Ever had a good idea that turned out to be bad?
Let’s talk about a couple women we meet in Genesis, and see what they have to teach us about FACE time with God (and one another).
For fun, I’ve given these women a “face” for our story. Sarai (pronounced S’rI) will be played by...
--Elizabeth Taylor.
And Hagar, Sarai’s Egyptian handmaiden will be played by...
--Ava Gardner.
These two women, according to Google, represent two of the prettiest faces in the world!
Think about faces...why are faces important?
I’ve heard someone say, “the eyes are the window into the soul.”
And I think I agree with them. When I think of the people I love, I don’t think about their feet, or their hands, or any other part of their bodies. When I think about the people I love, the picture that comes to my mind is that of their faces. And when I think of their faces, I’m not deciding whether or not they are pretty. I’m seeing whether or not they are happy or sad, excited or discouraged, content or in despair. I think God gave us faces so we’d have a place to share our minds and our hearts with one another.
Recently Diane Sawyer hosted a special on the diminishing FACE time we are having with one another. I found her research interesting, take a minute (or 4) to watch this:
Diane and her team discovered that adults on average spend 49 days a year on social media. Seriously?? That’s a month a half immersed in a screen. And that’s for adults!
Now, where were we? Oh yes, I would imagine that you can relate to one of these 2 women. Sarai, the beauty queen or Hagar, the Egyptian servant.
Those of you who are Sarai’s--you are the ones that aspire to be on the homecoming court. When you walk into a room heads turn. All you need is a fairy godmother and voila! You’re a princess! You are beautiful and amazing.
Those of you who are Hagar--you never aspire to be on the homecoming court because you know that isn’t about to happen! You don’t need a fairy godmother because your foot is big (like Cinderella’s stepsisters’ feet, --why are the big people ugly and the little people pretty in fairy tales?). And, you’re far too practical to ride in a pumpkin-turned-crystal carriage! You too are beautiful and amazing!
Our story is found in the book of Genesis chapters 12-16. And you really ought to read the biblical account for accuracy, for I’ve taken some creative liberties in my retelling of what is written there.
It all began in Ur. Sarai and Abram were married and living their “happily ever after” when out of nowhere, Abram came home and said, “Sarai, pack up—we’re moving.”
“Where to?” Sarai might’ve asked.
“Not sure—we’re just going to wherever God leads us.” Abram replied.
“Gotcha.” Huh!
I’m not sure that’s how it went down—and if all the details were written, knowing that Sarai was perfectly capable of having some thoughts of her own, I would imagine that she might have lovingly encouraged her good husband to do a bit more praying before he simply packed his belongings and set out for somewhere.
But, as most often happened in the culture of that day—Sarai went where Abram went and together they traveled until they came to the place where God said,
“SURPRISE! You’re here!”
Only she didn’t get to unpack for long, because Abram was a wandering kind of man and he was itching to explore his “promised land.” It’s not every day a mere mortal receives an entire land for free! Who could blame Abram for wanting to check out his gift?
But just a bit after Abram began his adventure—“a severe famine struck the land…” (see Genesis 12:10)
So, I imagine that Sarai, might have said—Abram, “Dear husband of mine, I’ve followed your dream and tried to be submissive to your belief that God told you to come here—but look at us now. We’ve got ourselves smack dab in the middle of nowhere and now God has abandoned us. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE take me back to civilization!”
Abram looked around and recognized that Egypt offered the nearest shopping, so that is where he and Sarai went. Only Abram was worried that the Egyptians might kill him so that they could have his wife because she was as beautiful as ...
...Elizabeth Taylor!
And the Scripture says, “Sure enough, when Abram arrived in Egypt, everyone noticed Sarai’s beauty.”
Step up all you beauty queen women reading this email! This is your girl! Sarai—the beauty queen!
Sarai was so beautiful, in fact, that Pharaoh—who had the opportunity to take whatever he wanted, took Sarai into his home to be his—whatever he wanted her to be.
I’m not writing this stuff—I’m just reporting it.
And while Sarai was taken from her husband (posing as her brother--And, he actually was her brother, her half-brother but that is complicated and confusing and downright strange so we’re not going to get into it in this email.) So Sarai was taken from her husband (brother) and made to live in a foreign land with all of its foreign ways, under the authority of a foreign ruler with sovereign authority (don’t forget that Pharaoh was like a god in Egyptian culture).
Meanwhile, Abram received gifts—it was like Christmas for him! He got sheep, goats, cattle, male and female donkeys, servants and camels.
