The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry. Psalm 34:15
When I was a child, we used to skip pebbles into a shallow body of water and watch them make a ripple effect. We would look for the perfect shape of stone, one that was flat and smooth and was rounded on the edges seemed to work best. Once a perfect thin flat stone was found the way it was held gave it momentum and helped it “walk on the water when it was thrown. The middle finger of your dominant hand held the stone steady and was placed along the edge of the stone. The thumb was placed on the top of the stone and was held firmly yet loose enough for the wrist to be flexible enough to flick and release the stone. Next it was important to stand with the feet shoulders width apart facing perpendicular to the body of water you were going to flick the stone across and your throwing arm should be furthest from the water. To make it skin the top of the water, the rock needed to be held at a twenty-degree angle to the top of the water. The arm was brought back and the wrist was kept loose in order to throw the rock low and flat. The trick was to move your wrist in such a way to create a quick spin on the rock as it was released. If one was able to get all the steps right, they could watch the stone skip across the water before it sank and it would cause a beautiful ripple effect that traveled for several feet across the surface of the water. It took a lot of practice and we would even make a competition of who could skip the pebble the furthest. We spent hours trying to perfect the technique and looking for the perfect stone to get that perfect ripple. Not all ripples are equal and not all are beautiful. The choices we make and the actions we choose to carry out not only affect us, but it affects the atmosphere around us and it affects the people who are in that sphere of influence. It is so easy to make rash decisions in our frustration or in our pain that not only affect the surface of our life, but it will affect those who are in the “ripple” around us. Some of those ripples are not temporary and they will change the future of generations to come.
In Genesis 15, God promised Abram “Do not be afraid, Abram for I am your shield, your exceeding great reward.” Like many of us, Abram questions the goodness of God saying, “You have given me no offspring.” God took Abram outside to look at the night sky and He promised him, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them, so shall your descendants be.” Then God cut the covenant with Abram and promised to fulfill His word. I am sure the promise was so exciting, Abram was 75 when he first left Ur, and his wife Sarai was barren and God has promised him not only one heir but that his descendants would be like the stars in the sky. Being human, we want to put an expiration date on the promises God gives us and it is a dangerous thing to expect God to move on our time table. After years of waiting for God to fulfill His promise, Sarai comes up with a plan to help God along. She is so desperate for a child that she did not really consider the ripple effect, all the people who would be affected by her scheme. She was very beautiful and married to an extremely rich man and she was used to getting her way. Her plan was to give Hagar, her handmaid, to Abram hoping that she would get the promise God made her through her handmaid. In Bible times, a handmaid could refer to a servant or a trusted confidant who held a special role of taking care of the lady of the house. It makes me wonder if Sarai and Hagar were friends, did Sarai confide in Hagar her dreams and fears, or was she merely a servant? Did Sarai even consider what it would do to Hagar to be offered up as a side piece to Abram with the hopes of producing an heir? According to Genesis 16 Sarai gave her handmaid to Abram to be his wife. Abram went into Hagar and she conceived. Abraham became a father at the age of 86 and Sarah watched another woman get what she longed for the most. Sarah made a rash decision trying to get ahead of God’s timetable and she knew the nights her husband went into her handmaid and then to hear the news that she was going to have his baby. Hagar was no longer just the handmaid that made sure Sarah’s life was easy, she was now Abraham’s wife and having his child. Instead of being a submissive second-class citizen, she now had a prominent place in the family. The bible said the Hagar despised Sarah. When Sarah complained to Abraham, he told her to deal with her as she pleased. Even though Hagar was a wife, she did not have the protection of a husband. Sarah dealt harshly with Hagar and she ran away. She left her natural home, but she could not outrun the eyes of the Lord. The Angel of the Lord found her by a spring and asked her where she was going. He told her to go back and submit herself to Sarah, but he gave her a promise to take with her. He told her, “Return to your mistress and submit yourself under her hand. I will multiply your descendants exceedingly.” Hagar went back and somehow kept the peace between her and Sarah for 15 years until Isaac was weaned. Sarah saw Ishmael scoffing at Isaac and told Abraham to send the bondwoman and her son away. Abraham’s heart was knit to Hagar and Ishmael and the thought of getting rid of them was displeasing so he sought the council of God. God told him. “Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman.” See the term bondwoman is a legal ownership of a woman, she was his property. She was bound by law as property, no autonomy or rights, just property. Abraham obeyed God and sent Hagar and Ishmael away with a skin of water and a loaf of bread. For once in her life, Hagar had her freedom but she was desolate, a teenager to feed, protect, and provide shelter for and all she was given was a skin of water and some bread. Abraham was a wealthy man with servants and instead of making sure Hagar had someone to help her and at least enough to get her settled in a new place, he gave her the most basic provision that only lasted a day or two. Instead of trusting God, Sarah got ahead of Him and looked at the lives that were negatively affected by her rash decision.
