"The God Who Sees"

Well, this morning we press on and continue in chapter 16 of Genesis, and we're picking up where we left off last week in verse 7. We went into verse 7 a little bit last week, and of course I want to recap some of that.

I wonder, since one of the points that we talked about last week was that echo of Adam that we see in Abram in this chapter, how Adam's great failure and Eve's deception and temptation in chapter 3, how this is now parallel with Abram and Sarai.

And of course, in the narrative of Genesis, this is meant to show the spread of sin, that though God has finally gotten to the call of Abram, the one whom He's giving all of these promises to, the one on whom God is going to bring about the great seed that He had promised in Genesis 3 .15.

So God's whole purpose of redemption has been funneled down through Abram, and yet here we see that Abram falls. In other words, we cannot put our hope even in Abram. Despite all of God's favor and grace, even Abram falls.

We must yet await the righteous one who is to come. There's an ironic reversal here. I missed my point as I was rambling. I wonder how many of you husbands worked on your passivity this past week in light of that point from last week.

It's amazing how quickly and how easily we can become passive, especially in a household where there's stress or contention or some relational difficulty, in-laws, etc. And so don't, you know, don't lose sight of the importance of what we see here.

The importance of what God has given for a man and for a woman, for a husband and for a wife. As our brother was praying, we ought to pray constantly and continually with thankfulness in our hearts for the spouses that God gives to us.

Well, we also want to keep in mind the larger context of where Abram has been. Remember, the consequences of Egypt are just now catching up to him. Though it took four chapters for these consequences to come home to roost, they did come, and that's a principle in Scripture.

It's a principle in life. What you sow, you will reap, because God is not mocked. The consequences of sin sometimes don't reach you until four chapters later, but they will.

Reach you.

They take some time to sprout, but the consequences will be there in your body, on your hands, in your conscience, in your life, in your relationships. The consequences of sin are bound to come, and we certainly see that with Abram, don't we?

There's an ironic reversal here in chapter 16. We didn't talk about this last week. Remember how Abram went down to Egypt when he was in doubt, and he gave Sarai over to the Egyptian pharaoh. And here in chapter 16, they're in Canaan, and Sarai's the one doubting, and she gives Abram over to the Egyptian Hagar.

So this is the reversal, and this is the consequence of sin. Abram was just like Adam in the Garden of Eden. He listened to the voice of his wife. He took, he partook of what she gave to him. He was passive in his sinfulness.

He disobeyed God in his rebelliousness. And just like Adam, he welcomed dysfunction and brokenness into his home, and that brokenness affected all of his offspring to this day. The offspring of Hagar affects the offspring of Abram.

Sin begins with a failure to believe God in Genesis 3. Sin always begins with a failure to believe God. All sin begins with an attitude of unbelief. The true believer we see here in Genesis 16, Abram is a true believer, has a sin nature, is prone to sin, prone to wander, prone to break fellowship with the Lord because of ignorance and lack of spiritual perception.

The believer can fall into sin, often does fall into sin, and the consequences of falling into sin are momentous. That's why we gather as sinners, and we sing hymns like, My sins, my sins, my Savior. We come as ones like Abram who must put his hope, not in himself, but in God.

And as for Hagar, we've watched this couple that has been righteous by faith, the one whom God has given covenant promises to, we've watched them disintegrate in chapter 16. Sarai had Hagar, this Egyptian maid, and now this relationship that was so close, she was the right-hand woman, very entrusted, a different Hebrew word, a position of exalted authority.

Now Sarai hates her, disregards her. She's so abusive, so cruel when Abram is passive, she's in your hand, do what you want to her, even though Abram had just married her. Sarai is so cruel that Hagar runs away.

And as we said last week, for a fugitive slave, the penalty would be horrible, if not death. And Hagar is being so badly abused by Sarai that she thinks as a pregnant woman it's better to wander through the wilderness than to stay with Sarai.

I'd rather die in the wilderness than to stay in this tent with Sarai. That's saying just how bad things have become in Genesis 16. But of course, as we left off last week, where we ended, God intervenes, just like Genesis 3, where sin abounds, grace abounds, much more.

And so God intervenes. He acts to show mercy and to bring redemption. We find him surprisingly doing that toward Hagar, not toward Abram and not toward Sarai. The only speaking that God does in this passage is toward the Egyptian slave that runs away.

And so we pick up in verse 7. Now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to shore. And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, so he already knows exactly who she is.

