Lessons from the Wilderness: Hagar • Ps Craig Clark

Aug 09, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: God Finds Us When We Flee From Pain

Hagar ran into the desert believing she’d be forgotten, but the God who sees met her at a spring. Wilderness seasons tempt us to isolate, to numb our hurt, or to self-protect by shutting others out. Yet no distance we create can separate us from the relentless pursuit of a loving Father. Even when we turn toward old patterns or familiar deserts, His voice follows, not to condemn but to call us back into purpose. The same God who named Hagar’s son “God hears” still bends low to lift the heads of those who feel abandoned. [20:06]

“You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.” (Psalm 139:1–3, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you been tempted to numb your pain or flee from community? How might you lean into the truth that God actively seeks you in this season?

Day 2: Stars Shine Brightest in the Darkest Nights

The desert’s barrenness strips away distractions, forcing our eyes upward. Just as light pollution fades the stars, life’s noise can dim our awareness of God’s nearness. But wilderness seasons—marked by loneliness, confusion, or waiting—often become thresholds where God’s grandeur overwhelms our smallness. What feels like abandonment is often divine repositioning: a call to trade self-reliance for awe. In the quiet, we discover that darkness doesn’t hide God—it reveals His vastness. [26:12]

“He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.” (Psalm 147:4–5, ESV)

Reflection: What “light pollution” (busyness, distractions, false comforts) might God be asking you to release to see His work more clearly?

Day 3: Obedience Heals What Injustice Breaks

Hagar’s story defies human logic: God told her to return to those who harmed her. Submission here wasn’t surrender to abuse but trust in a higher redemption. Choosing forgiveness over bitterness disrupts cycles of pain. Like Christ on the cross, we’re called to entrust our wounds to the One who judges justly. Obedience in hardship isn’t passive acceptance—it’s warfare against the lie that our pain has the final word. [22:02]

“When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.” (1 Peter 2:23, ESV)

Reflection: Is there a relationship or situation where God is inviting you to trust His justice over demanding your own?

Day 4: Human Shortcuts Create Divine Complications

Sarai’s “perhaps” led to family strife—a warning against forcing outcomes when God’s timing feels slow. Compromise often masquerades as wisdom, offering temporary relief while eroding trust. Wilderness waits refine our discernment: will we cling to control or let God untangle our mess? Every Abrahamic detour reminds us that true promise-keeping belongs to the Lord alone. [12:28]

“There is a way that appears right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” (Proverbs 14:12, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you prioritized expediency over faithfulness? Ask God to reveal any “shortcuts” harming your relationships or calling.

Day 5: Cries in the Desert Uncover Hidden Wells

Hagar’s tears blinded her to the well beside her—until God opened her eyes. Desperation often narrows our vision, making provision seem absent. Yet the same wilderness stripping us of self-sufficiency becomes the place where we drink deeply of God’s sufficiency. Our thirst drives us to the One who turns bitter springs into living water. [36:06]

“The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the Lord will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys.” (Isaiah 41:17–18, ESV)

Reflection: What “well” of God’s presence (prayer, Scripture, community) have you overlooked in your current struggle? How can you drink from it today?

Sermon Summary

The wilderness is not bad internet, a missing coffee order, or waiting a week for the next episode. The wilderness is loss, struggle, dryness, confusion, and that place where purpose feels unclear. Yet in God, a wilderness is never meaningless. The wilderness is not a detour from destiny, it is where destiny deepens.

God has always met people in the disorientating middle. Moses met God at the burning bush in the desert. Israel was formed for forty years in the wilderness. David hid in caves while God built a king. Elijah went from victory to collapse under a broom tree. John the Baptist prepared the way in the wilderness. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness and came out in the power of the Spirit. The wilderness becomes formation, dependence, testing, revelation, preparation, and assignment.

Hagar’s wilderness was not chosen. Hagar was an Egyptian slave, used in a plan that was not hers, mistreated by Sarai and abandoned by Abram. Genesis 16 shows Sarai reaching for a human “perhaps” when God’s promise felt delayed. That kind of perhaps never makes a way for God’s promise. Human hands cannot improve what God has spoken. When people take promise into their own hands, compromise creates complication.

