"You are the God who sees me" (Gen 16:13).
What is a major theme of Genesis and of the entire Bible? Is it that good people do good things and God blesses and rewards them? Or is it something else?
Theme: Grace comes to those who do not deserve it, who do not seek it, who continually resist it, and who do not appreciate it even after they receive it.
Goal: Reflect upon our understanding of grace.
Application: Does the depth of sheer grace inform and touch and transform your heart and life?
3 major world religions look at Abraham as the model for courageous living, for authentic living, and for faithful living. Why did Abraham triumph? Gen 16:1-16, which is like a soap opera, shows that it is not because he is made of better stuff than we are. It shows Abraham to be a deeply flawed and very fallible human being, which is putting it mildly. Also, the English translations do not show the rawness and the brutality that is conveyed in the Hebrew. It beautifies, sanitizes and makes it PG or G that which was conveyed in Hebrew as R or even X rated.
Gen 16:1-2 say, "Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; so she said to Abram, 'The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.'” God had promised Abram great blessings which were all contingent on him having a son (Gen 12:2-3; 15:2-5). But after 10 years, nothing happened. So Sarai made her proposal and Abram consented (Gen 16:3-4). What Sarai suggested was common, legal and completely culturally acceptable.
Regarding the English translation of the word "slave" (Gen 16:1), Robert Altar, in his Genesis: Translation and Commentary (1996), says, "The tradition of English versions that render this as 'maid' or 'handmaiden' imposes a misleading sense of European gentility on the sociology of the story. The point is that Hagar belongs to Sarah as property, and the ensuing complications of their relationship build on that fundamental fact." The reason Hagar's children would belong to Sarai is that Hagar is owned by Sarai. Hagar/Hagar's future children are Sarai's property.
Gen 16:4-6 show 4 brutal ensuing complications: "He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, 'You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.' 'Your slave is in your hands,' Abram said. 'Do with her whatever you think best.' Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her."
This text shows that the Bible is not a book of virtues. It is a book of gospel, not a story of moral exemplars. It is a record of God's intervening grace into the lives of those who do not deserve it, are not seeking it, who continually resist it, and who even do not appreciate it, even after they have been saved by it. Even the best people God chose are moral and spiritual failures, who can't rise above their own culture and above the brutality of their times. They can't escape the self-centeredness of their hearts. But God continues to come to them, to not give up on them, to patiently speak to them, to help them, to aid them, to rescue them, to save them, again and again.
Many think that the Bible teaches that we should give God a righteous life, and then God will bless us. It is never we giving God a righteous life and then God owes us. The theme of the Bible is that God always comes to each person only by sheer grace, and as a result we owe him. The Bible is not about man and what we must do. It is about God and about what He has done.
After Hagar runs away, God meets her and tells her to go back (Gen 16:7-9). Why? Because God wants to bless her with descendants too numerous to count (Gen 16:10), which is one of the foremost blessings. Hagar couldn't understand why she had to go back to brutal oppression. But God had her good in mind. At best, she would be a fugitive all her days. At worst, she would have been killed. God wanted to bless her. But she had to go back. After Isaac was born, Sarah demanded Abraham to cast her out (Gen 21:10). Then God found her again and rescued her (Gen 21:19-21).
God often calls us to a situation of extreme difficulty, one which is unpleasant or distasteful, but which eventually leads to blessing. We do not like it because we can't see the whole picture and don't know why. Can we trust God? God will answer every single of our prayers if we knew everything God knows. But we do not. Are we able to joyfully trust God when God keeps us in extremely difficult situations?
II. A Barren Woman (Gen 16:1-2)
Hagar is the victim. Sarai and Abram are the perpetrators. Sarai, the barren woman, is infertile (Gen 11:30; 16:1-2). She is a failure as a woman. Such views are oppressive to women then. We think we no longer live in such a culture today, because we can be whoever we want, marry whoever we want.
In past cultures the family/group was considered more important than the individual. Decisions that benefited the family/group was always placed above individual needs/desires. Marriages were arranged by families to benefit the entire family/group, which led to the oppression of women. Today, individual needs supersede the consideration of family/groups.
