As we head into chapter 16 of Genesis everything seems to be going great. Abram believed God would do what he had promised. And not only this but God made a covenant in a miraculous way. God did this to give evidence to Abram so he would know for certain God would deliver. But things don’t always stay good with our faith after we have to wait what we think is too long. This is where we find ourselves today. Genesis 16:1-2 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. Now before we judge Abram, the father of our faith, and Sari for their lack of faith. We need to read the next verse. Genesis 16:3 So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. It is easy to assume that things are happening one after the next as we read from chapter to chapter in the Bible. Here we see that they had waited 10 years on God to allow them to have children which they needed to realize what God had promised them. As we probably already know whenever we or someone else fails to trust God and instead takes matters into their own hands everyone suffers the consequences. It is easy to say but God already promised this so we were just trying to figure out how to make it happen. But whenever we cross the boundaries that God has given us in our marriages, and relationships with people around us everyone in our lives and those generations later feel the effects of our sin. Our chapter today is a great example of this. Right away there is conflict between Sari and her servant Hagar (verse 4), “And when she רָאָה saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. There is conflict between Abram and Sari (verse 5). “And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she רָאָה saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!” There is future conflict between Abram’s descendants through Hagar and Abram’s descendants through Sari (verse 12). “He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.” What a mess we can make things when we fall short of God’s direction for our lives instead of waiting patiently for God to accomplish what he promised he would do. But even when we mess things up thank God he gives us hope. God specializes in bring good out the bad we find ourselves in even when others actions cause us suffering. Our word for today is אֵל רֳאִי God who sees me. It is used just this one time in the Old Testament. It is a compound word אֵל God and רָאָה see, understand. It is used 1,289 times in the Old Testament.
When Hagar is out in the desert crying because she was driven out of her home by Sari. God shows up for her. Genesis 16:13 “So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a אֵל רֳאִי God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” This is our God when we sin or others sin against us we can call out to him because he sees us. He understands our situation. I like Psalm 103:4 God “knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” And how Jesus’ ministry on this earth showed God’s compassion towards us “This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: … A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out (Isaiah 42:1-4; Matthew 12:17,20). God doesn’t just break us off when we are bent over and doesn’t blow out our flame when we are about to go out. He loves us and will be there for us when we call out to him.
