In our finite minds we say and think things that just are far from what is real, so very often. We just have to start here: when anything whole gets to one HUNDRED percent, it’s all there is. There is no more. I get the desire to want an emphasis on ALL, but 100% encompasses everything there is possible to that one whole thing: 100%, ALL. When we are considering one whole something or someone, nothing beyond 100% is possible, and that’s important to realize. ALL: Everything of any and each whole thing.
Sufficient
I looked through an online thesaurus for help explaining the word sufficient, this divine kind of sufficiency , and I read word after word: ample, bountiful, generous, prolific, abounding, chock-full, plenty, lavish… and while each term offers a glimpse of the truth here, I kept coming up short.
sufficient
adjective
adequate for the purpose; enough: sufficient proof; sufficient protection.
Then I went back to God’s Word, verse after verse and read again and again of El Shaddai, and then it hits me. I get it now. The missing part in my quest was in that little three letter word, a-l-l. El Shaddai, All Sufficient God. When we put all and sufficient, together, we’re left with: 100% of everything needed for the purpose.
Almighty God, El Shaddai, shows up much over the Old Testament.
When almost 100 years old, Abram’s faith is fortified again to walk with All Mighty God.
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless.
Genesis 17:1
And Isaac admonishes The All Mighty’s blessings over Jacob:
And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people
Genesis 28:3
El Shaddai, Almighty God returns to Jacob with promise of His blessings:
God said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel. ” So he named him Israel.And God said to him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation—even a company of nations—shall come from you, and kings shall descend from you.…
Genesis 35:10-11
The Lord refers to Himself as the one they knew: God Almighty, El Shaddai and then introduces Himself as Jehovah, (Yahweh):
God also said to Moses, “I am the LORD. And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.
Exodus 6:2-3
And He gives us the promise of El Shaddai for all our todays:
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
Psalm 91:1
And I love this definition from Biblehub:
God Almighty – אל שדי El Shaddai, the all-sufficient God, the Outpourer and Dispenser of mercies
I’m going to encourage you to pause this podcast or your reading here in a minute. Get ahold of your phone’s note app, or grab a paper and pen. Ask the Lord to clear your mind of everything else for a couple of minutes and start jotting down some of the struggles you’ve known in the recent, or not so recent, past.
All Sufficient
See? I’m conflicted here to list my own, those of people I care most about or just to let the Holy Spirit sit with you over your own list…yes, I think I’ll do that. So, my loving encouragement is this, look over each thing you wrote down and search through each one.
Somehow, through the toughest places in your life, can you realize the outpouring of mercies and can see the presence of Almighty God, El Shaddai? Don’t go on until your heart can revisit for a moment and remember the goodness of God in your pain. I praise the Lord that He is indeed all sufficient, and always faithful to be so.
In A Heartbeat
Maybe because I’m getting older, but there’s no shortage of valley walk times that come to mind. Going way back, I wasn’t yet 30 years old, that would come right after my firstborn’s birth, after trying for five or so years, we were finally pregnant.
(My husband went to my prenatal appointments with me, and at the first one my OB looked across his desk and said him, “Don’t say, ‘We’re pregnant,’ because YOU are not,” but to us, we were-therefore the “we.”)
Things sure can change in a heartbeat, can’t they? There we were, excited and, well, the me part of we was pretty sick. Ugh, those days were long, and I bet many of you can relate. We went in for an early ultrasound because I’d been bleeding pretty badly.
Then, after all the prodding, the turning of the screen and her head, the sonographer decided to speak.
No Heartbeat
Right this minute I can again hear the hollow echo of the room bouncing her words back and forth rapidly between my ears and my pounding heart, “There’s no heartbeat; the baby is not viable. Come back in three weeks.”
All I remember in my shock and disbeliefe is asking her how I could be so sick if the baby wasn’t growing. Maybe I never even vocalized the thought.
