30 Days with the Word – January 19

30 Days with THE WORD
January 19, 2021

John 1:1-2, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. He (the Word) was in the beginning with God (NKJV).’

The story of Hagar in Genesis I used to think was so sad. In fact, I swallow extra hard when I consider Abram and Sarai and the conditions that surrounded their lives. Childbearing, I imagine, in the early stages of mankind likely was much more revered than it seems to many women today. I wonder what Sarai would have surmised if today’s statistics on abortions were published on parchment paper in her village. Childbearing was like a jewel in a crown and a sign of prestige and abundance in Sarai’s day; the inability to birth a child, a blemish, barren brokenness, a blight. And Sarai finds herself on this street.
But Abram harbors this little truth. He is not to remain childless; his body will produce a son. He holds this promise from a Messenger of God like a secret. So Abram believes and Sarai begrudges and the servant Hagar becomes…all caught in the same gossamer web. I imagine the animosity that comes between Sarai and her maiden; some permissions are never meant to be pacts if we understand the ramifications of our shortsightedness. Imagine also the acrimony between Abram and Sarai. We should never sacrifice the permanent on the altar of the immediate but too often, like this couple, we do. And the consequences are not only painful but sometimes eternal.

Hagar condescends her condition. Sarai’s resentment turns brittle. Hagar flees. ‘I just did what you told me to do; I am your servant and you instructed me. Why do you hold this against me?’ I can hear the wounds in her words. And how could Sarai wrap an explanation around her emotions, the belittled jealousy diminishing her stature in her maiden’s eyes. They both held in their own arms what the other wanted. How sad and how final, and yet the story still lives today, because we are the descendants birthed from the original promise God made to Abram, the one Abram almost sacrificed in his rush. It makes me feel hopeful, this devastating detour does. Because maybe, just maybe, God can use my ignorance and my impulsiveness and my insistence too.

Like a magnet, I am drawn repeatedly to Hagar. She probably didn’t plan for this, right? She finds herself pregnant with her boss’ husband’s baby, and suddenly, she is wandering in a wilderness, looking over her shoulder with every step she takes. But what Hagar finds while watching her back is not a maddened maiden but a Messenger instead who instructs her to return to her ruin and God will birth something great out of her obedience. I imagine how those words landed on the heart of a bewildered fugitive, but instead, out of her lips fall words we wouldn’t think we would hear, as she slowly turns toward where she had come from to begin the long trek back, ‘You are the God Who sees me! Yes! God saw me and I saw Him!’ How incredible to be sought and seen by the God of the universe. Oh wait! I am! He is the God Who sees me!
Genesis 16:13, ‘She answered God by name, praying to the God Who spoke to her, You’re the God Who sees me! Yes He saw me; and then I saw Him!” (MSG).’