But God intervened.
Don’t you love that?
While Abram was trafficking Sarah to the Pharaoh, God saw her and He loved her.
God loved the way she followed Abram to an unknown land. He loved the way she honored her husband even when he asked her to deceive the Egyptians. God loved her laughter and he loved her tears. And because God loves Sarai and he cared about what was happening to her, He sent terrible plagues to torment Pharaoh’s household.
Once the “terrible plagues” struck, Pharaoh discovered that Sarai was actually Abram’s wife and he quickly sent her back to her husband and banished them both from his kingdom.
The cool part is that Pharaoh didn’t take back any of the presents.
Note that in Genesis 12:16 “male and female servants” are among those gifts that Abram received from Pharaoh. And in Genesis 12:20 “all his possessions” left Egypt with him.
Don’t miss the irony of this. At the same time that Sarai was returned to her husband and the life she was familiar with—Hagar was most likely taken from her home and thrust into a life that was foreign to her.
Rest in the understanding that God sees you--and He cares. If you or someone you love is in a terrible, no good, very bad place, ask God to intervene. He’s in the intervention business.
Several years go by and lots of life happened in Genesis chapters 13-15. But let’s pick up our story in Genesis 16.
Genesis 16:1 says this, “Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar.”
So... Sarai confronts Abram with an interesting proposition.
If we look closely at verse 2 we can learn a whole lot about Sarai (NLT):
“The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.”
2 Things:
1. Sarai credited God with her infertility.
2. Apparently…in the ancient culture where Sarai and Abram lived—your servant served you in many ways!
But before we shake our heads at their unusual customs, let’s consider how Sarai might have felt…
Abram came home day-after-day wanting to “make babies” because God told him that he was going to be the father of a multitude, right?
Think about Sarai’s experience with God:
First, He took her away from her mother, her sisters and brothers (except for the one she married which is just weird and I don’t get it, and it’s in there, but I don’t understand, and we’re going to not worry about it in our emails), her nieces and nephews, the friends she’d known since the first grade and her Zumba classes.
THEN he made her suffer through a famine…only to end up in a Pharaoh’s palace surrounded by strange women, food, servants, mud baths and who knows what else…with a cowardly husband who was being showered with wonderful gifts!
After it was all over what did she get for all her trouble? More of what she had before, just with more goats, donkeys, camels, cows and servants to take care of!
What did she have before? A wandering man for a husband who was also intent on having a baby, oh, then sprinkle in some family feud, a husband intent on having a baby, a war—involving her husband and others, and --a husband intent on having a baby.
But she also has this amazing Egyptian servant! I like to think that Sarai and Hagar were friends. Perhaps they’d come up with this plan together. Perhaps they’d talked about it alot, and Hagar had offered to be a kind of surrogate for Sarai and Abram.
Or, maybe not. Maybe Sarai never talked to Hagar more than just to say, “come here, go there, do this, do that, no--not that!” You get the idea. And maybe Sarai, out of her desperation decided herself that she could make Hagar do whatever she wanted to make Hagar do! And without morning sickness or weight gain, she might be holding a precious baby within a year.
I can almost picture the scene. Abram’s coming home with flowers again—he’s got that look in his eyes…and…Sarai thought to herself, “I’ve got an idea…”
Abram liked that idea so he made Hagar his wife, had “sexual relations” with her (I’m simply quoting Genesis 16 verse 4) and Hagar became pregnant.
Ok—let’s stop here for a minute.
It sounded like a good idea! But now that Hagar’s got morning sickness, Sarai had to be feeling resentful. She had to be 2nd guessing her decision—her proposal—her idea. It was bad enough that Hagar was now elevated to wife-status, but after all the years and all the walking together and all the journey they’d had with one another—now HAGAR was pregnant and Sarai was not. Hagar had what Sarai had always wanted.
But the Scripture doesn’t say that Sarai treated Hagar any differently—the Scripture says that Hagar treated Sarai with contempt.
Huh..what about that!
Hagar had some nerve!
After all the years of serving Sarai—Hagar got a taste of life on the other side—of the dream of living as the wife of a wealthy man rather than his wife’s servant. She was beginning to feel right proud of herself. Perhaps she knew she had something Sarai couldn’t have and even if she was an outsider, even if she was “only the maid” she was pregnant and Sarai was not. Who could blame her for being a bit proud?
Have you ever had an idea like this? One that sounded really good when you thought about it, but turned out NOT SO GOOD AT ALL once you made it happen.
