“And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.” (Genesis 16:7)
An unwanted slave girl by the name of Hagar made her way through a hostile desert toward her homeland of Egypt. There was no way that this pregnant, rejected, and downtrodden woman was going to survive the journey, but then grace intervened.
“And the angel of the Lord came and found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness.” The expression “angel of the Lord” implies Deity. With the first mention in the Bible of “the angel of the Lord,” we see the pre-incarnate Christ, “…coming to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10)
“God is not a respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34), but most of the time we are. It is very easy in our Bible reading to skim over this portion of scripture, because we unconsciously look down on Hagar categorizing her as simply one of Abraham’s mistakes. However, in God’s eyes she was an important person. God rescues castaway slaves in the desert.
GOD PERSISTENTLY FINDS
“And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.” (Gen. 16:7)
God finds the unwanted. Hagar was an unwanted slave from an unwanted race. Pregnant, rejected, and downtrodden it is seemed as though no one in the world cared for her or wanted her, but then “the angel of the Lord found her!” Christ cares for us and finds us in the wilderness.
“What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?” (Luke 15:4)
GOD PATIENTLY HEARS
“And he said, Hagar, Sarai’s maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go?” (Gen. 16:8a)
Picture this scene: The God and creator of all heaven and earth, first desires and then inquires of an unwanted slave. “…whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go?” The Lord already knew the answers, but He patiently listens to the burdened heart of a rejected mother, hearing her heart’s cry. God then instructed Hagar to name her son “Ishmael” meaning: “God hears!” Hagar would never forget the lesson that “God hears” and neither should we.
“And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.”
I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble. (Psalm 142:2)
GOD PROVIDENTIALLY SEES.
“And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me? Wherefore the well was called Beerlahairoi;” (Gen. 16:13-14)
Hagar is the Old Testament “woman at the well.” Hagar named her well “Beerlahairoi” meaning, “God sees me.” The truth that the living God found her, heard her, and saw her, transformed Hagar’s outlook on life and forever altered her behaviour. She once fled her circumstances, but now she faced them in faith. She could obey God knowing, “God finds me, hears me, and sees me!”