Somehow I left the hospital walking on my own two feet, and I’m sure my husband’s hand was tightly wrapped around my own. You couldn’t have convinced me that the hallways didn’t grow longer, and the parking lot didn’t move farther away as we put managed to walk away, one step in front of another.
I never knew how long three weeks could be. But I was about to learn more than I’d ever known about El Shaddai, my Almighty God, 100% of everything needed for the purpose.
Turns out, that little heartbeat was rapidly blinking away when I lay on that table 3 weeks later. It was the miracle we’d prayed for, and through each long day Almighty God was there with me. I’m thankful to this day-and every day-for that moment some 27 years ago.
Right from the start, that boy stole my heart!
Almighty in the Valleys
However, as I told you, I’m getting older and you can bet your life that mine has been tested in these years gone by. Sometimes, my miracle came in a much different way than I’d desperately prayed, but the overwhelming mercies El Shaddai, Almighty Lord gave met in the valleys are just as precious to my heart and to my faith.
I don’t know if you’re hiding under the shadow of His wings or singing the praises of overwhelming mercies barreling all around you right now, but I do know this. God is all sufficient; 100% of what we need, He is, every time.
He is to not going to leave us alone. He is not going to come up short. And He is able this day as He was when talking to Abram thousands of years ago to fulfill His promises to us as we abide in Him.
Abide
Abide is a verb. It means the subject has to participate. No matter where you find yourself, abiding in Him is where we need to be. Meet Him at the foot of the cross and in the shadow of the Almighty-Come on! Let’s go.
Run…crawl, or whatever you need to do, and get there to the secret place of the most high: Abide in Almighty God. Be still. Rest. Believe. Wait. Refresh. Remind yourself of this word and the truth:
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty
Psalm 91:1
Abide right there, always, in the shadow of El Shaddai, God Almighty.
The dead of winter. Windows down, shorts, a comfy T-shirt and my hair pulled back so the wind doesn’t have its way, and cruising to my next errand. I’m fully engrossed in and enjoying this sunshine filled 80+ degree day; it’s picture perfect. I am thankful every day the Lord allows me to live in this beautiful place.
Enjoying the fresh breeze through my car, the radio is quietly playing as I relax, waiting for my teenager to come out of the store and hoping he takes his time. Though not much to write home about, a busy woman and mom can’t overstate the opportunity for a quiet moment even if in a parking lot. This moment is topped as an old familiar Joe Coker song comes on : You are So Beautiful. It has such a soothing tune and a precious message, so I settled in my seat and listened through the quiet totally unexacting what God was preparing to do in my heart.
You are so beautiful To me; Can’t you see; You’re everything I hoped for You’re everything I need You are so beautiful to me To me
My thoughts engulfed in the lyrics, You are so beautiful to me, can’t you see? My heart thinks about how the Lord sees me. Not because I am who I am, for that would cause Him to turn His back on sinful me, but because I’ve been redeemed. I am so beautiful to the Lord because He sees His son when He sees me.
His beautiful Son, Jesus
I’ve been bought with a most precious and priceless gift: the cost of my redemption was the blood of his beloved son. When my Heavenly Father sees me, when He looks at me, He sees his beautiful Son, Jesus.
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
2 Corinthians 5:21
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
And that my friends is something beautiful to be hold.
Sin (still) separates us from Jesus
I know this isn’t popular or fun to hear, but I’ll take the risk with a quick and important footnote: when God sees me, when He sees Jesus’ covering over me– it’s barring no known sin in my life. Unconfessed sin actually puts a barrier of separation between us; God can’t look on sin. Ask the Lord to search your heart and confess any sin you realize. Jesus Himself, as He bore our sins on the cross, cried out as His Father turned His back-not able to look on sin. Even as Believers, sin interrupts the harmony of an open, intimate relationship with our Father in heaven. We should be sensitive and tender to hear from the Lord, judging ourselves (as in I Corinthians 11), and seeking the Lord’s revelation over our sin, always ready to repent, confess and walk again with the Holy Spirit leading us…no known sin.
Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalm 139:23-24
If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
Psalm 66:18
27Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 29For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
I Corinthians 11:27-29
How Beautiful
One particular year I was teaching a group of fifth graders, many who I love to this day, and my dear friend did an incredible America Sign Language inspired and choreographed rendition of Twila Paris’s song, How Beautiful, in music class. Do you know that song? I’m going to put the lyrics at the close of this post for you to read. My heart still stops to reimagine those beautiful children dressed in all black but for their white- gloved hands signing in unison, as they silently but so gracefully brought the song to life. Go look up the song, and listen to the words prayerfully. Here are a few:
How Beautiful the heart that bled That took all my sin and bore it instead How beautiful the tender eyes That choose to forgive and never despise How beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ
And as He lay down His life, We offer this sacrifice, That we will live just as He died, Willing to pay the price
Jesus, my Redeemer! How beautiful your heart that bled, that took all my sin and bore it instead. My beautiful Redeemer!
I’m glad that I don’t have to depend on my sinful, selfish, flesh to gain the approval of my Heavenly Father. He offers it to me by way of His Son.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Romans 8:1
Genie in a Bottle
Do His promises come with stipulation? Yes, actually, some of them do. We don’t serve Genie in a Bottle. We don’t get three wishes. We serve a righteous, just, and holy God who loves us.
Does he want us to do right? Yes, for His glory.
Does he want us to make choices different than we sometimes do? Yes, because He loves us and He wants what’s best for us, and He knows exactly what that is. (And we get it wrong, on the regular.)
He loves us More
Does He desire sweet sacrifice? Does He give us a cross to bear? Yes! Yes! He does. In this life will have trials, we will hurt, and it will be hard. Sweet friends, He loves us more than all of that. He loves us more than the hurt we go through. He loves us more than the brokenness of our sin in this fallen world. He loves us more than what crushes our flesh and bones, our heart and spirit. He loves us more. He loves us most.
Through all the ebb and flow in life, of sin and repentance, of forgiveness and grace, of hope and mercy, through it all out of the abundance of the Lord’s love for us- the love that sent His son to the cross-Our God loves us and He sees us through His pure, flawless, loving, beautiful Son. He says we are the apple of His eye, and that’s pretty special, wouldn’t you agree? I think it further means, He sees Jesus in us.
Apple of His Eye
God says we are the apple of His eye. That’s a beautiful picture and reflection of His son! Look at these verses and follow them through.
Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,
Psalm 17:8
Keep my commandments, and live; and my lawas the apple of thine eye.
Proverbs 7:12
Think not that I (Jesus) am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, butto fulfill.
Matthew 5:17
The Lord keeps ME as the apple of His eye, I keep His law as the apple of MY, (OUR) eye, we look to Jesus–Beautiful Jesus; the fulfillment of God’s law. What a beautiful picture of how God sees us and how we are to see Jesus. Each of us looking at the other as the apple of our eye, I’d call that true love and a win-win of divine ordinance.
THE Cross
I have to stop right here. Friends, His son, our Savior, went to the cross for us. THE CROSS! Sigh. Do I stop to think about the power and reality of this enough?
I do not.
THE cross Jesus chose for us- easy enough to say, but it wasn’t easy in any way for Him. The life He led in the flesh wasn’t easy, either. We most oftentimes think it wrong, to know and love the Lord and yet to struggle in life…where’s God when it hurts? Our thoughts are amiss. Do we not know of Jesus’ life? Have we not read how He suffered on earth as He never would have in heaven? Isn’t that the promise we look to with hope-heaven’s glory with the Lord, faith becoming sight, sin’s pain being erased, and hearts being healed? Jesus left all that to come here and die the death of THE CROSS for us. He IS beautiful. How beautiful He is. His blood covers me, and you if you know Him. Our Father sees His beloved, Beautiful Son as He looks on His children.
