When Moms Feel UnseenSample

Step 3: God calls us to trust and obey.

At the well, Hagar takes the risk of telling God the truth. And for a time, it isn’t clear that telling the truth is right—because God tells her to go back and submit to Sarai.

Why would God tell Hagar to go back and submit to her mistress, to return to oppression and mistreatment? Everything feels wrong about that command. As far as she knows, her son will belong to another woman. Hagar will still be a foreigner, a slave, a powerless outsider exploited at the whims of the family insiders. Nothing has changed.

And yet, everything has changed.

Hagar enters the desert with no hope or future, but she leaves with hope and destiny. She now has a relationship with the God who has seen and heard her misery, a God who gives her a set of promises, including that she will have descendants too numerous to count.

In the middle of the list of promises, God says that Ishmael will be a “wild donkey of a man.” That doesn’t sound like a compliment, but in Hagar’s ancient world, wild donkeys were free—more akin to wild mustangs. God promises Hagar that her son will not be enslaved and father a free and nomadic nation. God doesn’t ask Hagar to accept slavery but to trust that someday her son will be free.

God invites Hagar to trust that even if she’s unseen in Sarai’s family, God sees her. Even if Abram never bothers to hear her side of the story, God hears her. Her son and his freedom will be evidence of God’s great love for Hagar. While her circumstances have not yet changed, her identity has. She is the one who is seen, heard, and loved by God.

Hagar gives God the name El Roi, translated as “The God who sees me.” Hagar is the only person in all of Scripture who dares name God. She obeys God’s very difficult command to return to Sarai because she’s met a good God who sees her, hears her cries, and promises a great future for her son. God’s promises bring much better news than what awaits her alone in the desert. So, she obeys the angel and returns. Transformation happens when we, like Hagar, trust in God’s goodness and obey God’s commands.

Prayer:

God, I want to trust and obey, but honestly, it’s just so hard. Help me remember all the great promises you have made throughout Scripture. And help me experience your deep love so that I can more faithfully trust and obey. Amen.