Hagar knows exactly where she's been. Sarai's maid, where have you come from? Well, he's already answered that. He already knows. So clearly he's not asking for information. Where have you come from and where are you going, as we said last week, the two questions that Abram and Sarai should have asked themselves.

And she said, I'm fleeing from the presence of my mistress, Sarai. So here there's an interesting dynamic. She's fleeing from the presence of Sarai. And perhaps in her mind, she's fleeing from the presence of the God of Sarai and the God of Abram.

Because of course, in ancient Near Eastern cultures, deities were localized. As you passed from territory to territory in that worldview, in that mindset, you passed from the protection or the oversight of a deity.

A god in that mindset was over his people and over the land in which they dwelt. And so you would have to pay homage to the gods of wherever you went on. That's the significance of Abram coming into Canaan and not worshiping what the Canaanites are worshiping, but building an altar to God so that they will worship the true and living God.

Well, perhaps Hagar, coming from Egypt, she had this understanding of the pantheon. She had her gods that she worshiped in Egypt. Maybe she still had them, devotional statuettes. But of course, she understands, well, Yahweh is the God of my master, and he's worshiped here, at least in this tent and the few altars that my master has built.

But that's where he is. And now I'm in the wilderness, and so I've left the presence of my master, and I've left the presence of the God of my master. But of course, that's not the case at all. She might have fled the presence of Sarai, but she cannot flee the presence of God.

And so God intervenes. Clearly, she wasn't leaving to seek the Lord's will. Clearly, she wasn't leaving in order to worship. It's amazing how this passage ends. And yet, God intervenes. And so again, we have this picture.

So instructive for the Christian life, isn't it? People often think there's a way for them to flee from the presence of God, and it is not possible for man to flee from the presence of God. Lo, I descend into the depths of Sheol, David says, and you are there.

It is impossible for man to flee from the presence of God, though often in their darkened minds, they think there's some corner, some closet, some room that they can be in, in which God is not present, God does not see.

And this will be the great shock for Hagar, that God has found her, because God is always present, ever present, infinitely present. The angel of the Lord meets her. And as we began to say last week, this angel of the Lord, in our translation, is capitalized, capital A Angel.

That's a decision that translators make, and this is the right decision. This is the capital A Angel of the Lord. In other words, this is the Lord himself. This is the Son of God, pre-incarnate. This is the Son of God before He took on flesh in the form of Jesus, our Savior, the God-man.

Now, how do we know that this is the case? Well, this is the first instance we have of angel in Genesis so far. The Hebrew word is malak. Could be translated as messenger, and we'll have other accounts where there's angels or messengers.

Here, angel of the Lord isn't that helpful, but rather the response that comes after. Whenever you have a piece of Hebrew narrative where there's an angel of the Lord, and you have to make the decision, is this the Lord Himself?

For the Hebrew mind, is this a theophany? For the Christian mind, is this the Son, pre-incarnate? Then you're looking for corroborating evidence. And how that angel is responded to is the key. And here, as we'll see, when we go on in Genesis 16, you'll notice in verse 13 how Hagar responds.

She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her. So she refers to the angel as the Lord, and that tells us that Hagar recognizes that who she's talking to is indeed the Lord Himself. So this is the pre-incarnate Son of God.

Now, please keep that in mind for where we're going toward the end of this sermon when we see the Son of God incarnate. Here we have the pre-incarnate Son speaking to this woman. And later on, we'll see the incarnate Son, and I hope we'll see a lot of similarity.

The last parallel we see to Genesis 3 is the question, where have you come from?

Where are you going?

God is not asking because He needs to find out. God's not only infinitely present, He's all-knowing, He has infinite knowledge. I think I've mentioned this before, but it's just so fascinating to me.

He doesn't just know things that can be known. He knows things that are not discoverable to our knowledge. He knows what theologians call middle knowledge. Not just the possibilities of things that could be, but every possibility of any slight variation.

So when we say that His knowledge is infinite, we mean it's truly infinite. And so when He asks a question like, where have you come from? Or where are you going? Or Adam, what have you done? Did you eat the fruit from the tree?

It's not that He was not present, and it's not that He did not know. What He's saying is, stop, think. Think about where you are. Think about what you've just done. Where are you right now? And who are you before Me?

That's what God is doing when He's asking questions. The angel of the Lord said to her, return to your mistress. Submit yourself under her hand. So this is the command that the Son of God gives to Hagar.

Return. You've left, it's been grievous.

You're afflicted.

You've been a victim.

Though you're not yourself without sin. Return. Talk about the last advice Hagar wanted to hear.