Longing for Home
My dad died last week. He called me the week before he was admitted to the hospital. Before the doctor said anything was wrong, though he sat in front of them asking for help, before his brand new wife could see his dire need, he knew, and he said to me, “I need to get back home; if I’m dying, I want to get home to you guys.”
I was so sad. The doctors, the emt workers, and even the ER staff- the health professionals on the whole, had missed his urgent need for help, but I new from the sound of his voice this was serious. Recently he’d gotten married and moved away from all of us, and I new that meant he had no way to get back here. It seemed everything was going against him, some by his own choices and some by the sickness that had grabbed onto him. Holding all this in my heart, all I could say to affirm his feelings was, “I bet you do feel like you’re dying, Dad.”
He knew his time was drawing near, and he wanted to be home with his family. The fear of dying alone suffocated him in the past decade-probably much longer, and it was now driving him to get back ‘home.’ Well into his 83rd year of life, he was miserable in a lot of ways, and he longed for heaven. Dad had ways of saying things and getting his way, but the new words out of his mouth the past couple of months were, “I want to go home.” He longed for home. I believed him. God prepared him.
Your eyes saw my unformed body; all my days were written in Your book and ordained for me before one of them came to be.
Psalm 139:16
Before you were born, the Lord knew you, too.
God’s love
But I wasn’t ready to let him go. I had long pressing hopes and prayers where Dad was concerned, and I was holding fast for answers to come in a different way. I loved him and I wouldn’t choose for him to suffer, knowing heaven was waiting, but I can promise I would also never offer to let him die in someone else’s place either. That’s God’s kind of love!
I don’t have the capacity to love like that. God’s love is a love none of us can comprehend. He sent His beloved Son to die in my place. I’m so thankful, yet even as I think, say, write that, I am convicted. I know I fall far short in living out my thankfulness. What love! God help me learn to love You more.
When Jesus went to the cross for us, He knew what was ahead. He was willing to live- and die- for me, for us. Even so, He didn’t desire to suffer what was coming. He asked His Father there in The Garden of Gethsemane , if He would, to take the death by way of the cross from Him. And yet He knew this is what He came to earth for. He had to die for me, or I would die forever separated from my Creator because I’m a sinner. To think, He loved me so much He was willing to take my place to be sure I would be with Him eternally. And He had to die for you, too; none of us escape being born into this fallen world of sin.
Jesus wants to be with you
My dad’s desire was to be home, home with his children and home with his Lord. Home where he was loved. Jesus longs to be with His children, too.
Have you ever said to your children, or heard from your own mother, in response to an I love you, “I love you more?” The Lord loves us more; He loved us first. Jesus wants to be with us, His children, His church. Let that sink in, Beautiful Jesus, the feet that walked the long dusty roads and the hill to the cross, wants to be with you, and He wants to be with me.
Jesus wants to be with you, with me. Hallelujah!
We love Him because He first loved us.
I John 4:19
I’m thankful my dad knew the Lord. I know I will see him again. As for now, he is in heaven with my mom. His faith has become sight at last, and it’s because of Beautiful Jesus.
Here’s the thing I want you to hear. It’s the statement I hope will give my dad’s life some kind of meaning-and I just can’t explain what my heart wants to portray about what I’m here to tell you. But lean in an listen, even if I’ve previously lost you today…you can go back and listen or read this in its entirety if you’d like but hone in for the next minute.
YOU are beautiful to the Lord. It’s because of Him, and it’s true. He loves you more. I beg you, not in a way society would bump you up the pecking order of beauty, but in a way that your worth is far above anything anyone less than Jesus can offer you. Would you take our God at His Word in this? Quit listening to the lies. Quit comparing yourself, your marriage, your husband, your children, your home, your job, your bank account and every single other thing that pounds in your head against ANYTHING or anyone other than the person of Christ-the ONE who died for you. The Beautiful Jesus showers you with His beauty- YOUR ARE BEAUTIFUL to Him. And He loves Beautiful you. Believe it. Look to Him and never change your gaze. My dad, I believe with all my heart, died without ever knowing God’s perfect peace in that He loved him, period. God so loved you, Dad. Friends, God so loves you.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16
If that’s not where you are today, that’s where you need to be.
