Written by Sabrina Campos, Brazil Coordinator with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Memphis, Tennessee
Life is messy. Even for our heroes of the faith, life was full of confusing relationships and questionable decisions. Through it all, one constant may be God’s faithfulness.
Hagar is one of those women that makes a huge splash on the scene, even though her stories are full of ambiguity, desperation, and jealousy. Hagar was an Egyptian slave that made up a part of Abram and Sarai’s mobile community. Due to frustrations that she had nothing to do with, she was obliged to sleep with God’s (supposedly) faithful patriarch of patriarchs.
Maybe it was for the best. After a lifetime or servitude, now her rank was elevated. Hey, in fact she might be the top woman around. Sarai was the “official” wife, but she was the one providing Abram with a son. Surely that had to mean something, right?
Perhaps Hagar let that get to her head. But one thing is clear: because of Hagar’s pregnancy, a serious conflict arose between her and Sarai. It got so bad that Sarai (with Abram’s approval/blessing!) banished her to the wilderness. Hagar was definitely humbled.
Often in our lives, humility is most difficult when our status is questioned. Our talk around humility generally centers around making sure that we stay grounded, not floating above the clouds. But what if we were dragged below the mud? What if the outside world has humbled us? That is often when it is most difficult to not defend our egos or reputations. We are taught that we need to learn to defend ourselves. We’ve somehow convinced ourselves that in order to protect our identity and our self-worth, we have to lash out at others.
What can we learn from Hagar? Or better yet, what can we learn from Hagar’s story?
What I see gives me hope when humility feels a whole lot more like humiliation. God appears to Hagar as she’s in the desert. He sends her back to the place where she will be honored and hated, exalted and humiliated. What the messenger of YHWH says, though, reverberates throughout the centuries. We can still hear it now. There are three important aspects:
• He blesses: “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude” (Gen 16:10b). In the midst of utter humiliation, God reminds Hagar that His action in the world is what matters. He has the last word, and He is a God determined to bless His people, however ugly their entry into the story was.
• He hears: “Because the Lord has listened to your affliction” (Gen 16:11b). God reveals himself to Hagar as a God who hears. I’m not sure you’ve ever been alone in the wilderness. If you’re not accustomed to it, it can be creepy. The first time I was alone, I understood the Psalms asking if God could hear them so much more profoundly. In the middle of the forsaken desert was Hagar, sure that her last words would go unheard as she succumbed to death. Instead, God tells her, “I heard you.”
• He sees: “So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “you are the God of seeing’” (Gen. 16:13a). Hagar realized that God had revealed Himself to her as a God that sees. After years of being a slave where people’s glances jumped over her as if she were an object and not a person, she learned that God sees her. She has now been marked for life.
Hagar’s story is full of hope because God bursts into the story in a glorious way. When we are humbled, practicing humility, but not by choice, let us remember Hagar’s story. Let us call to our minds and our hearts that our Creator is a God that blesses, hears, and sees us.
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