Abram agreed with what did not align with what God said. Sarai’s plan produced pregnancy, jealousy, blame, harsh treatment, and relational fallout. Sin destroyed relationship. Hagar fled because hurt had taken over, and revenge and survival started to feel more natural than righteousness. Yet the angel of the Lord found her near a spring in the desert. God found the one everyone else had used, blamed, and pushed away.

God asked Hagar where she had come from and where she was going. God still called her to do the right thing even after she had been wronged. God gave promise over Ishmael, saying her descendants would increase beyond counting. Hagar then named the Lord, “You are the God who sees me.” The outcast slave became the first person in Scripture to give God a name. El Roi was revealed in a wilderness.

The dark does not have to mean God is absent. The stars often become clearer when the light pollution is gone. Isolation can become intimacy when God has his way. Hagar’s next wilderness in Genesis 21 showed that the God who sees also hears. Ishmael cried, God heard, and Hagar’s eyes opened to a well that had been there. The wilderness calls God’s people to keep opening the Word, keep praying, keep praising, keep coming to the house, and keep walking with others, because in God, no wilderness is meaningless.

Key Takeaways

1. Human perhaps cannot carry promise Sarai’s “perhaps” looked practical, but it was still unbelief dressed up as a plan. God’s promise does not need human shortcuts to become possible. Waiting becomes the place where trust either holds firm to what God said or grabs at what makes sense in the moment. [12:28]
2. Compromise always creates complication Sin did not complete the promise, it created more problems. Hagar turned on Sarai, Sarai turned on Abram, and Abram stepped away from responsibility. Compromise rarely stays private, because it spills into relationships, blame, offence, pride, and pain. [16:37]
3. God finds fleeing hearts Hagar ran into the desert, but God met her there with mercy, not rejection. The God who finds is not hunting down failure to condemn it, but pursuing wounded people because love refuses to walk away. Flight may feel like the end of faith, but God can turn even running into encounter. [20:06]
4. Darkness can clarify calling The stars become clearer when the light pollution is gone, and God’s voice can become clearer when lesser lights are stripped back. The wilderness can feel like exclusion, but it can also reveal the Creator with a sharper wonder. Isolation becomes intimacy when God uses the dark to lift eyes toward what was always there. [25:37]
5. The well may be nearby Hagar’s despair blinded her to the provision beside her until God opened her eyes. Wilderness pain can shrink vision until a person sees only lack, thirst, and death. Prayer, Scripture, praise, church, and godly people can become wells in dry places when God teaches the heart to cry out instead of stay silent.

## [35:38]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[00:20] - New Series: Lessons in the Wilderness
[02:55] - What Wilderness Feels Like
[05:07] - No Wilderness Is Meaningless
[06:51] - Formation in Biblical Wildernesses
[09:11] - Hagar’s Unchosen Wilderness
[11:57] - Sarai’s Perhaps and God’s Promise
[14:35] - Misaligned Agreement and Bad Advice
[16:04] - Sin Destroys Relationships
[19:44] - God Finds Hagar
[21:37] - Wronged Yet Called To Right
[23:31] - El Roi: The God Who Sees
[25:37] - Darkness Makes Calling Clear
[35:19] - Ishmael and the God Who Hears
[36:31] - Wells in the Wilderness
[38:46] - Invitation To Follow Jesus

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Genesis 16:1-16
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. [11:52]

Observation questions

What actions in Genesis 16 show Sarai trying to solve God’s delay with a human “perhaps,” and what fallout follows after that decision? [12:04]
In this passage, how do Abram, Sarai, and Hagar each respond once Hagar becomes pregnant, and what does that reveal about the breakdown in their relationships? [16:04]
What does the angel of the Lord ask Hagar in the wilderness, and what specific instructions and promises are given to her there? [21:37]
What names or descriptions of God become clear through Hagar’s wilderness experience, and how are those tied to what God does for her and Ishmael? [23:31]

Interpretation questions

Sarai’s “it may be” sounded practical, but it moved outside what God had said. Why do delayed promises make human shortcuts feel so reasonable, and how can a person tell when a practical plan is actually a compromise? [12:28]
Hagar was genuinely wronged, yet she was still told to return and do the right thing. What does that show about the difference between being wronged and being free to respond however a person wants? [21:51]
Hagar names God as the One who sees her in the very place where she was abandoned and overlooked. What does that suggest about how God meets people in seasons of rejection, confusion, or loss? [23:31]
Darkness can remove lesser lights and make the stars clearer. How can a wilderness season strip away false sources of security and make God’s presence, calling, or purpose easier to recognize? [25:37]