And for those of us who know Him, don’t dare take your gaze, your thoughts, your heart away from Beautiful Jesus. I am confident you need Him every day. I can bet you’re looking for His perfect peace. Stay with Him.
You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.
Isaiah 26:3
Sisters, Jesus in You? You are Beautiful!
How Beautiful
How Beautiful the hands that served The Wine and the Bread and the sons of the earth How beautiful the feet that walked The long dusty roads and the hill to the cross How Beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ
How Beautiful the heart that bled That took all my sin and bore it instead How beautiful the tender eyes That choose to forgive and never despise How beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ
And as He lay down His life We offer this sacrifice That we will live just as He died Willing to pay the price Willing to pay the price
How Beautiful the radiant bride Who waits for her Groom with His light in her eyes How Beautiful when humble hearts give The fruit of pure lives so that others may live How beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ
How beautiful the feet that bring The sound of good news and the love of the King How Beautiful the hands that serve The wine and the bread and the sons of the Earth How Beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ
And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me? Wherefore the well was called Beerlahairoi (be’ luh hie roy); behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.
Genesis 16:13-14
I can see you!
Oh my goodness, the flashback of memories flooding my heart! My firstborn, no sooner than he learned to sit up, loved to put his baby hands atop his face, “Find me!”
I never tired of this game, “Where’s Momma’s baby?”
Peeking through his fingers he’d belly laugh and throw his arms up in the air announcing his presence as I excitedly declared, “I can see you!” He both thought I couldn’t see him, and that he finally saw me. Precious moments. If I could turn back time.
Hagar’s Situation
Hagar found herself in a similar situation. Let’s read the whole account of Abraham, Sarai and Hagar.
Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. And Sarai Abram’s wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the LORD judge between me and thee. But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her face.
And the Angel of the Lord Spoke
And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. And he said, Hagar, Sarai’s maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai. And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands. And the angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction. And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?
Genesis 16:1-13
Servanthood
Hagar was an Egyptian girl now working for Sarai, the barren wife of an affluent and influential man, Abram. Abram, a friend of God. Though we know she was a maidservant, and servanthood was her way of life, her boss was about to make some decision that would change her status, and in a big way.
Faithfulness
Where scripture notes that Abram and Sarai had been in Canaan for 10 years, it’s a reminder. They had known for those ten years of God’s promise made to Abram before he left Haran and came to Canaan; the promise of his own child-actually, many.
Then the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”
Genesis 12:1-3
No sooner had Abraham arrived to Canaan and the Lord reminds Abram of His promise:
Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
Genesis 15:4-6
The Whole Picture
Now we have the whole picture in front of us, and we understand the three main characters-and their character.
Abram
Remember, Abram was a faithful man blessed richly by the Lord, full of promises kept and promises yet to come.
Sarai
Sarai, though shooting from the hip, desired to please her husband and honor the Lord. The hardships of infertile women in her day were far beyond what we have experienced even in our grandmother’s lifetimes. What was mum to us was shunned to her.
Hagar
And Hagar? Hagar was a young Egyptian woman sent from Pharaoh, now Sarai’s maidservant. I wonder if she felt a bit unwanted being sent away, or was she expecting nothing less?
Whose Idea?
Growing up in my family included me and my five brothers. For almost twenty years, I also taught school. Best of all, I’ve had the privilege and blessing of raising boys of my own.
Then, it goes without saying, I’ve heard and repeated the phrase too many times to count, “Whose idea was this?”
God’s Promise
It wasn’t Hagar’s idea to become Abram’s concubine, it was Sarai’s. It wasn’t God’s promise to Abram that he’d father a child by any other woman than his faithful wife, it was their own. It wasn’t Sarai’s desire to be barren and unable to give what the Lord had promised so long ago to her husband, and neither was it God’s forever plan.
