Jul 09 | Resistance Lectionary Part 2: The God who sees

Citation: Genesis 16:1-14

At first glance, this is one of those stories that may appear to have little to say us today. Abram and Sarai have no children, which would have reckoned to them as a curse among their people. God has promised Abram children in the previous chapter – and has also promised that Abram’s descendants will be slaves in “a land that is not their own.”

This sets the stage for Hagar, the Egyptian slave given to Abram as another wife by her mistress Sarai.

The bearing of children for someone else was common in family units. We see it in other Biblical stories. What’s painful about this story is the treatment of Hagar by both Sarai and Abram. You’ll notice that they never refer to her by her proper name, and do not speak to her, only about her.

The angel of God is the one who first speaks Hagar’s name, the first one to truly see her. Although it seems cruel to tell her to return and submit, we could see this as a gentle chastisement against her scorn of Sarai. The angel also adds that Hagar’s son will be Ishmael, which means “God will hear” – a sign that God sees and knows Hagar in her pain. She’ll also bear not just one son for Sarai but many children, for herself.

Here comes the most beautiful part of the story. Hagar, named and seen by God, names and sees God herself. The name “El-roi” is commonly translated “The God who sees me.”

To name something is to claim it.

Hagar the Egyptian slave girl trusts in God in a way that Abram and Sarai have not been able to do yet. Fittingly, it is in the next chapter that they receive new names, Abraham and Sarah. Only after Hagar, the abused one, is seen and blessed do these heroes of the faith receive the treasure God has promised.

To an audience accustomed to seeing the Egyptians as enemies, this was a radical story of a God who could enfold all nations, all creatures, into Her embrace.