Things I Learned From Hagar’s Encounter With God
In the Old Testament, it was common practice that when a wife was barren, she could give a slave to her husband to bore her a child. We see this being practiced by Sarah and Hagar in Genesis 16. Hagar was one of Abraham’s slaves. When Sarah couldn’t bore a child, she had Hagar conceive a child with Abraham. However, this led to many challenges and it is from those challenges that I derived the 4 lessons below.
- The Lord Is Merciful
When Hagar conceived the child, she began to despise her mistress Sarah(verse 4). As a result, Sarah mistreated her and Hagar had to flee from Sarah. Despite the contempt that Hagar showed towards Sarah, God did not look at Hagar’s shortcomings to disqualify her from His blessings for her. God later showed mercy to Hagar through her son Ishmael by promising her that the son would never be a slave like her. This teaches us that God is merciful and compassionate. He looks beyond our failures, and it is only through His grace that we can be saved.
2. Face Fears Courageously
In verse 9, Hagar encounters the Lord while she is on the move. In this moment, she is running away from her fears, her pain, her troubles and she just wants to be free. This is exactly how I would have reacted if I were in the same situation, and still how I react sometimes when I’m in a furnace. Like many of us, I want to come out of that situation immediately! However, the most profound thing happens to Hagar here: the Angel commands her to return and submit! Hagar is to submit to Sarah, the woman who was mistreating her, the person she is fleeing from! This blessed me deeply as it is the resemblance of how we ought to deal with our challenges. Instead of running away from difficult situations, we can face these situations knowing the Lord will guide and protect us. When we face our problems we receive blessings. It is through being persistent while in the furnace that we can receive the greatest gifts that the Lord has in-store for us at the end.
3. Have Faith in God’s promises
When the Angel commanded Hagar to return, she did not return defenseless. She was equipped with God’s promise, a promise that she would receive after returning and submitting. Verse 10 reads “ I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count” One of the things I struggle with the most when I’m in a furnace is not seeing results. Often I wonder where I am going, if I will win the battle, what winning really means. However, I have to constantly remind myself that no matter what challenge I may be facing, God already granted me victory and the difficulties I face while on this journey simply exist to mold my character. This is the same situation with Hagar, the angel of the Lord makes a promise to Hagar, and Hagar is to remain faithful until the Lord fulfills His promise, years later. Hagar is not fully aware of how she will navigate her relationship with Sarah. Despite that she focuses on the promise, and she returns to Sarah.
4. Intimacy with God Brings Comfort
My fourth lesson is from Hagar’s intimate relationship with the Lord. The Lord is aware of Hagar’s pain and misery. Hagar finds comfort and encouragement from God and she proceeds to acknowledge that “He is a God who sees her.” Heavy burdens become bearable when we faithfully take our problems to God and listen to Him. There are times when I have felt like a huge burden has been lifted off me right after kneeling down and praying. It’s not that my circumstances change immediately while I’m praying, but when I just stop everything that I’m doing, and take my problems to God I always find comfort in Him. No matter how big our problems may seem, we ought to have an intimate relationship with God and we can trust Him to intervene.