A Mess of Fleshly Choices
Here we have a terrible mess of fleshly choices, and no-one seeking God before man (or woman). Sari and Abram became restless and took it upon themselves to give the Lord a hand in the child He’d promised. But, God had not relented on His promise, and He did not need the help of any of them to help make it so.
Sin
Surrogacy wasn’t uncommon in those days. And it’s quite interesting the most ordinary way this was accomplished. ( If you’re interested in more details, I encourage you to do some research around this topic.)
The result, when successful as it would turn out here, would mean a child for Sari by way of Hagar. But, most likely and by all standards, this was not an affair of excitement and allure, yet it went against God’s direction for Abram and His design of marriage.
It was a choice made in the flesh. It was sin.
God’s Plan Prevails
It should be no surprise to us, because we have the whole of God’s written word to read, that God’s plan isn’t changed when we choose to sin instead of yielding in obedience to Him. Oh, it causes all sorts of troubles, as we see here, but God is always sovereign and His plan prevails.
God’s Sovereignty
Moving forward, Hagar gets pregnant with Abram’s son, and no sooner than she does her attitude changes. Hagar suddenly becomes prideful and arrogant in her demeanor toward Sarai.
This was a stark change from the humble servant. And it was a knife in the back of an old woman who longed to give her husband a child of their own.
Infertility
I can relate a bit to Sarai’s mournful state. Even before I married, I feared I wouldn’t be able to have children. As newlywed time passed us by, my fears grew.
Year after year we’d flip the calendar with no exciting news, and hope waning. At one point I felt sure it would never happen, and I’ll never forget my husband’s words to me. He held my face gently in his hands as his words fell even more gently over me, “I didn’t marry you to have your children, I married you because I love you.”
Undone with Grief
Abram didn’t have a response like that to Sarai, and now she was undone with grief and anger as Hagar had everything she’d ever desired. Their sin wouldn’t dissuade their faithful God, but it did usher in sin’s consequences, didn’t it?
Sin’s Consequences
Hagar was flaunting the great power of her pregnancy in Sari’s face, and Sari grew quite angry. Abram got caught in the middle but didn’t stay there long telling Sari to treat her servant however she’d like.
Hagar, now pregnant with Abram’s son and was taking the brunt of his wife’s disdain-spurred on by her own arrogance, but she was about ready to get away from it all.
Disobedience Invites Disorder
When we mix in our fleshly desires with God’s direction, we don’t change His will for our lives, but in our disobedience we invite disorder, dishonor and dismay as He works in and through us to do His will.
Dejected
Sitting on the floor of a skating rink, I was sharing the Gospel with a teenager who’d just heard my husband speak. As I continued explaining to her the love of our Heavenly Father she listened intently but soon stopped me mid-sentence.
The conflict between knowing her own father -who sees her in the flesh and blood, and who’s suppose to love her yet hated her- and this Heavenly Father I spoke about, but whom she’d never seen, loved her more than anyone was something she couldn’t find space in her heart to understand.
Being Seen and Unloved
This precious young lady was having trouble reconciling being seen andunloved with being unseen and loved beyond measure.
El Roi
Understandably so. What she had yet to learn about our God was that He does see her. I praise the Lord He was made known to her and she turned her life to El Roi, the Lord who sees her, and the Lord who loves her.
Unwanted, Unwelcome
I think Hagar could relate a bit. A decade ago she was left unwanted by Pharaoh and since had been a slave to Sari, though I am apt to think she was a part of the family and treated well by the contrast and turn of events to come. Add insult to injury, she was pregnant with Abram’s son but had no consolation from him, either. Even as a servant she must have felt unwanted and unwelcome, alone and unseen.
Heading Home
Hagar, expendable by both Pharaoh and now Sari-and don’t over look the fact that she’d been learning about Abram and Sari’s God from them for the past ten years, her faith was entwined with their faithfulness. One piece of the tangled mess the three had managed to create, she wanted no part of it any longer, so she left. She took her newly pregnant self and headed on the road of Shur, the road that would lead back to Egypt. She was heading home.