Application questions

Where has “perhaps” started to creep into life lately? Is there an area where waiting on God has become frustrating enough that a shortcut is starting to look wise or harmless? [12:28]
Has there been a situation recently where someone close gave advice that sounded loving but did not really align with God’s Word? How could that be handled with both courage and grace? [14:35]
When hurt hits, what response feels most natural right now—revenge, withdrawal, self-protection, silence, or forgiveness? What would doing the right thing before God actually look like in that situation? [18:17]
Where might there be a temptation to run—emotionally, spiritually, or relationally—because the wilderness feels too painful? What would it look like to stop fleeing and let God meet that place honestly? [20:06]
If God asked today, “Where have you come from and where are you going?” what would the honest answer be? What pain, disappointment, or confusion would need to be named out loud? [21:37]
In this season, is the darkness producing isolation or intimacy? What practices could help lift the eyes again—Scripture, prayer, praise, church, or walking more openly with trusted people? [25:37]
Hagar needed her eyes opened to see the well nearby. What provision might already be close at hand but easy to miss right now? Could it be God’s Word, prayer, the presence of other believers, or help that has been resisted? [35:38]

Sermon Clips

40s

#WildernessProvision

“But remember that in the wilderness, God gave her son the name, the God who hears, Ishmael. And in the next wilderness season, what was prophesied over her son in the previous wilderness season comes to life in the next wilderness season. And God hears Ishmael's cry. And in that moment, God opens her eyes. And she realizes that he had provided a well right next to them. Sometimes in the darkness and the challenge of our lives, it'll blind us to the provision that God has around our lives.”

65s

#CallingInTheDark

“But the thought is this, is that lesson number eight, it's in the dark that our creator and his calling becomes clearer. Wow. Yeah. Very true. We sometimes want to avoid the wilderness Very true. As if it's bad. We think now if if we let the enemy have his way, he will use a wilderness for isolation. But if we let God have his way, he will use a wilderness for intimacy. And all the light it's like, yeah, we can see and there's and there's a beautiful there's a beautiful milky way. We we can kinda see, but when you start to take all the noise and all the other distractions and all the other feelings and all the other voices and all the other things away, and you're kinda left in a moment where everything come on. Help me out, team. Then all of a sudden, what was faint and dim, what seemed like God had done a little bit of work in the distance, all of a sudden becomes clearer and clearer.”

40s

#PrayPraisePersist

“Come on. When you get in a in a in a wilderness season, don't stop opening the word. Come on. The well that he's given us is prayer. When we're in a wilderness scene, don't stop praying. Don't stop talking to the one who hears and the one who sees. When we're in a wilderness season, don't stop praising. Come on. I praise. Why? Because in my praise, he inhabits the praises of his people. It causes me to lift my eyes. Worship. transports us from the reality of what we're seeing in ourselves to the wonder that we can see in him.”

53s

#CryOutForProvision

“Can I encourage you when you're in a dry, when you're in a wilderness, when you're in a rejected feeling season, an isolated season, don't stay silent? out to your loving God. Cry out to the one who sees. Cry out to the one who's able. Cry out to the one who can. Cry out to the one who cares. Cry out to the one come on. Who says, are you thirsty? Come. Drink. I'll create a new livers of riving water. You don't need to live dry. You can live overflowing. if you live in the darkness of the situation and you don't cry out, you'll miss the provision that's right in front of you.”

48s

#MajestyRevealedInDarkness

“Then all of a sudden, what was faint and dim, what seemed like God had done a little bit of work in the distance, all of a sudden becomes clearer and clearer. More present, more marvelous, more awe inspiring, more wow, God. Look at you're you're the God who put spoke the stars into being. Here I am thinking the darkness excludes me, but what I'm realizing, and this is dark moment, actually reveals you. I start to reveal that you're far bigger than I think you are. I start realizing if you can hold all of this in your hands, surely you can hold my life in your hands too. Surely, if not one of them goes missing, you're Elroy, the God who sees me.”

