The God Who Sees You: Hagar's Story

Aug 23, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: The God Who Sees You in the Wilderness

Hagar ran 60 miles through desert heat, pregnant and alone, convinced no one noticed her pain. Yet God met her at a forgotten spring, calling her by name. He saw her exhaustion, her shame, her desperate flight. This story reveals a God who tracks our running, who interrupts our isolation with divine encounters. His eyes pierce through every wilderness – relational, emotional, or spiritual – to find us. [42:59]

The angel of the Lord found her by a spring in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. He said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She replied, “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai.” The angel of the Lord said to her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her authority.” (Genesis 16:7-9, ESV)

Reflection: Where in your life do you feel unseen or running? How might God be inviting you to pause at your own “spring in the wilderness” to hear Him call your name?

Day 2: When Shortcuts Create Thorns

Sarai’s plan to “help God” birthed family strife, jealousy, and generational conflict. Her impatience with divine timing turned a promised blessing into a painful mess. Like pruning roses with bare hands, human solutions often leave us bleeding. This story warns against manipulating circumstances to force God’s promises, revealing how our cleverness can become our captivity. [33:11]

Abram’s wife Sarai had not borne any children for him, but she owned an Egyptian slave named Hagar. Sarai said to Abram, “Since the Lord has prevented me from bearing children, go to my slave. Perhaps through her I can build a family.” And Abram agreed to what Sarai said. (Genesis 16:1-3, ESV)

Reflection: What current situation tempts you to take control rather than wait? How might your “solution” create unintended consequences?

Day 3: The Courage to Return

God told Hagar to walk back into the very place that broke her – pregnant, vulnerable, and humanly powerless. Obedience meant trusting His presence more than her protection. Our hardest callings often lead to our greatest purposes. Like Hagar carrying Ishmael, God uses surrendered returns to birth unexpected legacies. [48:09]

The angel of the Lord said to her, “You have conceived and will have a son. You will name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard your cry of affliction. This man will be like a wild donkey. His hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand will be against him, and he will settle near all his relatives.” (Genesis 16:11-12, ESV)

Reflection: What difficult place is God asking you to re-enter with His strength? How might your obedience impact generations?

Day 4: Naming the God Who Sees

Hagar – a foreign slave – became the first person in Scripture to name God: El Roi, “the God who sees me.” Her declaration transformed a desert spring into holy ground. When we stop running and start recognizing, our pain becomes the place we name God’s faithfulness. Every crisis carries potential to rediscover His attentive gaze. [50:53]

So she named the Lord who spoke to her, “You are El Roi,” for she said, “In this place have I actually seen the one who sees me?” (Genesis 16:13, ESV)

Reflection: Where do you need to replace “God has forgotten me” with “El Roi sees me”? What would change if you believed He’s watching your struggle with care?

Day 5: The Father Who Searches Relentlessly

Like a parent tearing apart a building to find a missing child, God chases us through every desert. The story shifts from Hagar seeking escape to God seeking Hagar. Our value isn’t in our usefulness but His relentless love. Jesus left heaven to track wanderers, proving no soul is too broken, no runner too far. [57:26]

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 19:10, ESV)

Reflection: Are you more aware of your search for God or His search for you? How does Jesus’ pursuit reshape your view of spiritual “lostness”?

Sermon Summary

Genesis 16 opens with Abram and Sarai still waiting on a promise God already spoke. God had told Abram to look up at the night sky and count the stars, because his descendants would be too many to count. Abram believed God, and God counted it to him as righteousness. But ten years went by, Sarai was still barren, and the waiting got heavy.

Sarai looks at the delay and decides God needs some help. Sarai gives Hagar, her Egyptian slave, to Abram, hoping to “build a family” through her. The Bible tells it how it was, but it does not clean it up or condone it. Genesis 16 gives a description, not a prescription. Slavery is wrong, polygamy brings pain, and every time people try to shortcut God’s process, brokenness follows.

Abram and Sarai show that people of faith often falter. Abram is a giant example of faith, but here he is still a mess. Sarai wants the promise of God without the process of God. That desire is not just ancient history. The shortcut says, “God, the waiting is too long, so maybe this sinful workaround can get the same result faster.”

Hagar becomes pregnant, and the house fills with contempt, blame, and mistreatment. Abram refuses to lead well, Sarai makes life miserable, and Hagar runs. Hagar heads toward Egypt, pregnant, alone, thirsty, and afraid. The wilderness becomes the place where the angel of the Lord finds her.

The angel of the Lord is not just any angel. The angel of the Lord receives worship and bears the divine name. The story shows Jesus, the pre-incarnate Christ, meeting Hagar in the desert. Jesus calls her by name. Hagar is not powerful, famous, or socially important. Hagar is an Egyptian slave running from pain, and the God of the universe knows exactly who she is.

