Decisions. We have all faced the consequences of good and bad decisions. Sometimes, we may even bear the brunt of someone else’s bad decision. Our decisions can leave a blazing trail of relational conflict and chaos. Often, bad decisions bring isolation from family and friends, the church community and from our heavenly Father.
Does God walk away from or walk into the midst of our conflict?
When stuck in the mess, does God walk away or walk into the midst of our conflict and isolation? What does God do in the face of persistent relational sin. In the book of Genesis, we meet Hagar, who gives us a glimpse of how God responds when we find ourselves surrounded by our own and others’ prevailing sin.
Failing to Trust God’s Promises
The story of Hagar, an Egyptian slave girl, is intricately woven with Abraham and his wife, Sarah. God has promised Abraham that he will be the father of many nations. “He brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be’” (Genesis 15:5). But Sarah is impatient. There is no sign of a child.
Sarah’s failing to trust God’s promises escalates relational chaos.
Instead of trusting the promises of God, she takes matters into her own hands and does what is considered the tradition of her day. She offers Abraham the chance to have a child with Hagar. Soon enough, the enormity of her actions—and Hagar’s belly—causes friction in the camp (Genesis 16:4-6). Sarah’s failing to trust God’s promises escalates relational chaos.
As soon as Hagar is pregnant, she treats Sarah with contempt. Genesis 16:4 says, “Abraham went into Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress.” Other translations say she became proud and despised Sarah. So, Sarah retaliates and in the onslaught of relational chaos, unable to bear Sarah’s mistreatment of her, Hagar runs away into the desert. Distrusting God’s promises escalates relational strife and allows sin to prevail.
God Pursues Sinful People
There are several things that unfold when Hagar is in the desert that reveal some of God’s wonderful characteristics. Despite all that has occured between Sarah and Hagar, we see that he is a relational God. God pursues Hagar and chooses to speak to her. “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). We see a God who pursues despite it all.
God assures us of his promises in the middle of prevailing sin.
More so, he is a supernatural, compassionate God. He discloses the gender of the baby and gives the child a name. “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 promises her that her offspring would be many, not just the baby she carried—a sign of blessing from God despite it all. “The angel of the Lord also said to her, ‘I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude’” (Genesis 16:10).
God extends his promise to Hagar. God pursues and assures his promises in the middle of prevailing sin.
Sin Doesn’t Cancel Grace
Running away from relational strife, Hagar runs right into the most unexpected relationship—God, Yahweh, who can turn her life around. The slave girl encounters a living God, who could have abandoned her to the chaos, but who graciously intervenes.
The slave girl encounters a living God.
In return, she calls God by a name he has not been called before. A slave with no social standing, rejected, abused and alone encounters a God who cares about how her life unfolds. So she names him—the God of seeing or the God who sees me—El Roi. God still sees her with eyes of grace, despite the prevailing sin he saw.
When Sin Prevails
Hagar, after her momentous encounter with God, heads back to the camp she ran away from and gives birth to her son, Ishmael. During a celebration for Isaac (Sarah’s son), Sarah is not happy with Ishmael’s behaviour. “But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. So she said to Abraham, ‘Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac’” (Genesis 21:9-10). Hagar is sent off with just bits of provision and is once again wandering in the desert. Without water, death is imminent for Hagar and her son.
One Thing Remains Certain
God is forever faithful and will always be true to his promises.
Once again in the face of relational strife and isolation, God repeats his promise concerning Ishmael, to Abraham. ‘And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.’ (Genesis 21:13).And while Hagar finds herself alone, weeping, unable to watch Ishmael die, God hears her cries and reveals a well of water close enough to provide what they need. He saves them both. In the face of persistent sin and relational fallout, God affirms his promise and hears her cry. While relational strife and sin relentlessly ensues, God’s faithfulness never ends.
The Comforting Cloak of a Faithful God
Hagar’s story wraps itself around me like a comforting cloak, reinforcing certain irrefutable truths about who God is. In the midst of the relational chaos and isolation we may face from others and from our own decisions, God wants to be to you and me, who he was to Hagar—a faithful, compassionate and promise-keeping God. Sin does not change who God is.
Sin doesn’t change who God is.
God’s response to Hagar’s shortcomings, relational conflict and isolation is the same response he gives you and me when we fall short or face hardship in community with others. Our relationships are fraught with uncertainty, fears, pain and sin, but no matter how complicated life gets, he sees and he hears. One thing remains certain when sin prevails—God is forever faithful and will always be true to his promises.
