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Stories Matter
Everyone loves a good story. Whether it’s tales of adventure from storybooks at bedtime, dramas played out in 3D sight and sound on the big screen, or narratives of romance and mystery in novels, stories have a way of capturing our imaginations, transporting us to other worlds, and transforming our lives. People have been telling captivating stories since the beginning of time.
But all of these pale in comparison to the greatest story ever told - God’s story found on the pages of the Bible. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is one big story, one grand narrative of redemption. It’s full of mystery and adventure, passion and heartache, unlikely people with impossible callings, and unimaginable plot twists and unfinished endings.
Not only that, but the Bible is the truest story ever told. Since God is the author of the Bible, and He cannot lie, we can be confident that the stories we find in the Bible actually happened. The truths we find in the Bible are absolute truth. The ways in which God has revealed Himself in Scripture are authentic and true to character. The commands, instructions and warnings are all for our highest good.
For reasons beyond our comprehension, God has chosen to write His story on the pages of human history. The story of our world is the story of a good God who loves His people and has gone to great lengths to save us. At the climax of history, God’s Son entered our broken world, interrupting the trajectory of the tale, and provided a good ending to our stories for all who would trust in Him. Even while Jesus was ministering on earth, He wrapped much of His teaching around stories, called parables.
Yes - stories matter.
Abraham and Sarah
Abram and Sarai, later known as Abraham and Sarah, were childless. In a culture where children were a sign of God’s blessing and favour, especially male children, the empty cradle was a symbol of great shame.
To add to the pain of an already difficult situation, God had promised Abram that he would have as many descendants as the stars in the sky. But it had been ten years since that promise, and the nursery was still empty. The clouds of disappointment, sadness and shame hung low and grey over Abram and Sarai’s tent. To make matters worse, they weren’t getting any younger. Sarai was 75 years old and Abram was ten years older. The last bit of hope was slipping away.
Even though she freely admitted that God was the one who prevented her from having children, Sarai decided to take matters into her own hands. God had clearly promised them a child, but as month after month passed with no positive pregnancy test, she finally decided to help God out a little.
Sarai decided to give her Egyptian servant, Hagar, to her husband so they could have a child through her. This sounds absolutely atrocious to us. We can’t imagine ever doing this, and we can immediately see why this would be a bad idea. But we need to cross the cultural bridge that spans the gap between us now and them then. In that day and in that culture, it was a normal practice for a servant to bear children for her mistress’ husband. Servants belonged to their masters, and so any children that Hagar had would legally belong to Sarah. Sarai could build a family through Hagar. It was the equivalent to a surrogate mother in our day. It was easy to justify this as a valid way to fulfill God’s promise. Perhaps this was the way God intended for His promise to be fulfilled. After all, God helps those who help themselves, right?
Wrong. God does not need our help to fulfill His promises.
The text says, “Abram agreed to what Sarai said” (Gen. 16:2). In other translations it says, “Abram listened to the voice of his wife.” This is the language of Eden, reminding us of when Adam listened to Eve, and took a fateful bite of the forbidden fruit (Gen. 3:17).
Was it wrong for Abram to listen to his wife? No. The point is that it was wrong for Abram not to listen to the Lord. They were relying on human wisdom instead of the divine direction he had received. Abram and Sarai took matters into their own hands. When we rely on our own wisdom and impatiently try to fulfill God’s promises in our own effort, it often accomplishes nothing and may even prolong the time until God’s promise is fulfilled.
As we continue in the narrative, we see that Abram took Hagar as his wife, and she immediately conceived. This only proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was Sarai who was the problem. She was infertile, not Abram.
But when Sarai saw that Hagar was pregnant, she completely changed her attitude. She became jealous and angry, blaming Abram, even though she had initiated the plan. Suddenly she did not like the way the circumstances were playing out. Again, this blame-shifting reminds us of Eden. Adam pointed his finger at Eve, and Eve pointed her finger at the serpent.
In her anger, Sarai dealt harshly with Hagar. The text seems to suggest that she was physically violent with Hagar, even though she knew she was pregnant. Eventually Sarai drove Hagar away, and with her the supposed “child of promise.”
God Finds Hagar in the Wilderness
With no other options, Hagar fled the home of Abram and Sarai, and began the long journey back to Egypt and to her people. But the angel of the Lord met Hagar by a spring of water in the wilderness. There are two things we don’t want to miss here. First, many scholars believe (and I agree) that this is a Christophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whenever we see an angel of the Lord in the Old Testament, it is often a Christophany, an appearance of the Second Person of the Trinity before His incarnation in Bethlehem. In the text, Hagar herself assumes this to be the Lord.
