God Sees You: Hagar in Genesis 16

In Genesis 16, Egyptian slave Hagar didn’t know where she was going. She was a runaway slave, pregnant with her master’s child, and utterly alone.

She’d be lucky if strangers didn’t murder her on the spot. She was going to die, and she knew it, and her baby with her.

Hagar came across a spring and sank to the ground to take a drink. Then she heard a voice, a man’s voice, exactly what she was afraid of. His voice thundered: “Hagar, slave of Sarai, what are you doing here?”

This man was no one she knew, she had never laid eyes on him. And the power streaming from him… was this a god, or a messenger of the gods? Because how did he know her name?

Then he said, even though he already knew, “Where have you come from, and where are you going?”

To her credit, she didn’t try to run or lie. She answered, “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai.” She didn’t try to apologize or grovel; she told the truth. What else did she have left?

Then the angel, who like all angels speaks perfectly for the Lord who sends them, said, “Go back to your mistress and obey her. And I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” He added, “His name will be Ishmael.”

He knew their names: Sarai, Hagar, Ishmael. And she obeyed. Did she know the angel was a messenger of the Hebrew God that Abram and Sarai worshipped? Probably. But there was no question that a God had spoken to her–and she had spoken to a God.

She wasn’t invisible to God. Either are you.

You Aren’t Invisible to God

Later she told her story. And the most important thing to her wasn’t that a god appeared to her, or that her life was unexpectedly spared, or her baby son would be born healthy. Her most important thing was that there was a God who sees her.

“You are the God who sees me, and I have now seen the One who sees me.” (Gen. 16:13)

This God, the God of Abraham, knew her name. And He saved her.

He sees you too–and loves you.

What does this mean to you? What does the Lord mean when He says, “I see you?” Not as if you’ve done something wrong! But with love, and protection, and guidance. “Honey, I see you.”

And not only does He see you, He also knows your name… and He loves your name. He loves your name so much that He wrote it down in the Book of Life!

Your Journal Exercise

Ask Him what He sees when He sees you. Not what’s wrong with you! We so often think “Oh no, he saw the unkind thought I just had, and I was kind of mean to somebody, and I, you know, did this, and I didn’t tithe for the fifth time in, you know, years.”

Sure, He knows. But He loves and delights in you.

So, what is the beauty that He sees in you? What is the delight that He takes in you? What is the name that He gives you? “My joyous one, my beloved, my heart.”

You aren’t making it up. These are all words in the Bible. For God is the one who sees you, and seeing, loves.