The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” The angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel of the LORD also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” And the angel of the LORD said to her,
Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your affliction. He will be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall dwell over against his kinsmen.
Genesis 16:7-12
El Roi, The Lord sees me
I am going to be really careful here and not to take my own current knowledge and definitions into their home thousands of years. The details of how their ancient lifestyle looked in realtime of maidservants, surrogacy, polygamy are things I haven’t studied in depth, and I know God’s Word can stand on its own, so that’s where I’ll leave them.
The Angel of the Lord Finds Her
That said, Hagar left the place she’d lived and been taken care of for the past ten years, pregnant and downtrodden and headed toward home. The angel of the Lord finds her, and she recognizes it is indeed the Lord. Hagar, her name means ‘wander/er,’ (fitting, isn’t it?).
God Found Her
The angel of the Lord FOUND her. I love the images (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Beer-lahai-roi&t=osx&iax=images&ia=images) I found when looking this up. I encourage you to do the same and give this spring by Shur a visual. There by a spring on the way to Shur, not only does God see her, He finds her.
Let’s consider the obvious, God found her…that would have to mean He was purposely looking for her, right? That’s our God, too! He does the same for His children today: for me, and for you.
Not Where I Belonged
I have to laugh now, but when I was a newlywed I remember getting so upset about something that I decided to get in my car and head down the only road I knew. It was the same one that would take me to the off beaten path back to my old stomping grounds from which I came.
At some point, and not very far away, I had a moment of sense and realized where I was going was not where I belonged. I wasn’t even gone long enough for my husband to be worried about me, but I made great progress in my own mind of how angry I was.
What in the world was I thinking? And how did I think heading west was going to accomplish anything when my home was no longer there?
God’s Questions for Hagar
God’s angel had some questions for Hagar, too.
The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?”
Genesis 16:7-8a
He was making her think, wasn’t he? Their conversation continued.
She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” The angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel of the LORD also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.”
Genesis 16:8b-10
God Changed Her
God didn’t send her back in the same frame of mind she had as she fled. Don’t forget, it was Hagar who decided to rub salt in the deep, raw wound of Sari when she realized Abram was able to make her pregnant. She used the power she had in a very ugly way toward Sari and it caused a lot of problems.
Had she continued down that path, nothing would have changed with Sari; she went back with a change of attitude. She went back knowing the Lord sees her and was going to protect her-she had a future in God’s hands! Hagar went back home to Sari and Abram, and she told them of her time with the Lord’s angel.
We can be sure of this because when her son was born Abram named him Ishmael (God Hears) just as God told her.
God Finds Hagar in the Wilderness
Right there at the spring in the wilderness, God finds Hagar. She finds understanding about her life. She is foretold about her son and the many children that would be from him.
(By the way, I have learned that the old phrase, ” A wild donkey of a man” conjured up a beautiful vision of wild horses running freely” standing in opposition to her own slavery and in contrast to the much uglier pictures we tend to think a wild donkey of a man to mean. Again, a place of historian study, but something worth looking into further to see what you may learn if interested.).
Seeing the Lord
I wonder how long their visit together there at the wellsprings was. Hagar was the first person God sent his angle to talk with. She was the first whose child was named as told by the Lord. The Lord certainly did see her, and she saw Him.
So she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; (be’ luh hie roy) it lies between Kadesh and Bered. And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
Genesis 16:13-16
14 e Beer-lahai-roi (be’ luh hie roy) means well of the Living One who sees me .
Oh, her problems weren’t over. Just like ours are not, either. BUT, God sees us: El Roi, The Lord sees me. He doesn’t desert us though we feel forgotten and alone. We are never alone.
And it matters big. In every place we take ourselves, our feet and our minds, The Lord sees us. And when we take time to look and listen to Him, we see Him too.
What a great day to know the Lord, El Roi, the God who sees me! I love you, Lord, my God who sees me.
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