51s

#WildernessFormation

“In God, a wilderness is never meaningless. Right? In God, a wilderness is never meaningless. If you're somebody goes, yeah, that's nice, Craig. It rhymes, but you want a little bit more to that. A wilderness really seems pleasant, but the reality is in God, there's always a purpose. Yeah. Right? The scriptures are full of people who met God not just in temples, not only on mountaintops, but also in a disorientating middle, in the hard. Moses met him at the burning bush in the desert. Israel, forty years of formation. Elijah, under the broom tree, having just had a huge victory, now at the lowest point in his life.”

44s

#JesusDiedAndRose

“But all through scripture, they became they became places where God actually formed character, clarified identity, to develop dependence, tested obedience, and prepared people for the purpose he had actually put on their life. Moses, 40 in the wilderness. Right? Why the wilderness? Because it became the preparation ground for him to actually lead Israel out of Egypt. Israel was in the wilderness for forty years. Right? Why? Because they were being formed into a people capable of living under God's covenant and living in obedience to God's promise at which they failed at. Maybe they needed to be there for sixty years. Who knows? You can come out of slavery, but sometimes it takes a while for slavery to get out of you.”

52s

#DontSettleForPerhaps

“Didn't leave us in our mess. He didn't leave us in our brokenness. No. We have a god who's so loved that he enabled his son to meet us and to come and to take upon him all the brokenness of humanity, all the sin, what sin, the things that separate us from God to he came and he placed all of that upon himself. And he actually didn't just come and live a good life, a perfect life. He actually came. And in his perfection, he then willingly laid down his life as a sacrifice, as a punishment, and a for the penalty that sin required, which was death. He died in our place. And in his death, he did not just die. The great news is as the son of God, full of the holy spirit, he rose again triumphant over death.”

75s

#OutcastToWitness

“who's been in a dark season and all they've done is keep their head down and God's saying, lift your eyes. Yes. So good. Come on. Would you just lift your eyes to the heavens? Do you realize I'm the one who formed it? I formed you. And from what you're going through, I wanna form something that no other season can form. Very good. I think the key for us is to learn from the Israelites and say, Lord, we don't wanna walk around this mountain more than we need to. Yeah. So, God, here's the question. Lord, in your wonder, what are you teaching me? What do you wanna show me? And the god of the heavens, he's so personal and real. He speaks into our heart. As he's spoken to Hagar's life, she thought she was fleeing to destruction, yet in the wilderness, she found her destiny, to be the mother of a nation that also would have many descendants. What a phenomenal promise.”

32s

#ChurchIsAWell

“It's a dramatic account where eventually she's actually driven out into the desert to die with her child, Ishmael. She's actually the least powerful person in the entire entire narrative. Yet in God, her wilderness was not meaningless, but it led to significance. And she actually became the first person and the only person in all of scripture to ever give God a name. That's pretty awesome.”

71s

#RestInGodsPlacement

“Don't stop coming to church. You may feel shame. You may feel guilt. I want to tell you that when you come into the house, our prayer is that you will feel grace, and you will know the presence of your savior. And he will find you. The test is will we actually open our lives enough at times to allow others to lead us to the well or be a well that we're so needing. And I encourage us in our discipleship groups, that's why we talk about them every single week, because they're a well. They're a well of doing life together. They're a well of joy. They're a well of hope. They're a well of vision. They're a well of future. They're a well of protection. They're a well of encouragement. They're a well of if you're in a good one, food. They're a well. They're a well.”

68s

#SurrenderForTransformation

“And that moment, in the late of a night on my own, has shaped my life. It's shaped the reality of our church. Because when people say, oh, look. It's growing. It's gonna like, that's a wonderful thing, but that's not influencing who we are. people are this, people are that. That's great, but that's not influencing our our prayers and our constant point of every night when I put my head on the pillows, the question or the answer, God, I just know we're where you want us to be. That's brings the greatest security to my life. That's what brings the greatest security to our family. Yes. That's good. And where you want me to be. Not driven by ego, not driven by numbers, not driven by buildings, not driven by anything else, but the simple thing of, I'm where you want me to be.”

28s

#RedeemedFromRunning

“And there was a wilderness, but I chose that wilderness. I chose to surrender my life to Christ, and I did not just say you're my savior. I said you're my Lord. And so therefore, I'll bow my knee to what you say, and in that, there's gonna be things that are gonna be taken out of my life, and not everything feels nice when God takes it out. But he wants to transform us. Come on. He doesn't just wanna take us as we are. Come on. He wants to transform us into who he is.”

