 21 While he was living in the
Intro:
On Maundy Thursday I spoke about the way Jesus looked at Peter. How he might look at us. It’s easy to assume his look towards each of us will be very different, with many of us we can imagine him being less than pleased. And although we know about his grace and forgiveness we can’t help but think that, with some of us, his look has to be filled with a kind of weary exasperation. We are, after all, not all we could be, more than that, we are not what others are.
The characters in this story are all very different. Abraham, we assume is the hero, but at times he appears weak and ineffectual. Sarah is in a difficult situation, but is also manipulative and moody. Hagar, though suffering real grievence was mean and bitchy. There are no easily defined goodies and baddies here. Part of our problem comes if we try and read this story as if it’s some kind of family fable, designed to impart a moral message, it’s not, this family is a complete mess.
So what is this story? Well, it’s referred to by Paul in the New Testament as a kind of explanation of God’s work of salvation. Centuries of Christian tradition has also followed that through, where Isaac is a ‘type’ of Christ, that is he is like Jesus in that he represents freely given grace, he is a child of promise, a pure gift of God that Abraham and Sarah did nothing to deserve. Ishmael on the other hand is a child of the law, by rights, as the first born, he ought to have had priority – but, in this story like the New Testament, grace trumps law. So for Ishmael read the legalistic Pharisees or the older brother in the story of the lost son, to Isaac’s prodigal.
That’s all well and good, interesting, and important too, but in Old Testament terms this is also a real story, with real people, and we would do well not to overlook that. God speaks to us in stories, a large portion of his word to us is in just that form, because he knows they are powerful and moving.
And this is a moving story, because it’s so real. The Bible never air-brushes it’s characters – but it tells us about them so that God might speak to us, all of us, any of us, through them. The character who fascinates me most here is Hagar. She’s by no means the heroine of this story but still, God went looking for her. (16:7)
God’s Senses:
He Saw – Finding Hagar in a desert…but near a spring (even if she didn’t know it). He asks her what her story? (16:8) Where has she come from? She knew that, she was running away. Where was she going? She had no idea, but, surprisingly to her, God seemed to. He listened to her, told her to turn around (16:9), a tough instruction but one that came with a promise (16:10) Despite everything Hagar was noticed, and that was something worth naming a place over.
God also heard. With his classic, ever attentive ear, he heard Ishmael crying (21:17), God’s ear is always attune to pain.
‘What’s the matter Hagar?’ he says. ‘Do no be afriad’
This is a sensitive God. But also a practical one, ‘Lift the boy up, take him by the hand’ as well as one who provides, ‘for I will make him into a great nation’
He opened her eyes so she could see, as God had seen her, and she saw a well of water (21:19)
Conc.
God provided comfort, support, sustenance and hope, the reminder that we are all children of promise, even if we are not all Isaac.
Poem:
[in spite of being a foreigner and a nobody, in spite of being both the agent and the victim of a moral mess, in spite of not being the mother of the chosen one, Hagar is one of the few people in the bible to be able to say, "i have seen god!"]
When we are enslaved in a foreign country,
you are the god who sees.
When we are the victims of domestic strife,
you are the god who sees.
When our children aren’t all that we, or others, expect,
you are the god who sees.
When we are thrown out of our homes,
you are the god who sees.
When we mock other people's sorrows,
you are the god who sees.
When our families reject us,
you are the god who sees.
When we cannot provide for ourselves,
you are the god who sees.
When we despair of life itself,
you are the god who sees.
So may the god who sees Hagar and Ishmael,
the god who sees outsiders and mistakes,
the god who sees the ones who are not chosen,
watch over us and provide for us
through our wanderings, exiles and errors
today and always. Amen.
Office Address:
Coney Hill Road
West Wickham
Kent
BR4 9BU