Have you ever been wronged? Have you been blamed for someone else’s actions? Have you ever been treated unfairly?
I have. I’ve had people spread rumors about me and what was said hurt. And I’ve seen other people wronged by the actions and words of others.
In the Old Testament, Abram’s servant, Hagar, was wronged. God had said Abram would be the father of a great nation but as time went on, Abram and his wife, Sarai, did not have children. Time was working against them: Abram was 85 years old and his wife wasn’t much younger. The chances of having a child looked rather bleak.
Abram and Sarai became impatient and thought they would help God out. Sarai suggested that Abram take Sarai’s servant, Hagar, and have a child through her! She reasoned that this was a way God’s promise could be fulfilled.
It’s always dangerous to take matters into your own hands, and as Abram learned, when we do, we usually mess things up!
Abram slept with Hagar and she became pregnant. Then the action started. It’s the stuff soap operas are made of.
Many people are prejudiced against Hagar. She is not the most loved woman in the Bible. Hagar became the mother of all the Arab nations and we’re still reaping the consequences today for the mistake that Abram made.
I think however we should be careful in how we look at Hagar. You can’t blame her for what happened! Hagar did not initiate this affair; she was a servant girl who did what she was told! Sarai was the one who started it all and Abram not only agreed to it, he had carried out the plan.
How do you feel towards Hagar? Can you sympathize with her or do you write her off as a woman of no consequence, an Egyptian slave who really doesn’t matter?
How do you feel towards people who are in difficult circumstances? How do you feel towards single parents, the poor, the unemployed, and homeless people?
It’s very easy to blame people who are in difficult circumstances. God didn’t say, “Well she’s only a slave girl, she doesn’t matter.” Hagar was important to God. He didn’t belittle her nor did he forget her. Rather, God revealed himself to her in her distress.
1. EXPECT TENSION IF YOU MISS GOD’S WILL
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; 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. (Genesis 16:1- 3).
This was not God’s plan. Abram and Sarai missed God’s will. When Hagar became pregnant, feelings flared into the open. An intense rivalry developed between Sarai and Hagar. Hagar despised Sarai for not having any children.
Sarah got angry at Abram for what he had done in sleeping with Hagar. Sarah forgot the scheme was her idea. Sarah blamed Abram and mistreated Hagar.
Hagar left the camp of Abram and the place of God’s promise and blessing; she walked out on her mistress Sarai.
Hagar was in a tough situation. She was becoming a single parent. Her problem resulted from two so-called spiritual people who got out of the will of God and didn’t walk by faith. Hagar’s problem was not of her own making; she got caught in the cross-fire.
Don’t add to problems by what you say.
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 servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me. (Genesis 16:4-5).
This story took place because two women couldn’t get along. They despised each other. One was the master’s wife who was childless; the other was a pregnant slave.
Hagar complicated her problem by not controlling her tongue. When we are wronged, we’d have fewer problems if we could control our attitudes and our tongues.
I know people like Hagar. They have been unfairly treated, but the way they have responded to that wrong has made their problem much worse.
Don’t run away from where you belong.
Your servant is in your hands, Abram said. Do with her whatever you think best. Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her. (Genesis 16:6).
Hagar ran to the desert. Hagar forgot her place of responsibility. When she despised and taunted Sarai, her tongue got her in trouble. She was in the desert because her attitude was wrong.
I know people like Hagar. They feel alone, trapped and despised. I have good news for them. God has a word for them that will help them in their desert.
2. WHEN YOU THINK IT’S OVER, GOD STEPS IN
Hagar was pregnant and alone. She had no husband. She was a runaway slave wandering in the desert. She was lonely, depressed, discouraged and afraid. But she was in for a big surprise.
Look for God, when you are wronged, confused and alone.
When Hagar was alone, thinking the end was about to come, The angel of the Lord found Hagar …(Genesis 16:7). Hagar wasn’t looking for an angel, but God knew where she was. God had not forgotten her. God still had a plan for Hagar and so God found her.
At times, the term “angel of the Lord” has special meaning. This term does not refer to one of God’s regular angels but to God himself. This is obvious in this story, for it says, Hagar gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her. Hagar knew this wasn’t just an ordinary angel; she recognized this was the Lord himself appearing to her in angelic form.
The angel of the Lord found Hagar and God’s got an angel who wants to come to you in your desert. God knows where you are.