39s

#DestinyInTheWilderness

“Maybe things come and sideswipe us like health challenges or job loss or maybe we're leasing and and our house gets moved from us and and things start going upside down and you're going, God, what's going on? Where are you in all of this? Maybe it's a time where god's pruning us without perspective. Yeah. And it feels like punishment, but he's actually saying, want you to be more fruitful. Yeah. Maybe it's living faith filled, but seemingly, in a sense, naturally, you feel like you're going backwards. Can I just say a wilderness is not a detailer from our destiny? It's actually where our destiny deepens.”

60s

#SinBreaksRelationships

“Lesson three, sin destroys relationship. Sin destroys relationship. It sounds good but rather than complete the promise, it creates increased problems. It sounds good. And Hagar turns to turns sorry. Hagar turns on Sarai. Sarai turns on Abram. Abram abandons responsibility and Sarai treats Hagar harshly and it's a messy fallout because of human faiths faithlessness. Yeah. Right? Compromise always leads to complication. Always. Blaming, offence, pride. What is all of that stuff? Sin. Yeah. Very good. The enemy's goal is always to kill, steal, and destroy. Yeah. What God does may seem delayed, difficult, or even better said, impossible, it always leads to life. And God desires life abundantly.”

48s

#HoldToHisPromise

“But we must choose to trust and remain in what he said. When we take things into our own hands, we're always operating from a perhaps. Yeah. Very good. When we hold tight to what he said, we're always operating from his promise. Right? Don't lean on your own understanding. Hold tight. Hold firm, the New Testament says. Hold firm to his word. When in a time and a season with challenges going on and it feels like it's unfair and you feel like you're not seen and all that kind of stuff, all the enemy wants to do is how can I rip god's promise out of your hand? Yeah. Because if he can get it out of your hand, he gets it out of your heart. Very good. Very good. Come on. We gotta hold on to god's word in these moments.”

57s

#RespondWithRighteousness

“when we are wronged, God still commands us to do the right thing. When we are wronged, we're still commanded to do the right thing. You will be wronged by your boss. You will be wronged in a relationship. We will be wronged in society. We are wronged as a Christian believers in our nation. We are wronged where there is no freedom and there's no protection and there's no value of a Christian faith. That's not right, but that does not mean we do the wrong thing. We are still commissioned by God, commanded by God, you do the right thing. You love, you honor, you pray, you stand, you believe, you bless, you you know, does that make sense? Alright. I'm just we all if you have kids, but they hit me first. I don't care. You don't hit them back. Alright? We're not responsible for the other person's part, but we are responsible for ours.”

64s

#GodWhoSees

“She gave this name to the Lord. Oh, man. She gave she gave Hagar, a a slave woman, someone who who is mistreated, someone who's an Egyptian in a foreign land, someone who's just been, like, mistreated. who's not even a part of the covenant bloodline of the Israelis, Israelites, she gave the name to the God who spoke to her, you are the God who sees me. For she said, I have now seen the one who sees me. Very good. It is through slave, an outcast foreigner, someone mistreated. Right? It's because of what Hagar encountered, the way that God showed up, and what she declared that now we know the truth, that we have a God who sees us. We have a God called Al Roy, the God who sees, the God who doesn't turn his face, the God who never looks away, but the God who sees us. We understand this wonderful truth. Why? Because in God, no wilderness is meaningless.”

34s

#AlignWithGodNotOpinion

“our perhaps will never make a way for God's promise. There it is. Our perhaps will never. Perhaps we just cut that family member out of our next gathering. They're so frustrated. Married gifts. Yeah. Perhaps I just don't tithe for the next couple of months while we try and get ahead. Married Perhaps we just move in together before we get married. Right. We just settle for what we can see and what we can do and what makes sense to us. Can I encourage you? Your perhaps, my perhaps will never outwork God's promise.”

45s

#LiftYourEyesToGod

“Lesson number two, don't agree with what your girl or guy says when it's not aligned with what God said. Come on. It doesn't matter how much you love him. There's moments we need to lead each other and help each other. Come on. Hold on to the things of God. You go, Craig, these aren't very deep lessons. I think they're lessons that could save a whole lot of pain. Come on. Sometimes it can be the closest ones to us in the wilderness that give us the worst advice. Very good. Yeah. Ask Job. His mates weren't the best ones to be around. Just real quickly, if it doesn't align, don't agree. If it doesn't align, don't agree.”

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