God sends Hagar back into a hard place, but God does not send her back empty. God gives her a promise, a son named Ishmael, and a future that cannot be counted. Hagar then does what no one else has done up to that point. Hagar names the Lord, “El Roi,” the God who sees. The lost child in the wilderness is not invisible. Jesus came to seek and save the lost, and the one who is tired of running is being sought by the God who sees.

Key Takeaways

1. Waiting exposes hidden shortcuts Sarai’s plan shows how delay can tempt faith into control. The promise of God can be genuinely believed while the process of God is quietly rejected. A shortcut may look practical, but it often carries pain that obedience would have spared. [36:21]
2. Faithful people still falter Abram’s failure matters because Scripture does not pretend saints are clean and polished. The Bible is full of broken people, “complete dumpster fires,” except for Jesus. That honesty does not excuse sin, but it does keep failure from having the final word over a believer’s life. [37:41]
3. Jesus knows the forgotten by name Hagar is named by God when others only use her, blame her, or mistreat her. The Lord sees the one with no status, no power, and no safe place to stand. Divine attention is not earned by usefulness or popularity, because Jesus meets Hagar when she has nothing to offer. [46:36]
4. God’s call may be hard The angel of the Lord sends Hagar back, but not without a promise. God’s presence does not always remove the difficult assignment, yet God’s purpose meets a person inside it. Obedience can mean stepping into a hard place with a word from God stronger than the fear of that place. [49:40]
5. The lost are being sought Jesus is not passive toward the one who is running, thirsty, and tired. The image of a father searching for a missing child shows the urgency of divine love. The Son came to seek and save the lost, and the searching does not stop until the child comes home.

## [58:17]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[26:56] - Prayer for God to Speak
[27:45] - The Desire to Be Seen
[29:10] - Reading Genesis 16
[31:22] - Abram, Sarai, and the Waiting
[33:11] - Trying to Help God Out
[35:06] - Description, Not Prescription
[36:21] - Wanting Promise Without Process
[37:41] - People of Faith Often Falter
[39:30] - Hagar’s Pregnancy and Household Strife
[41:17] - Hagar Runs Into the Wilderness
[42:59] - The Angel of the Lord Finds Her
[45:18] - The Pre-Incarnate Christ Appears
[46:36] - Hagar Is Called by Name
[50:36] - El Roi, the God Who Sees
[57:26] - Jesus Seeks the Lost
[59:42] - Invitation to Come Home

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Genesis 16
“Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, 'Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.' And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. And Sarai said to Abram, 'May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!' But Abram said to Sarai, 'Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.' Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her. The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, 'Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?' She said, 'I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.' The angel of the Lord said to her, 'Return to your mistress and submit to her.' The angel of the Lord also said to her, 'I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.' And the angel of the Lord said to her, 'Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your affliction. He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.' So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, 'You are a God of seeing,' for she said, 'Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.' Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered. And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael.” [29:10]

Luke 19:10
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” [58:17]

Genesis 15:5-6
“And he brought him outside and said, 'Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.' Then he said to him, 'So shall your offspring be.' And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” [31:22]

Observation questions

In Genesis 16, what actions show that Sarai and Abram were tired of waiting and chose a human plan instead? [33:11]
After Hagar became pregnant, what changed in the relationships inside the household? What words in the passage show contempt, blame, and harsh treatment? [39:30]
What does the angel of the Lord ask Hagar in the wilderness, and what promises are given to her there?
What does Hagar call the Lord in Genesis 16, and what does that name reveal about her experience with God? [50:36]

Interpretation questions

Genesis 16 shows people trying to get the promise of God without the process of God. Why is waiting often the place where faith gets tested most deeply? [36:21]
Abram had already believed God in Genesis 15:5-6, yet he still failed badly in Genesis 16. What does that suggest about the way real faith and real weakness can exist in the same person? [37:41]
The angel of the Lord finds Hagar when she is alone, vulnerable, and running. What does this reveal about God’s heart toward people who feel invisible or forgotten? [46:36]
Hagar is told to return to a hard place, but she is given a promise before she goes back. How can God’s presence and purpose change the way a difficult calling is understood? [49:40]

