Genesis 19 (NLT)
1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.” And Abram agreed with Sarai’s proposal. 3 So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife. (This happened ten years after Abram had settled in the land of Canaan.)
4 So Abram had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. But when Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress, Sarai, with contempt. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “This is all your fault! I put my servant into your arms, but now that she’s pregnant she treats me with contempt. The Lord will show who’s wrong—you or me!”
6 Abram replied, “Look, she is your servant, so deal with her as you see fit.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that she finally ran away.
7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar beside a spring of water in the wilderness, along the road to Shur. 8 The angel said to her, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
“I’m running away from my mistress, Sarai,” she replied.
9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her authority.” 10 Then he added, “I will give you more descendants than you can count.”
11 And the angel also said, “You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael (which means ‘God hears’), for the Lord has heard your cry of distress. 12 This son of yours will be a wild man, as untamed as a wild donkey! He will raise his fist against everyone, and everyone will be against him. Yes, he will live in open hostility against all his relatives.”
13 Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord, who had spoken to her. She said, “You are the God who sees me.”
God’s name is determined by what we need.
Here are some questions for discussion:
1. If you were to give God a name today based on your own encounters with Him, what would it be and why? If you cant think of your own, which of the names that Pastor Trey mentioned do you most identify with in this season?
2. God heard Hagar–angry and resentful He still heard her–and she still obeyed. Have you ever had a time in which you were feeling in a less loving way and God still heard you? Did you find obeying God difficult at that moment?
3. The entire situation with Hagar arises from human impatience, cultural customs, and broken relationships. Why does God enter into such a tangled situation rather than waiting for things to “clean up?’ Does this show that God’s redemptive work can overcome human failure or dysfunction? How might this truth give you hope in areas of your life where relationships or circumstances feel too messy for God to work?
If you’d like to dig a little deeper, consider the following:
1. How might the original audience of Genesis have reacted to the unexpected flip of spiritual/societal hierarchy in the story of Hagar (patriarch…servant, covenant insider…foreigner)? What does this say about God’s character, the reach of His care, and the ultimate scope of His plan? What does this teach us about God’s care for those who are hurt or cast out? How should knowing this influence our own pursuit of people who feel abandoned or unseen?
2. The act of naming is often sacred. In this recorded account Hagar names both God and the well. The naming of God helps to establish God’s character as an interactive up-close God, but the naming of the well is a form of worship and symbolic public witness. Are there “places” in your life where God met you in hardship that later became central to your spiritual journey?
3. Genesis 16 tells of Hagar’s encounter with God in the wilderness—a place of hiding and for the distressed. What other biblical accounts reflect God’s powerful presence in similarly barren or vulnerable places? How do these examples deepen our understanding that God’s presence, provision, and voice, are not confined to sacred buildings or religious rituals, but follow us—even into our circumstantial or self-imposed wildernesses? Have you ever experienced a moment where you felt far from God or community but unexpectedly encountered Him there? What changed as a result?
4. In these verses there is no indication of what Hagar called out to God but God heard Hagar even when she didn’t call Him by His name. How, then, did Hagar call to God? And, how did God hear her call? What impact does this have on our understanding of prayers and our relationship with God?
5. What importance is there to the fact that Hagar was in the wilderness when she encountered God? Consider the meaning of the wilderness in the Bible and compare this story to others in the wilderness.
6. When the sheep are in distress they are unable to put into words what they need — assuming they even know what they need — and yet a good shepherd will provide. Hagar obeyed even when it seemed counter intuitive and God provided. Has there been a time in your life where you didn’t have the words but God had the answer even when that answer was not what seemed logical at the time?
For further contemplation, consider this prompt:
Whether Dad/Mom, Uncle/Aunt, or Pastor…our titles reflect the nature of our relationship with the person addressing us. With a list of names to call Him by, how many of us have had a moment where we didn’t know what name to call out to God? How have we responded in these moments? Did God hear you despite the lack of a name or title?