Bible in a Year - Jan 5 Gen 14:14 – 18:8

 

Jan 5: Gen 14:14 – 18:8

This passage contains one of my favorite stories, that of Hagar the servant of Sarah. Her story both horrifies and delights me. I can’t imagine being a servant, perhaps a slave that must potentially bear children for the boss. While I could go on for a long time about her life, the part of the story that I love the most comes when she runs away from an abusive Sarah.

Hagar is in the desert, probably trying to run home to Egypt where some say she may have been a servant in Pharaoh’s house. She is devastated, pregnant, at least emotionally beaten down if not physically, and most likely would like to just curl up and die. But God sees her and sends an angel to provide encouragement and guidance. And the angel CALLS HER BY NAME!

We don’t know if Hagar worshipped the one true God, given her background she most likely did not. But now she’d met his angel and realized that even if she didn’t know God, he knew her and cared about her. She provides the first of many names of God, El Roi, translated as ‘the God who sees me.’

And this same God sees you today, too.

TOMORROW’S TEXT: Gen 18:9 – 21:21