Application questions

Where has waiting become hard enough that there is a temptation to take a shortcut instead of trusting God’s way? What would obedience look like there right now? [36:21]
Sarai’s plan looked practical, but it brought pain. What kind of “workaround” is most tempting when God’s timing feels slow—control, manipulation, compromise, giving up, something else? [36:47]
Abram’s failure is a reminder that faithful people still falter. Where is there discouragement over personal failure right now, and what would it look like to bring that honestly before Jesus instead of hiding it? [37:41]
Hagar was called by name by the God who sees. In what area of life is there a need to remember, not just in theory but personally, that Jesus sees and knows every detail? [47:12]
Hagar was running, thirsty, tired, and afraid. When life gets heavy, what does running usually look like—shutting down, isolating, numbing out, staying busy, pretending to be fine? [57:26]
Sometimes God does not remove the hard assignment but meets a person in it. Is there a hard place right now that needs fresh courage and trust rather than escape? [50:05]
Jesus came to seek and save the lost. For someone who feels far from God, what would “coming home” look like in a real and practical sense this week? [58:17]

Sermon Clips

36s

#KnownByName

“And she's not just any woman. She's an Egyptian. She is not part of the line or tribe of David. She's not somebody who will be grafted into Jesus' line. She's somebody who has nothing to offer. She is a slave who's running from her mistress. She's pregnant, she's destitute, and she's alone. And the god of the universe knows her by name and calls her by name. That's Jesus.”

36s

#FaithFalters

“People of faith often falter. People of faith often falter. Abram is about as good as it gets as an example of somebody who has faith. In fact, the Bible says because Abram believed God, God credited to him as righteousness. He believed that God was gonna give him family. He's like, I'm gonna do that. I believe that you're gonna do that. God's like, I'm blessing you because of that. Here, he had a moment where he's like, I don't know how it's gonna work, and starts going outside God's process.”

46s

#PurposeAndPromise

“And here's what you need to hear today. There may be something God's calling you to step back into that's very difficult. Maybe stepping back into your marriage. Maybe stepping back into a hard relationship. Maybe just continue to be faithful in a hard working space that you're in right now. God may call you to do something difficult, but he does promise that he's gonna be with you. And here you find God having a purpose and a promise Hagar, and he has one for you. And even though you may feel like you don't have a purpose and a promise on your life, god does have a purpose for you. And he has not forgotten you, and he cares about you.”

51s

#ComeHomeToJesus

“You see, you and I were lost. You may be lost this morning. You've been running from God your whole life. Or maybe you gave your life to Jesus and walked down when you were a kid, but you have been gone for so long. And and you've been running, and you're thirsty, and you're tired, and you feel broken, and you don't know what's next, and you don't have all the answers. And you've been getting by, and when people ask you how you're doing, you're like, I'm fine, but you're not. And the reason you're not fine is because you're not home and you're not with Jesus. And you know it and I know it.”

72s

#GodSeesMe

“What she's saying is she's saying, god sees me even when nobody else does. This idea of naming god is an interesting one in the old testament. Now, has his own personal name, Yahweh, the I am the preexisting one. That's his name. That's what he reveals to Moses. But there are other names for God that people name when it comes to their relationship to him. They're descriptive names for god. They are called epithets. So it's not his personal name, but it's how they describe their relationship to him. And here, Egyptian, pregnant, desperate woman has an encounter with the living God and she says, God sees me. I actually saw him and I've thought that he might have seen me. But now I really know that God sees me.”

55s

#GiveYourHeartToJesus

“Because he sees you and he knows you and he knows your name and he's looking for you because he wants you back home. So today, that's the invitation to you. There is a place for you home and Jesus is asking you to trust him with your life. So here's how I want us to respond. If you would say I'm a follower of Jesus and I've been faithfully pursuing him, Consider that maybe your heart has left and you need to give it back to him. You're still saved, but your heart has become fixated on other things and Jesus wants to meet with you today. And I'm gonna invite you to come up and pray if you want to here at the altar and get things right with him.”

48s

#NoShortcutsWithGod

“And this reveals her heart and our heart, which is where we want the promise of God without the process of God. Hey, we want the promise. God, you're gonna give us a child. We're not gonna go through the process. The process is too long. Ten years is too much. God, we don't see how you're gonna provide. God, we don't get it. So we go outside the process of God, which is what brings us to sinful behavior in the first place where we go, God, I believe that you wanna do this. However, maybe you need my help in getting there. So I'm gonna go around the process. I'm gonna take a shortcut. And when we try to shortcut god's process, we only find ourselves in pain,”

53s

#TheOneWhoSees

“It's significant that she calls him by the same because the others who named God are a list of who's who in the Bible. It's interesting. If you look at Melchizedek, who's the priest of the God, most high calls God, most high. Abram, the father of our faith says the Lord will provide. That's his name for God. Gideon calls him the Lord is peace. Gideon was a mighty warrior who conquered all of his enemies with just 300 soldiers. Jeremiah who wrote a huge portion of the Old Testament calls him the Lord of hosts. Ezekiel who saw God's throne room and the face of God says, the Lord is here. Moses, who frees the people from Egypt, says, God is my banner. David says that he's my shepherd. And Hagar is the only one that says, God is the one who sees me.”