Are we at an advantage today compared to "primitive" cultures? In Sarai's time, women did not suffer from eating disorders and bulimia. Every culture has its own definition of barrenness. Every culture says, "Unless you have THAT, you are barren. You are a nobody. You are nothing. You are a failure." In traditional cultures you had to have family and children. Then you knew you were not a failure; you were not barren; you had worth and significance.
Today, we can marry who we choose. But the truth is that you can only marry who you can attract. Today's culture screams: "You better be good looking, smart, successful, popular, cute." There has never been a culture that does not say, "You better be THIS, or you are nothing." We hate ourselves if we think we do not measure up or achieve to what our culture tells us. We feel barren.
This is not just a cultural and psychological transaction. It is spiritual. Read Gen 16:2. Sarai was religious. She believed in God. She prayed. She practiced her religion. But when she was pushed to either trust in God or having a child, when the pressure to overcome her barrenness came upon her, what did she choose? When she had to choose between God and the baby, what did she want?
Every culture says: unless you have this, you are nothing/nobody. Is it just our culture constructing us? There is also something spiritual going on. We take it into ourselves, and it becomes our real God, our real salvation, our real significance. Sarai showed what she wanted most to feel like a somebody, be a significant person, based on her culture. It was not God, but a baby. The irony of the narrative is that Sarai is a slave as well. She's an inward slave, inwardly chained, while Hagar was outward.
The point is: What are you a slave to? Those who think they are not chained are very chained. Those who think they are free, are not free, because they are still bound by something that their culture or sub-culture tells them, which becomes our God and our salvation.
Everyone will be chained until we know, until we are told, until we realize that even apart from that, we can be loved, that we are somebody, that we are significant. We need someone to justify us.
III. A Stupid Man (Gal 4:22-23)
Gen 16:2b says, "Abram agreed to what Sarai said." But the Hebrew literally says that Abram "listened to the voice of" his wife. All the commentators are agreed that Abram is the one who is failing the greatest, because this is the same word, which says that Adam "listened to the voice of" his wife (Gen 3:17). Abram failed because he was doing the same thing Adam did. What is it?
These 2 women-Sarah and Hagar-are 2 approaches to blessing. To get the blessing through Sarai, he has to receive it as a complete act of grace. He has to wait on God/trust God for a miracle. But to get the blessing through Hagar, he can do so by human ability because Hagar is able to have kids.
Hagar is the way of works; Sarah is the way of grace. Hagar is the way to get God's blessing through achievement/effort; Sarah is the way to get God's blessing through receivement/faith. With Hagar he can get God's blessing by performing with his own power. With Sarah, all he can do is to wait for supernatural divine intervention. Gal 4:22-23 says, "For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise." Abram had 2 choices: Save yourself by Works. Or save yourself by Grace.
Our father of faith chose to save himself/get the blessing by works/performance. Then everybody's life blows up. Why? Because it is extremely trying to earn our salvation/blessing by works.
How are we going to be freed from our inner bondage?
IV. A Mysterious Friend (Gen 16:9-16, 21:8-21)
Who is the hero of the story? Hagar, the victim? Abram or Sarai, the perpetrators? There is one other person. When Hagar ran away, in came a mysterious figure who turned her life around (Gen 16:9-14). Later, when Hagar and Ishmael were dying in the desert, in came this mysterious figure again who saves them (Gen 21:8-21).
This mysterious figure is "the angel of the Lord" (Gen 16:9-11). Why is he mysterious? Most angels say, "I am not the Lord." This angel says in Gen 16:10 that "I will increase your descendants..." as though he is God. What did Hagar realize about this encounter? Gen 16:13 says, "She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: 'You are the God who sees me,' for she said, 'I have now seen the One who sees me.'” She is saying that the One she met is the LORD.
How did others respond upon meeting God? "Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him" (Gen 15:12). When God comes on Mount Sinai, there's thunder, lightning, smoke; the people trembled in fear/stayed at a distance (Exo 20:18). When Isaiah "saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple" (Isa 6:1), he said, “Woe to me! I am ruined!" (Isa 6:5) But this is the Lord, yet he is so accessible, so ordinary, without thunder, lighting, nothing spectacular. Hagar wonders "Have I seen the One? Why am I still alive?" How is possible that the Creator of the Universe is having a tender conversation with a slave girl?
