Hagar’s BREAK-Through! | Genesis 16:1-15, Isaiah 49:16

This week we’re studying the glow stick people in the Bible. We call them “glow stick people” because you have to break a glow stick before it can shine, and it’s so often how God works in our lives. He is not unkind. He uses every bad thing that happens to us to make us more like Him, to draw us closer to himself. There is beauty in the brokenness when we consider that God shines through the cracks of our lives. Today, we’re going to meet Hagar, a woman who was absolutely broken.

Show Notes:

• Isaiah 49:16 – See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands.
• Who Is Jesus? Let us introduce you!
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Transcription:

I’m not really sure what’s worse, being the person getting the stitches or watching the person you love have to get stitches. I remember when my son Josh was playing hide and seek with his friends and he hit his head on the window sill and we wound up. I’ll never forget, with Dr. Kim, who did a wonderful job stitching up his head, but I remember how I ached for my son in those moments, and it’s a picture of how in the times in our lives when God allows us to be broken. He is right there with us, aching with us, and holding our hand when life really hurts. That’s our God. Hi, it’s the Bible for Busy People. I’m Erica, your host, and yeah, this week we are studying the glow stick people in the Bible. People who were broken by life and circumstances and human choices, and who discovered later that God shines through the broken cracks of our lives. We call them “glow stick people” because you have to break a glow stick before it can shine, and it’s so often how God works in our lives. He is not unkind. He uses every bad thing that happens to us to make us more like Him, to draw us closer to himself. There is beauty in the brokenness when we consider that God shines through the cracks of our lives. Today, we’re going to meet a woman who was absolutely broken. She was ready to give up. If you’ve ever had a broken heart, you know what I’m talking about. If you’ve ever felt cast aside, if you ever felt like there was no hope, then you’ll be able to relate to the woman whose life we’re going to study today. Thank God that the Bible says that our Lord heals the broken hearted. He doesn’t miss a thing. He sees everything that happens in our lives and we’re going to marinate on that in such a beautiful way today. Right now, I want to invite you to join me in Genesis chapter 16. Yeah, the first book of the Bible, and the first two names you’re going to hear may be a little unfamiliar to you. You might know this couple as Sarah and Abraham, but you’re going to hear them in this chapter being referred to as Sarai and Abram. They were waiting for God’s promise to be fulfilled. God promised he would give them a child, but the wait was long and they took the matter into their own hands. With that context, let’s begin in Genesis 16 verse one.

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.” And Abram agreed with Sarai’s proposal. 3 So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife. (This happened ten years after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan.) 4 So Abram had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. But when Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress, Sarai, with contempt. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “This is all your fault! I put my servant into your arms, but now that she’s pregnant she treats me with contempt. The Lord will show who’s wrong—you or me!” 6 Abram replied, “Look, she is your servant, so deal with her as you see fit.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she finally ran away.

Now, I want to pitch a tent here because basically everybody is wrong in this scenario. Have you ever found yourself in a mess like this? A mess of your own creation, your own doing? You got tired of sitting in God’s waiting room and you’re like, you know what? That’s it. I’m going to leave and figure out how to do this myself. There’s always a reason when God asks us to wait. He’s not doing it to hurt us. It’s just that his timing is perfect. Our timing isn’t,. So everybody is at fault here, but the Lord is going to come and draw close to Hagar even though she didn’t deserve it. She wasn’t kind to Sarai, but she was also caught up in this mess. She didn’t ask for this, and perhaps that’s you today. You didn’t ask to be invited into this mess, and maybe once you got in, you didn’t handle it properly. We’re all sinners. We’re all humans. We’re all able to be saved by grace. Grace can find you, even when you’re hiding, even when you run away, and that’s where we pick up the story. Now in verse seven, Hagar has run away.

The angel of the Lord found Hagar beside a spring of water in the wilderness, along the road to Shur. 8 The angel said to her, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I’m running away from my mistress, Sarai,” she replied. 9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her authority.” 10 Then he added, “I will give you more descendants than you can count.” 11 And the angel also said, “You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael (which means ‘God hears’), for the Lord has heard your cry of distress. 12 This son of yours will be a wild man, as untamed as a wild donkey! He will raise his fist against everyone, and everyone will be against him. Yes, he will live in open hostility against all his relatives.” 13 Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord, who had spoken to her. She said, “You are the God who sees me.” She also said, “Have I truly seen the One who sees me?” 14 So that well was named Beer-lahai-roi (which means “well of the Living One who sees me”). It can still be found between Kadesh and Bered. 15 So Hagar gave Abram a son, and Abram named him Ishmael.

…which means God hears, do you know that God hears your cry in the wilderness of your circumstances? And the angel of the Lord is coming to you now and saying, God hears you. God sees you. If you are broken, soon the light of God’s love, even now it might happen will be shining through those cracks so others can see his light in your life. No one is forgotten. You are engraved on the palms of God’s hands. That’s what it says in the book of Isaiah in chapter 49. I’ll put the exact verse in the notes, how could God forget you? He remembers you. He sees you. He is the God who sees. Till next time, you are so loved.

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