34s

#KnownAndLoved

“He knows who you are. He cares about you. It doesn't matter how popular you are, how many followers you have on Instagram. It doesn't matter to him how much fame you have in your hometown or how good you were when you were in high school. Jesus knows you by name and cares about you, and he cares about Hagar meets with her when she's at her worst, and when she's most afraid. And this is what he tells her.”

62s

#BibleTellsItLikeItWas

“And what you need to hear here is that the bible is not condoning this. See, the bible tells it how it was. It doesn't, like like, spruce things up, like, try to, like, fix it up so it's nice and normal for those of us who live in 2026. The bible tells us the way it was back in the ancient Near East. And so what you find happening here in this passage is something that is descriptive and not prescriptive. This is a key bible interpretation tool. When you're reading the bible, it's important to go, hey, is this just describing something or is this prescribing something? The difference is descriptive like, hey, this happened. Prescription is, hey, you should do this. And here what we find is we find a descriptive narrative of what happened. Slavery is wrong.”

68s

#PreIncarnateChrist

“Except for one being that shows up over and over again in the Old Testament. And he's called the angel of the Lord. Not just any angel, but an angel of the Lord, which they always put God's divine name, Yahweh, at the end of that. The angel of the Lord, Yahweh. And this being is different. When he shows up at the burning bush or to Joshua before he goes into the promised land and people bow, he says, that's right. You should take your shoes off because the land that you're standing on is holy ground. He receives worship. So it makes us go, who is this angel of the Lord? Theologians agree he is the pre incarnate Christ, that he's the Christ, Jesus himself, walking on the earth before he came in the form of a baby, moving and acting. And so you find Jesus here meeting Hagar. Now,”

91s

#PurposeInThePain

“And he sends her back in a place of suffering, but he does tell her that she has a purpose and a promise for her life. So I want you to go back because I have a plan and a purpose for the child that you're carrying. And he tells her that she's gonna have many, many descendants because of this baby. This baby is someone that God wants to bring into the world, Ishmael. And even though he's somebody that's not necessarily easiest to get along with, the Bible actually tells us that he's gonna be like a wild donkey, which, by the way, who wants to be called like a wild donkey? I don't know I don't know if you do. And when I read this, was like, wow. That's pretty strong. Like, I I mean, it definitely says something. It's not nothing. It's definitely something. Right? There is actually a significance to this this this idiom. This is actually a reference to the wild animals that were near that area that were known for their stubborn nature, their individualistic identity, their willingness to do things nothing else was willing to do. And he says, this child is gonna be somebody significant, and he needs to come into the world. But guess what? I'm gonna bless you if you follow what I'm asking you to do, which is to go back and live with Abram and Sarai.”

77s

#WorshipOnlyGod

“The angel of the lord isn't just an angel. Throughout the bible, you find angels appearing to people. And every time that they do, it's a life altering event. It's something that freaks people out. Like, there's nobody who meets the angels. Like, this is awesome. Let's take a picture. Like, nobody nobody's like, hey. Get close. Selfie. When you see an angel in the bible, people fall on their face in fear, and they tremble. There's this, like, sense of awe and fear when they meet an angel because they are different than us. And so they fall on their faces. And usually, over and over again, angels are like, nope. Don't don't don't bow down to me. I'm simply a messenger. I'm simply a servant of God just like you. So don't bow down to me. And the reason why they refuse worship is because they know that there's only one person who deserves worship, and that's God. And the angel that was like, you know what? I actually want that worship for myself is actually Satan, who's like, yep. I'd like to replace God and take his worship for myself. And the other angel's like, hey. We ain't going down that path, so don't worship me. Worship only God.”

32s

#IshmaelsLegacy

“So you find the angel of Lord telling her, hey, I want you to go back. And he sends her back in a place of suffering, but he does tell her that she has a purpose and a promise for her life. So I want you to go back because I have a plan and a purpose for the child that you're carrying. And he tells her that she's gonna have many, many descendants because of this baby. This baby is someone that God wants to bring into the world, Ishmael.”

45s

#ComeHomeToday

“But there's a lot of us in this room who you've been close to the things of Jesus. You go to church or you watch church or you listen to praise music or maybe you haven't done any of those things in a long time. But your heart does not belong to Jesus. And today you can get that right. You can come home because he sees you. So for those who are there, I just wanna give you this time, this moment to experience Jesus loves you. So I'm gonna ask you to close your eyes where you are. I want you to think about where you are with your walk with Jesus.”

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