After Pentecost Devotional - Day 01

"So she named the LORD who spoke to her, 'You are El-roi'; for she said, 'Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?'" Genesis 16:13

Hagar was not the first outsider to be accepted into the circle of Yahweh's people, but we find her here in the wilderness as an escaped slave girl fleeing the abuse of Sarai who had forced her to become a concubine to Abraham. She was a slave, a foreigner, a woman suffering abuse, and now a runaway slave in danger of dying of thirst, hunger, and exposure.

She had no standing in society. Her owners were nomads, and though wealthy, they had no title to the land in which they sojourned. Her slave status placed her further down the social ladder. Abraham served a God who was unknown in the land, a God she herself did not know. She was fleeing for her life, fleeing for a fresh start, yet without hope in a world of injustice toward the poor and needy.

She had become pregnant by Abraham, yet her mistress had turned against her after giving her to Abraham as a consort. Though Hagar was imperfect in her relationship with Sarai, she was also considered little more than chattel, property to be used for the convenience of others. Fleeing her circumstances was an action of desperation, as well as a cry for help and relief from the oppression under which she lived.

There was no reason for her to expect that flight from her masters would gain her anything. She was far from home in Egypt. She had no one on whom to rely. She was pregnant, alone, and vulnerable to the abuse of others who might encounter her along the way. If she could readily expect anything upon fleeing Abraham's camp, it was that she would soon become the victim of another.

What she encountered in the wilderness, however, was far from anything she had any right to expect. She found that Yahweh, the God of Abraham, had an interest in her and her well-being. Yahweh was not her God. She had not claimed to serve, honor, and respect Yahweh. She had no experience with Yahweh, and yet Yahweh's messenger came to her amid her plight to provide for her needs and to promise her blessings and a future.

Hagar was surprised to encounter the messenger of Yahweh and survive the encounter, yet that was likewise the experience of many other Biblical characters. The problem was not that Yahweh was wandering around seeking to kill those encountered, but that our expectations of Yahweh have ever been off the mark. Rather than condemn her for the failures she had exhibited, Yahweh drew near to offer hope, encouragement, and a new way forward.

While we may be wont to write people off, including ourselves, God's intention is to offer hope and a new way forward.

Who are those around you who have been written off by society or even the church? Determine to become God's instrument to offer encouragement and real hope to the desperate around you.

"Lord, make me more aware of my responsibilities to offer life where others have given up on a future."

—©Copyright 2016, Christopher B. Harbin
http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/ 
My latest books can be found here on amazon

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