Years later, Mal 3:1 says, “'I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,' says the LORD Almighty." In Matt 11:10, Jesus quotes this verse and identifies himself as the One who fulfills this promise. Jesus is saying that through him, the glory of God can come near in grace and be safe.
How can this be? When Ishmael is dying after he and his mother Hagar were cast out, Gen 21:17 says, "God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, 'What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there.'" Ishmael's life has been one long rejection and now he is dying. But the angel of God says, "God has heard the boy crying." What does this mean?
Centuries later there is another Son who was cast out of his Father's house. He also faced repeated rejection all his life (John 1:10-11). Eventually, he was tortured and was dying. But there is a difference between this Son and that of Abraham's son Ishmael. As he died in excruciating agony, he cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34) But his Father forsook him. God did not hear him. Yet why did God heard Ishmael crying when he was experiencing far less agony? It was because God did not hear Jesus' cry.
Jesus came and took what we deserve--suffering and death--in order to give us what we do not deserve--peace and life. Jesus took what Hagar and Ishmael, and what Abram and Sarai deserve, and what we all deserve. God did not hear the cry of His boy, so that God, through Jesus Christ, could hear each of our cries. In this way Jesus is the Just and the Justifier of those who believe. Does this mean anything to us? Is this become the central theme of our life?
This teaches us that we will always be a slave to our culture and to the identity that culture gives us, until we are convinced that God loves us, and that we are worth loving as we are. We are worth loving not on the basis of our performance, but purely on the basis of Jesus' performance on our behalf on the Cross. This is the only liberation we can experience from the enslavement of our culture. God's boy cried and sank into darkness, so that all others who cry, God can hear and deliver from darkness. Only knowing this gives us freedom and liberation. Only knowing this will enable and empower us not to oppress others. When we experience liberation, our hearts will no longer cry out: "Unless I have THIS, I am barren. I am a nobody. I am not significant."
Finally, this mysterious figure not only gives us inward freedom from our cultural enslavement, it also shows us what to do with our new found freedom. What did God do here? Hagar and Ishmael are not the main characters in God's redemptive history. They are not in the chosen line. They do not show any particular faith in the covenant promises of God, unlike Abram and Isaac. They eventually move off in another direction. Yet, God is concerned about them, and their exploitation. Though God chose Abram and Sarai, God is not exclusively committed to Abram and Sarai. God is concerned for the troubled and exploited even of those who are outside of the elect line.
What are we supposed to do with our inward freedom? Or we can look outside and work for the inward freedom of anyone who is oppressed, regardless of who they are. God never gives us our freedom just so that we can live our own happy life. But we can only lay ourselves out for others, when we know that God has laid himself out for me. This is the picture of the Christian life.
Why was Hagar so excited that God noticed her? God sifts universes/stars through his hand as one sifts sand. Yet God noticed Hagar and she was excited. How much more excited should we be, since we know what Hagar did not know. God would say to us who are in Christ: "Notice you? I died for you!" If Hagar was excited, how should we be? Hagar was willing to go back to Sarai who beat her when she knew that God noticed her. Do you see the God who sees you, and died for you?
This is from a sermon by Tim Keller (Real Freedom and the Listening Lord).
What is a major theme of Genesis and of the entire Bible? Is it that good people do good things and God blesses and rewards them? Or is it something else?
Theme: Grace comes to those who do not deserve it, who do not seek it, who continually resist it, and who do not appreciate it even after they receive it.
Goal: Reflect upon our understanding of grace.
Application: Does the depth of sheer grace inform and touch and transform your heart and life?
3 major world religions look at Abraham as the model for courageous living, for authentic living, and for faithful living. Why did Abraham triumph? Gen 16:1-16, which is like a soap opera, shows that it is not because he is made of better stuff than we are. It shows Abraham to be a deeply flawed and very fallible human being, which is putting it mildly. Also, the English translations do not show the rawness and the brutality that is conveyed in the Hebrew. It beautifies, sanitizes and makes it PG or G that which was conveyed in Hebrew as R or even X rated.
- How is Hagar an exploited slave (Gen 16:1-3)? What 4 complications resulted (Gen 16:4-6)? Is the Bible a book of virtues? Is it something else?
