Genesis 16 Devotional

The God Who Sees

“So Hagar gave this name to the LORD who had spoken to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen the One who sees me!””Genesis 16:13 (BSB)

Ten years after arriving in Canaan, Sarai still has no child, and she proposes a plan: Abram should have a child through her Egyptian servant Hagar (16:2-3). Abram agrees. The plan works, and it goes badly at once. Hagar looks down on Sarai, Sarai blames Abram and mistreats Hagar, and Hagar runs away into the wilderness, pregnant and alone (16:4-6).

There, by a spring, the angel of the LORD finds her. He asks where she has come from and where she is going, tells her to go back, and promises that her descendants will be too many to count. He tells her to name her son Ishmael, because the LORD has heard her affliction (16:11). Hagar, a servant with no standing in this household, gives the LORD a name of her own: the God who sees her (16:13). The people around her used her and then mistreated her, but God came looking. No one is beneath his notice, and no wilderness is beyond his sight.

To think about: Where do you most need to remember today that the LORD sees you?