This isn’t Sarai’s finest moment. It’s not Hagar’s either. In fact, it’s not even Abram’s finest moment. But it is God’s. You know why? Because we simply can’t thwart His plans! We can dream and scheme and come up with ideas and maneuver things about. We can even create a bit of chaos. But God’s promises will be fulfilled and His purposes will prevail.
I don’t know about you, but I want to chew on that thought for a while.
Sarai wasn’t going to have her servant treat her as if they were now on = ground and she certainly wasn’t going to put up with Hagar’s “airs” about her.
So, Sarai did what I would have done—she told Abram it was all his fault!
Genesis 16:5, “This is all your fault! I put my servant into your arms and now that she’s pregnant she treats me with contempt. The Lord will show who’s wrong—you or me!”
And then Abram answered like any man would and he said, “she’s your servant, so deal with her as you see fit.” In other words—“I’m not getting involved in this!”
Then we read that Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that Hagar ran away.
Wow! This sounds more like the ugly stepsisters to Cinderella than it does like two women that God chose to honor. Where is their gentleness and self-control? For goodness sakes!
You know what I love about this? I love the honesty of God’s Word and the reality of Sarai and Hagar.
This is stuff I can relate to!
Sarai was so cruel to Hagar that she left the security of Abram’s home.
And this is where we catch up with her…In Genesis 16:7.
The angel of the Lord found Hagar in the wilderness and asked her two very important questions:
1. Where have you come from?
2. Where are you going?
You would be surprised at how many people wander through life not knowing the answer to these important questions.
When I was 21 years old I served as a summer youth minister in a church in Thomaston, GA—about 40 miles south of Atlanta, an hour and a half from my home. I lived with an elderly woman who was a faithful Atlanta Braves fan. And in the evenings I ate my dinner with families from the church. One night another elderly woman took me to Macon (the nearest large city) to eat with her at a restaurant there. I don’t remember where or what we ate, but I do remember our conversation in the car.
She said this, “Leighann—there are 3 things you ought always to remember as you go through life: Who you are, where you came from and where you’re going.” I’ll never forget that.
People who don’t know Jesus the way I know Jesus might not know who they really are. If you ask me who I am today this is what I will tell you:
I am a person of worth, created in the image of God to relate and to live.
People forget where they came from—whether their heritage is good or bad, they often forget. They are so busy looking for what will satisfy the longing in their hearts that they don’t take stock in the who’s and the what’s that have brought them to where they are today.
Where have you come from? Did you come from a home where your parents loved and nurtured you—provided for you and taught you to love the LORD? Did you come from a home where your parents were more confused than you are today? Did they fail to provide for you? Are you just now learning about the LORD? Or did you come from somewhere other than that?
Think on these things: Who are you? Not who are you in relation to other people, but who are you?
Where have you come from and where are you going? Where do you want to go? What do you need to adjust to have the best opportunity to get there?
As you think about these things, know that you also are:
a person of worth created in the image of God to relate and to live.
Perhaps, just like Hagar, your dreams been shattered. Hagar was far from home and destined to live with selfish, proud Sarai forever. She was possibly fine with being a servant, maybe she had a romantic interest back in Egypt—or perhaps she dared to dream that Abram would find her lovely! She no doubt had a front-row seat to the relationship he had with his wife.
What about you?
Were you so sure that your knight in shining armor was the one only to discover that “he” was not at all who you thought he was?! Did you put your hope in him and he failed to rescue you? Hagar would never have her knight in shining armor. If she thought it might be Abram, she was sorely disappointed! And now that she was carrying his child—she could never have another man.
Where are you today? Is your life so hopeless that you’ve given up and you’re sitting with Hagar beside a spring of water wishing it was deep enough to drown your sorrow? Are you hanging on by a thread and desperate to find hope? If so, God meant for you to get this email! And to read it, right here, right now.
Imagine your loving heavenly Father, sitting right next to you, taking your hands into His, and gently asking...
Where have you come from…and Where are you going?
Where are you going? What are you doing? Where will the choices you are making today take you tomorrow?
This reminds me of a song (maybe older than you)
Do you know where you’re going to? Do you like the things that life is showing you? Where are you going to? Do you know?
Maybe you are feeling a whole lot like Hagar…
God’s asking you these tough questions and you don’t have a clue where you’re headed, you only know that the life you were living was toxic and that somehow you had to get away.
“I’m running away from my mistress, Sarai,” Hagar replied.