- Sarai's culture said, "If you have no children, you are a failure as a woman." How did she choose between God and barrenness (Gen 16:1-3)? Why was she also a slave? How might our culture make us feel like failures?
- Abram agreed with Sarai (Gen 16:2b). Is he responsible? Why (Gen 3:17)? What was Abram's 2 choices (Gal 4:22-23)?
- Who is the mysterious friend who helped Hagar (Gen 16:9-11)? When did he meet Hagar again (Gen 21:8-21)? What did Hagar realize about this encounter (Gen 16:13)? How could God hear the boy Ishmael (Gen 21:17)?
- Are there any similarities and differences between Hagar's son Ishmael and the Son that would come centuries later (John 1:10-11; Mark 15:34)? What do we know about God that Hagar did not (Gen 16:13; Isa 40:12,15)?
- An exploited slave
- A barren woman
- A stupid man
- A mysterious friend
Gen 16:1-2 say, "Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; so she said to Abram, 'The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.'” God had promised Abram great blessings which were all contingent on him having a son (Gen 12:2-3; 15:2-5). But after 10 years, nothing happened. So Sarai made her proposal and Abram consented (Gen 16:3-4). What Sarai suggested was common, legal and completely culturally acceptable.
Regarding the English translation of the word "slave" (Gen 16:1), Robert Altar, in his Genesis: Translation and Commentary (1996), says, "The tradition of English versions that render this as 'maid' or 'handmaiden' imposes a misleading sense of European gentility on the sociology of the story. The point is that Hagar belongs to Sarah as property, and the ensuing complications of their relationship build on that fundamental fact." The reason Hagar's children would belong to Sarai is that Hagar is owned by Sarai. Hagar/Hagar's future children are Sarai's property.
Gen 16:4-6 show 4 brutal ensuing complications: "He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, 'You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.' 'Your slave is in your hands,' Abram said. 'Do with her whatever you think best.' Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her."
- False pride: Hagai despises Sarai. Hagai has a status in her community by bearing Abram's child. She stopped acting like a slave. In Asian cultures an inferior does not look a superior in the eye. Perhaps, Hagar began to do so. She was no longer subservient toward Sarai, who was deeply conflicted with this new bond of intimacy between her slave and her husband.
- False blame: Sarai uses X-rated language in blaming Abram. "I put my slave in your arms" is a euphemism. It is not what it says in Hebrew, which says, "I put my slave in your lap. I put her between your legsand this is what I get." Sarai's graphic language shows the rawness of her tortured emotions. It shows her anger, despair, despondency, deep humiliation.
- False neutrality: Abram callously lets Sarai do to Hagar whatever she wanted. He is saying, "She is still your slave. Treat her as a slave. Do with her whatever you want." How could our great hero of the faith act in such a callous, heartless way?
- True hatred: Sarai beat Hagar until she fled. "Mistreated" is the same word used for the Egyptians when the Israelites could not make enough bricks (Exo 5:14). She beat Hagar.
This text shows that the Bible is not a book of virtues. It is a book of gospel, not a story of moral exemplars. It is a record of God's intervening grace into the lives of those who do not deserve it, are not seeking it, who continually resist it, and who even do not appreciate it, even after they have been saved by it. Even the best people God chose are moral and spiritual failures, who can't rise above their own culture and above the brutality of their times. They can't escape the self-centeredness of their hearts. But God continues to come to them, to not give up on them, to patiently speak to them, to help them, to aid them, to rescue them, to save them, again and again.
Many think that the Bible teaches that we should give God a righteous life, and then God will bless us. It is never we giving God a righteous life and then God owes us. The theme of the Bible is that God always comes to each person only by sheer grace, and as a result we owe him. The Bible is not about man and what we must do. It is about God and about what He has done.
After Hagar runs away, God meets her and tells her to go back (Gen 16:7-9). Why? Because God wants to bless her with descendants too numerous to count (Gen 16:10), which is one of the foremost blessings. Hagar couldn't understand why she had to go back to brutal oppression. But God had her good in mind. At best, she would be a fugitive all her days. At worst, she would have been killed. God wanted to bless her. But she had to go back. After Isaac was born, Sarah demanded Abraham to cast her out (Gen 21:10). Then God found her again and rescued her (Gen 21:19-21).