Listen to God and follow his instructions
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. (Genesis 16:8).
There were two critical questions. First, Where have you come from? The angel addressed her as Hagar, servant of Sarai. The Lord reminded Hagar of her position; she wasn’t Abram’s wife, she was Sarai’s servant. This was a rebuke from the angel. Hagar had run away from her responsibilities.
Hagar had also left her place of privilege. As long as she was with Abram, she had been provided for. There had been food, clothing and shelter plus blessing from being associated with Abram. The angel got Hagar thinking about where she had come from. She was running away from her problems, rather than facing them and when she ran away, she ended it in the desert.
When facing desert experiences, remember where you’ve come from. Are you in the desert because you’ve run away from your place of duty? Are you in the desert because you’ve reacted improperly to the way you’ve been wronged?
Second, the angel asked, Where are you going? Hagar was actually on the road back to Egypt, possibly going home to mother. But more than that, she was leaving the faith of Abram and heading back to the religions of Egypt. Hagar was not simply running away from Abram and Sarai, she was running from God and headed back to the idols of Egypt.
When you find yourself out in the desert, ask yourself this question: “Where am I going?” If you keep going on the road you’re traveling, where will you end up? If you’ve withdrawn from God, what’s your final destination?
The angel gave specific instructions.
Then the angel of the Lord told her, Go back to your mistress and submit to her. (Genesis 16:9).
She was to do two things. First, she was to go back to Sarai. The only solution was to go back.
That was tough medicine. It required eating humble pie! It meant admitting she was wrong in leaving even though Sarai had abused and mistreated her.
If you are in the desert, the Lord may be telling you the same thing. The way out of the desert is to swallow your pride and go back where you belong. You can’t run away and keep God’s blessing.
You can stay out in the desert trying to justify yourself and feeling sorry for yourself if you want, but until you go back, you’re the one who is still in the desert.
Second, the angel said, and submit to her! Hagar’s problem was one of submission. She was a servant who didn’t want to submit to her mistress, Sarai.
Many of our problems stem from this. Some wilderness experiences come because we want our own way and don’t want to submit.
When you refuse to submit to authority, you’re headed for the desert. An unsubmissive spirit will rob you of blessing and rot your spirit. Submission is the key to blessing and fulfillment.
Embrace God’s promises.
When she was alone in the desert, Hagar received this beautiful promise: you will have a son. What a thrill it must have been, She would give birth to a son, Ishmael. Ishmael means, God will hear. You shall name him Ishmael for the Lord has heard of your misery. (Genesis 16:10-11).
God hears you when you are all alone. Hagar was alone in the desert but she wasn’t forgotten. She was a slave who’d been wronged by a married man. She was the victim of awful circumstances, but the Lord saw her misery.
God’s promises take on greater meaning in the desert. When the going gets tough, God’s promises become more precious. When things are going well, God’s promises are in our heads but when things get tough, God’s promises hit the heart.
3. WHEN YOU EXPERIENCE GOD’S PRESENCE, WORSHIP HIM
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…. (Genesis 16:13).
Express your faith.
Hagar put her faith in the living God. This is the first evidence that this Egyptian slave girl acknowledged the God of her master, Abram.
That’s the starting point for getting out of the wilderness. Put your faith in God. Acknowledge him as Lord.
Recognize his name.
At that time, there was no Bible. There was no book telling who God was and what he was like. So Hagar gave a name to God that summed up what God meant to her; she called God, “the God who sees me.”
What insight into the character of God! Hagar learned something that we need to learn. Our God is a God who sees us. He is not blind; he’s the God who sees.
The God who created us has not forgotten us; he watches over us. He sees us in our good times; he sees us in our bad times. Remember that when you’re lonely and depressed. When you feel no one knows where you are, God sees you and knows exactly where you are.
Hagar said. Have I also here looked after him that seeth me? (Genesis 16:13 KJ). Have I…? I am only a slave. I know Abram had many experiences with God, but even me, a slave. Here. Not just in Abram’s camp but out here in the desert, out here where I need him most. God can find you wherever you are!
Build a memorial.
Hagar named the well: Beer Lahai Roi. As a sign of her faith, she called the well after the name she had given God. The name of the well became The well of the one who sees me!
Everyone needs a place like this. When we’re in the desert facing a crisis, many of us could point to a place and say, “That is where I met God and God revealed himself to me.”
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