After Hagar’s confession, the angel of the Lord told her to return to Sarai and submit to her authority.
That is not an easy assignment. To have to go back to where you were running from—to return to the exact circumstances you spent the past days, weeks and perhaps even months building up the nerve to leave…not only that but to have to return without any assurance that things would be different when you got there.
The angel did add that Hagar’s descendants would be more than she could count. In other words, even though she was the victim of Sarai and Abram’s attempt to do FOR God what God was perfectly capable of doing for Himself…Hagar would get in on God’s blessing.
Scripture doesn’t tell us what Hagar thought when she heard these words, but the angel had more to say, READ verses 11-12.
What about that! Hagar ran away to the wilderness and God not only met her with crisis pregnancy intervention counseling but he also gave her an ultrasound picture that told her way more than the sex of her baby.
Not all the news was good—but it was definitely true. And I don’t know about you, but one of the things I love about the Bible is that when I read it, God tells me the truth.
I also love Ishmael’s name… “God hears.” –the angel said, “You are to name him Ishmael—for the LORD has heard your cry of distress.
God hears your cry of distress! I've just returned from the Southern Baptist Convention (still going on as you read this email), where I shared The Prayer Clinic Ministry at the Women's Expo. I am so excited about this ministry where people like Hagar can come and meet people who know that God HEARS us when we pray.
We pray with people every week in our Prayer Clinic, and if we could change your name when you come to the Prayer Clinic, we would send each of you out calling you Ishmael! “God hears!”
And back to our story, I love Hagar’s response to this encounter with our living God—our heavenly Father the lover of our souls.
Read verse 13. Understand that prior to this encounter with Abram and Sarai’s God, Hagar’s spiritual understanding embraced many gods—all of whom had the power to determine her eternal destiny. But none who had EVER made themselves known to her in her despair.
“Thereafter Hagar used another name to refer to the LORD, who had spoken to her. She said, “You are the God who sees me.”
El Roi, the God who sees me.
And then she exclaimed, “Have I truly seen the One who sees me?”
Can you imagine how excited Hagar was? Out of all the gods she’d sifted through as an Egyptian, and all the experience she’d had in Abram and Sarai’s home…there God was her God, and HE WAS PRESENT WITH HER.
When Hagar came FACE to FACE with God, her life was changed.
She named this place—this special place in the middle of nowhere—“Beer Lahai-roi (which means “well of the Living One who sees me.”)
My friend, you might feel like Hagar today--with no-one to turn to, and nowhere to go. You might even be pregnant or the mother of little people who depend on you.
If you feel like Hagar today—I want you to know that God sees you.
He sees what is behind you.
He sees what is around you.
He sees what is inside you.
God also sees what is ahead of you. And the God who sees you hears you. He’s heard the cry of your distress.
The God who sees you—hears you—and He LOVES you.
He’s got plans for your life just as He had plans for Hagar’s. You were placed on this earth for a purpose. You will find that purpose in Christ. He is telling you that you are His and He is yours.
All of those broken dreams—He understands.
All your past mistakes, He’s got that covered.
In fact, if you let Him…the God who sees you…the God who hears you…the God who loves you…will take the very things your Enemy wants to use to destroy you and HE WILL USE THESE THINGS TO BIRTH MINISTRY THROUGH YOU.
The God who sees you loves you.
Because Hagar met God face to face she was able to return to the place that she previously dreaded. She was able to return and give Abram his son.
Genesis 16:15 says, “Hagar gave Abram a son, and Abram named him Ishmael.”
This is definitely not the end of the story, but it’s our stopping place today.
Some of you reading this need to be reminded that not only did God speak the world into existence, but He also breathed life into you. He is LORD of the UNIVERSE but He is also the LOVER of your soul.
God loves you so much that he has already done what he had to do to have a personal relationship with you. He was not satisfied to be a distant acquaintance—He wants to be your intimate companion.
He knows you inside and out. He knows exactly when you were born and when you will die. He knows what will happen between now and then—the good things, the terrible things, the happy things and the sad things and He longs to walk with you every single step of the way.
And even when He refuses to change your circumstances, He wants you to know that He will never leave you nor forsake you. He will go with you wherever you go.
You think God has forgotten you? Never, not in a million years. And that my friend is why He made sure you got this email.
God wants you to know that He sees you…He hears you…He loves you…
Ask God who might need this reminder today. Share this message with them and let them know that while God is always with them you will be His hands and feet--that you will walk with them in the flesh because sometimes it's just nice to have Jesus with flesh on.
Leighann
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