God often calls us to a situation of extreme difficulty, one which is unpleasant or distasteful, but which eventually leads to blessing. We do not like it because we can't see the whole picture and don't know why. Can we trust God? God will answer every single of our prayers if we knew everything God knows. But we do not. Are we able to joyfully trust God when God keeps us in extremely difficult situations?
II. A Barren Woman (Gen 16:1-2)
Hagar is the victim. Sarai and Abram are the perpetrators. Sarai, the barren woman, is infertile (Gen 11:30; 16:1-2). She is a failure as a woman. Such views are oppressive to women then. We think we no longer live in such a culture today, because we can be whoever we want, marry whoever we want.
In past cultures the family/group was considered more important than the individual. Decisions that benefited the family/group was always placed above individual needs/desires. Marriages were arranged by families to benefit the entire family/group, which led to the oppression of women. Today, individual needs supersede the consideration of family/groups.
Are we at an advantage today compared to "primitive" cultures? In Sarai's time, women did not suffer from eating disorders and bulimia. Every culture has its own definition of barrenness. Every culture says, "Unless you have THAT, you are barren. You are a nobody. You are nothing. You are a failure." In traditional cultures you had to have family and children. Then you knew you were not a failure; you were not barren; you had worth and significance.
Today, we can marry who we choose. But the truth is that you can only marry who you can attract. Today's culture screams: "You better be good looking, smart, successful, popular, cute." There has never been a culture that does not say, "You better be THIS, or you are nothing." We hate ourselves if we think we do not measure up or achieve to what our culture tells us. We feel barren.
This is not just a cultural and psychological transaction. It is spiritual. Read Gen 16:2. Sarai was religious. She believed in God. She prayed. She practiced her religion. But when she was pushed to either trust in God or having a child, when the pressure to overcome her barrenness came upon her, what did she choose? When she had to choose between God and the baby, what did she want?
Every culture says: unless you have this, you are nothing/nobody. Is it just our culture constructing us? There is also something spiritual going on. We take it into ourselves, and it becomes our real God, our real salvation, our real significance. Sarai showed what she wanted most to feel like a somebody, be a significant person, based on her culture. It was not God, but a baby. The irony of the narrative is that Sarai is a slave as well. She's an inward slave, inwardly chained, while Hagar was outward.
The point is: What are you a slave to? Those who think they are not chained are very chained. Those who think they are free, are not free, because they are still bound by something that their culture or sub-culture tells them, which becomes our God and our salvation.
Everyone will be chained until we know, until we are told, until we realize that even apart from that, we can be loved, that we are somebody, that we are significant. We need someone to justify us.
III. A Stupid Man (Gal 4:22-23)
Gen 16:2b says, "Abram agreed to what Sarai said." But the Hebrew literally says that Abram "listened to the voice of" his wife. All the commentators are agreed that Abram is the one who is failing the greatest, because this is the same word, which says that Adam "listened to the voice of" his wife (Gen 3:17). Abram failed because he was doing the same thing Adam did. What is it?
These 2 women-Sarah and Hagar-are 2 approaches to blessing. To get the blessing through Sarai, he has to receive it as a complete act of grace. He has to wait on God/trust God for a miracle. But to get the blessing through Hagar, he can do so by human ability because Hagar is able to have kids.
Hagar is the way of works; Sarah is the way of grace. Hagar is the way to get God's blessing through achievement/effort; Sarah is the way to get God's blessing through receivement/faith. With Hagar he can get God's blessing by performing with his own power. With Sarah, all he can do is to wait for supernatural divine intervention. Gal 4:22-23 says, "For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise." Abram had 2 choices: Save yourself by Works. Or save yourself by Grace.
Our father of faith chose to save himself/get the blessing by works/performance. Then everybody's life blows up. Why? Because it is extremely trying to earn our salvation/blessing by works.
How are we going to be freed from our inner bondage?
IV. A Mysterious Friend (Gen 16:9-16, 21:8-21)
Who is the hero of the story? Hagar, the victim? Abram or Sarai, the perpetrators? There is one other person. When Hagar ran away, in came a mysterious figure who turned her life around (Gen 16:9-14). Later, when Hagar and Ishmael were dying in the desert, in came this mysterious figure again who saves them (Gen 21:8-21).
