Genesis: The Foundation - Genesis 17:1-14 & 22-27
Preacher: Pastor Brett Weston
Lead Pastor at Elevate Hope Centennial
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Sermon Reflection
Nobody likes to feel unseen. I still remember my first day of college, a little freshman in a 400 person lecture hall, sitting behind a girl who turned around and asked, "Would you like a gummy bear?" I gave a slightly louder than intended yes, reached out my hand, and watched the bag go right past me to her friend in the row behind. For the rest of that lecture the bag was passed right through me, over and over, as if I wasn't there. Sometimes we feel unseen by others, and to be honest with you, sometimes we feel unseen by God. That's rough.
That's where Genesis 16 opens. Sarai has waited years for a promised child, and she says, "Behold, now the Lord has prevented me from bearing children." She is saying the Lord has prevented me from what he promised. That is a disappointing place to be. Abram had faced the same disappointment the chapter before, but he turned it to God in prayer rather than coming up with his own plan. Sarai doesn't. She borrows an ungodly cultural norm from the world around her, and Abram listens to the voice of his wife and stands passively by. It's the same heart, the same sequence of events as the garden, when Adam and Eve were disappointed that God might be holding out on them. And here is our biggest danger when we feel unseen or disappointed by God: we say, well, I guess I'm just an orphan here, it's up to me to get these promises on my own. But the people of God must never pursue the promises of God apart from the plan of God, because doing so inevitably leads to pain. Sin never solves problems. It just creates new ones, different ones, worse ones.
Hagar is a foreigner, a slave, used and mistreated, with seemingly no one to see her, no one to defend her, no one to plead her cause. Sarai never even uses her name. She's just "my servant," a tool to relieve someone else's embarrassment. So she flees, an unseen woman in a foreign country carrying a child she never asked for. And then everything changes. "The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness." She wasn't looking for God. After the way two of God's people treated her, I don't know that she wanted anything to do with God. But God seeks and saves the lost. He finds Hagar even when she isn't looking for him. And then the Lord of heaven speaks her name: "Hagar, servant of Sarai." Finally, someone uses her name. The first person God personally calls by name in all of Scripture is a foreigner, a single mom, marginalized, displaced, overlooked by everyone else in her life. No one in this story will use her name except God alone.
God asks her two questions we need in our own pain: "Where have you come from and where are you going?" Every trial has a trajectory. It can take us backwards or forwards, away from God or closer to God. He asks her to do a hard thing, to return, and the right thing to do is almost always the hard thing to do, because the safest place for us to be, even in the hardest of times, is right where God asks us to be. And he wraps that hard call in a promise, and names her son Ishmael, which means "God hears." So she gives God a name, the only person in the Old Testament ever to do so: "You are a God of seeing. Truly here I have seen him who looks after me." So what would it change for you if you knew God truly sees you? Maybe your first instinct is, no, I don't want him to see me, I've done too much. But he understands you, he cares for you, he wants you in his presence. Jesus uses your name when he is interceding for you. Like Hagar, you are seen, you are heard, you are loved by God. May we never, ever forget that.
Meditations for This Week
1. Take Disappointment To Prayer
When God seems slow to keep his word, the temptation is to stop praying and start scheming. Abram brought his childlessness to God and said, "O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless?" and that honest prayer made room for God to speak hope. Sarai took her disappointment into her own hands, and the pain multiplied for generations. Name the thing you are still waiting on, and instead of engineering it yourself, bring it to God in words this week. The people of God must never pursue the promises of God apart from the plan of God.
2. He Knows Your Name
Hagar was a foreigner and a slave whose own mistress never once spoke her name, yet God addressed her personally in the wilderness when she wasn't even looking for him. That is the God you have. He does not deal with you as a category or a crowd; Jesus uses your name when he is interceding for you. If you have been feeling invisible at work, at home, or in a season nobody else sees, let that sink in before you do anything else today. You are known and loved by God.
3. Every Trial Has Trajectory
God asked Hagar, "Where have you come from and where are you going?" and those are the two questions we need in our pain. A trial will move you either backwards toward your old life or forward into God's care, and running home to Egypt never heals the wound. Sometimes obedience means returning to a hard place, because the safest place for us to be, even in the hardest of times, is right where God asks us to be. Ask which direction your current hardship is carrying you, and take one step toward God rather than away. He has been faithful to bring you to this moment, and he will be faithful to lead you past it.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you for your word, your unchanging, authoritative word that reveals to us who you are, reveals to us who we are, and shows us who we are in you. Forgive us for the times we have felt unseen and reached for your promises apart from your plan. Open our eyes to see that you are El Roi, the God who sees us, and that you see us with eyes of grace even when you call us into hard things. In you we are seen, we are heard, we are loved. May we never forget it. In Jesus' name we pray.