Second, if you are an observant Bible reader when you read through the story of Scripture, you will see a theme emerging of women at wells. For example, Abraham’s servant met Rebekah at a well, Jacob met Rachel at a well, Moses met Zipporah at a well, and Jesus will meet a woman at the well in the New Testament.
Notice that the angel of the Lord addressed Hagar by name. We are reminded of our theme verse from Isaiah 43:1. “I have called you by name, you are mine.” He asked her where she had come from and where she was going. Hagar responded honestly. She was running away from her mistress Sarai.
No doubt Hagar was hoping for a little empathy in this moment. After all, Hagar was certainly the victim in this situation. Pregnant and alone, she was the casualty of someone else’s desires and impatience. But the angel of the Lord told Hagar to return to Sarai and submit to her. No doubt this was not what she wanted to hear. But God’s ways are infinitely higher than our ways, and He often calls us to the difficult path of repentance because it leads us back to His heart.
Here we see the kindness of God in the face of His people behaving badly. God moves towards the most vulnerable person in the story. He gave Hagar the same blessing and gracious promise that He had given to His people. A multitude of people would come from her - too many to count. She was pregnant with a son she was to name Ishmael.
Notice the phrase, “His hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand will be against him” (Gen. 16:12). Ishmael’s descendants would grow into the people who lived in Canaan and who would be disposed by the Israelites centuries later. Ishmael would become the father of the Arabs, and we know that the Arab-Israeli conflict continues today.
Let’s pause and ask this question for a moment: Why can’t Ishmael be the promised child? After all, this was Abraham’s baby. Doesn’t God work all things together for good, even faulty human planning? Ishmael can’t be the promised child because he didn’t come according to God’s plan. This pregnancy was a product of the flesh, of two people taking matters into their own hands. God wanted the child of promise to come about by a miracle of His grace.
This is another theme in Scripture. God often brings miraculous deliverance through the womb. Since Genesis 3:15, God’s people had known that there was someone coming – the seed of the woman - who would crush the head of the serpent. God promised a Deliverer, who would ultimately be fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the true Seed of the woman.
The God Who Sees
Hagar’s response to God’s promise is beautiful. She said, “You are El-roi” (Gen. 16:13).
We can hear the amazement in her voice. “In this place, have I actually seen the one who sees me?” (Gen. 16:13). Hagar was overwhelmed by the gracious care and stunning promises of God. God had seen her, a lowly Egyptian woman who was homeless and desperate, and He had taken the time to meet with her. He saw straight into her situation and straight into her heart.
Hagar was undone. She named that place Beer-lahai-roi, the well of the Living One who sees me.
Our God is El-roi. The God who sees us. God saw Hagar in the wilderness, and God sees you too.
When you want to run away, God sees you.
When you are lonely and isolated, God sees you.
When you are mistreated and unfairly blamed, God sees you.
When anxiety follows you around like a black cloud, God sees you.
When you are overwhelmed to the point of exhaustion, God sees you.
When fear threatens to suffocate you in the dead of night, God sees you.
The flesh wants to run away from difficult situations, but God often wants to demonstrate His power through them. The flesh wants you to lash out when you are mistreated, but God wants you to demonstrate His love to all people. The enemy wants you to retreat in the face of fear, but God wants you to step forward in faith.
God sees us and we want to see Him too. Our right response is to look for Him.
Look for Him as you go about your day. How is He moving in your life? How is He orchestrating situations in answer to your prayers? How is He blessing you? How is He working in your circumstances to display His glory?
God can be seen in the ordinary, mundane moments of life. When we live for this kind of holy expectancy – that any minute God is going to break through with His glory and goodness – we are more likely to see Him.
Friends, God sees you, so make it a habit of seeing Him too.
Encounters with the Living God Bible Study
When anyone, in any time or place throughout all of history, has an encounter with the Living God, they are transformed. There are countless stories, both in Scripture and in personal journals recorded down through the generations, of people who met with God and their lives were significantly impacted. The truth is, we cannot leave the presence of a Holy God unchanged.
In this 6-week study, we examine the stories of six women in Scripture who had an encounter with the Living God and were dramatically transformed. We can learn from these stories about who God is, how He interacts with His people, and how we are to respond to Him. Our God knows us so intimately and writes our stories onto the pages of His grand story of redemption.
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