This mysterious figure is "the angel of the Lord" (Gen 16:9-11). Why is he mysterious? Most angels say, "I am not the Lord." This angel says in Gen 16:10 that "I will increase your descendants..." as though he is God. What did Hagar realize about this encounter? Gen 16:13 says, "She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: 'You are the God who sees me,' for she said, 'I have now seen the One who sees me.'” She is saying that the One she met is the LORD.
How did others respond upon meeting God? "Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him" (Gen 15:12). When God comes on Mount Sinai, there's thunder, lightning, smoke; the people trembled in fear/stayed at a distance (Exo 20:18). When Isaiah "saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple" (Isa 6:1), he said, “Woe to me! I am ruined!" (Isa 6:5) But this is the Lord, yet he is so accessible, so ordinary, without thunder, lighting, nothing spectacular. Hagar wonders "Have I seen the One? Why am I still alive?" How is possible that the Creator of the Universe is having a tender conversation with a slave girl?
Years later, Mal 3:1 says, “'I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,' says the LORD Almighty." In Matt 11:10, Jesus quotes this verse and identifies himself as the One who fulfills this promise. Jesus is saying that through him, the glory of God can come near in grace and be safe.
How can this be? When Ishmael is dying after he and his mother Hagar were cast out, Gen 21:17 says, "God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, 'What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there.'" Ishmael's life has been one long rejection and now he is dying. But the angel of God says, "God has heard the boy crying." What does this mean?Centuries later there is another Son who was cast out of his Father's house. He also faced repeated rejection all his life (John 1:10-11). Eventually, he was tortured and was dying. But there is a difference between this Son and that of Abraham's son Ishmael. As he died in excruciating agony, he cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34) But his Father forsook him. God did not hear him. Yet why did God heard Ishmael crying when he was experiencing far less agony? It was because God did not hear Jesus' cry.
Jesus came and took what we deserve--suffering and death--in order to give us what we do not deserve--peace and life. Jesus took what Hagar and Ishmael, and what Abram and Sarai deserve, and what we all deserve. God did not hear the cry of His boy, so that God, through Jesus Christ, could hear each of our cries. In this way Jesus is the Just and the Justifier of those who believe. Does this mean anything to us? Is this become the central theme of our life?
This teaches us that we will always be a slave to our culture and to the identity that culture gives us, until we are convinced that God loves us, and that we are worth loving as we are. We are worth loving not on the basis of our performance, but purely on the basis of Jesus' performance on our behalf on the Cross. This is the only liberation we can experience from the enslavement of our culture. God's boy cried and sank into darkness, so that all others who cry, God can hear and deliver from darkness. Only knowing this gives us freedom and liberation. Only knowing this will enable and empower us not to oppress others. When we experience liberation, our hearts will no longer cry out: "Unless I have THIS, I am barren. I am a nobody. I am not significant."
Finally, this mysterious figure not only gives us inward freedom from our cultural enslavement, it also shows us what to do with our new found freedom. What did God do here? Hagar and Ishmael are not the main characters in God's redemptive history. They are not in the chosen line. They do not show any particular faith in the covenant promises of God, unlike Abram and Isaac. They eventually move off in another direction. Yet, God is concerned about them, and their exploitation. Though God chose Abram and Sarai, God is not exclusively committed to Abram and Sarai. God is concerned for the troubled and exploited even of those who are outside of the elect line.
What are we supposed to do with our inward freedom? Or we can look outside and work for the inward freedom of anyone who is oppressed, regardless of who they are. God never gives us our freedom just so that we can live our own happy life. But we can only lay ourselves out for others, when we know that God has laid himself out for me. This is the picture of the Christian life.
Why was Hagar so excited that God noticed her? God sifts universes/stars through his hand as one sifts sand. Yet God noticed Hagar and she was excited. How much more excited should we be, since we know what Hagar did not know. God would say to us who are in Christ: "Notice you? I died for you!" If Hagar was excited, how should we be? Hagar was willing to go back to Sarai who beat her when she knew that God noticed her. Do you see the God who sees you, and died for you?
This is from a sermon by Tim Keller (Real Freedom and the Listening Lord).
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