Can you imagine how difficult Hagar’s life must have been? In the beginning of the story she is Sarah’s handmaid, probably her highest-ranking servant, her confidant and expected to leave the land of Ur to journey to a place she did not know. Sometimes life takes us places we do not choose and for those who have character, will try to make the most of all the twists and turns life takes us on. As she is adapting to new places and cultures, as a handmaid she probably was accustomed to hearing the very beautiful and blessed Sarah complain about being barren. Then Sarah has a hairbrained idea that she should marry Abraham and be a surrogate mother and produce and carry a baby for Sarah without the convenience of modern medicine. Without her consent she was now Abraham’s wife so the scheme could be put into place. After the shock of what was expected out of her wore off, I am sure she saw that Abraham was a good man and being his wife had its perks. Then she accomplished what Sarah could not, she conceived and was expecting Abraham’s child. I am sure her attitude changed and she started to resent the demands Sarah put on her and instead of Abraham defending her, he told Sarah to do with her what she wanted. After the correction, she ran away from home, but not from the presence of the Angel of the Lord. Hagar had her first personal encounter with the Angel of the Lord, and she called Him, “You-are-the-God-Who-sees.” and then she said “I have seen Him who sees me.” The bible records a second encounter with the Angel of God, He was there when she was exiled and had no water or food left, no hope, and no help. God heard Ishmael’s cry and spoke to Hagar again and reaffirmed His promise over Ishmael’s life and opened her eyes to see the provision of a well of water for them to have water to drink. Her life was so affected by the ripple from the decisions of Sarah and Abraham that were out of her control.
There are seasons in each of our lives that we are affected by the decisions of those around us and it leaves us in very painful places. Perhaps like Hagar, we try to be obedient and submit to the harshness of those around us even when we want to run away. With each curveball that life throws at us, we try to keep a good attitude and make the best of the circumstances that we cannot control. Sadly, it does not seem to matter how hard you try and how good you keep your attitude, there are times that we find ourselves displaced and cannot find a solution for the dilemma we had nothing to do with. If you are in one of those seasons, let me tell you how sorry I am that you are facing what seems to be insurmountable obstacles, people had the means to help and they just sent you away with the bare minimum. Maybe you feel like there is no hope, no other options and you have sat down and turned your back on the problems because you cannot look and watch your dreams die, and you do not see an escape from the hurt. I would like to remind you that the God who found Hagar is the same God who knows who you are and where you are at. He is still “You-are-the-God-Who-sees” and just like He made a way where there seemed to be no way for Hagar, He still has a plan to prosper you. “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry.” Psalm 34:15. 2 Chronicles 16:9 God promises to do more than just see, “For the eyes of the Lord run to and from throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.” Lean into God especially in the hard places and rest in the fact that He sees and He is looking to show Himself strong. Isaiah 43:19 “Behold I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” So thankful, He even sees the things I do not see.
Cathy Nesmith