Go back.

You were saying it was better to die in the desert than to go back to that tent. And what's God's command?

Go back.

Isn't that often the way that God's commands work.

In the Christian life?

Lord, I will not do that. And God's like, well, here's the command, go do that. It's like Calvin when he left Geneva because he was having so much difficulty with the city council in Geneva. They were making life rather difficult.

And so he moved on to Strasbourg. And there it was like a paradise to him. He had all the time that he needed. His ministry was very fruitful and successful. And then soon the call came, we need you in Geneva.

Things have gotten out of hand. We need you to come back and teach and minister in the city. And Calvin said, I would rather die a thousand deaths than go back to Geneva. But because God wills it, I go.

And that's must have been what Hagar felt like. I'd rather die a thousand deaths. I'd rather die here in this desert than go back to Sarai and put up with that kind of treatment. But if you're commanding it, the Lord who knows my name, the Lord who's president sees all, then I go.

Hagar's instructed really to humble herself. How is she going to return to her mistress unless she humbles herself? She's not going to come waltzing back up to the Cold War as Sarai's proliferating and she's proliferating and they're just on opposite ends of the tents and they have no dealings with each other and they're going to try to work out.

This cobbled existence over the years.

Some dysfunctional marriages work that way. How is she going to return? How is she actually going to dwell? God says, submit yourself under her hands. How is she going to return? By submitting herself.

She's going to have to humble herself, swallow her pride, remember God's command and also remember the promise that he's about to give. So Christians learn from this also how they can endure. Hostile, hostile situations, hostile relationships, difficulties, trials, what do they do?

They first return because God commands it. Secondly, they humble themselves so that they can submit. They submit to that difficulty. They persevere, they endure that trial. How are you able to do that?

You remember what God has said, what God has commanded and also what God has promised. And so that's how you don't grow weary in doing good. You persevere because of what God has said. And this is what God says to her.

It's a prophecy. The angel of the Lord said to her, verse 10, I will multiply your descendants exceedingly so that they shall not be counted for multitude. Does that sound familiar to us? It sounds a lot like what God had said to Abram back in Genesis 12, doesn't it?

Your descendants are going to be super abundant. You won't be able to count them. And the angel of the Lord said to her, verse 11, behold, you are with child and you shall bear a son. Does that sound familiar?

Sounds a lot like the annunciation to Mary, doesn't it? It's a very interesting echo here in Genesis 16. You shall call his name Ishmael because the Lord has heard your affliction. Hagar is afflicted.

She's in anguish. She's willing to die in the desert. That's the gamble she took when she left. He shall be a wild man. His hand shall be against every man, every man's hand against him, and he'll dwell, our translation, in the presence of all his brethren.

The idea there would be a cross drum. You could even translate it against his brethren. He's always on the edge. There's always animosity. That's the idea here. It's not dwelling as Shem dwelling in the tents of, Japheth dwelling in the tents of Shem.

It's rather he will dwell in the presence of all his brethren against them. Ishmael, according to this prophecy, is very significant. We're not going to unpack it this morning, but as we get to chapter 17, we're going to see just how significant Ishmael is in terms of understanding the covenantal structure, the covenantal flow of the Bible.

In fact, his descendants are recorded in chapter 25. So remember how we said the backbone of Genesis is that genealogical structure, the Toledoth format. Well, in 25, Ishmael enters into that. He's very significant.

But in terms of redemptive history, it's very significant that now there's a fleshly line, a fleshly seed that is born to Abram through Hagar. Paul's going to pick this up in Galatians 4. And when we get to Genesis 17, we're going to spend a lot of time there.

To some degree, as Derek Kidner notes, this son of Abram, Ishmael, would be a shadow, almost a parody of his father. His 12 princes would be notable in their day, but they would not be in the history of salvation.

In other words, though they're paralleling each other as time goes forth, God's promise, God's salvation is only through the line of promise, not through the line of the flesh, not through Ishmael. His restless existence would not be a pilgrimage, but an end in itself.

Do you see the parody here? There's not this rest that he's awaiting that he's searching for, but rather there's this restlessness. He's a nomad. The restlessness is an end in itself. His nonconformism is a habit of mind.

It's a principle. He's a wild man, uncontrollable, not a call to be a light to the nations. So there's this parody. He's opposing the line of promise. We come to verse 13, and here is really the heartbeat of the sermon.

Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her. You are the God who sees. For she said, have I also seen him who sees me? Therefore, the well was called Beerlehi Roy. Observe, it is between Kadesh and Bered.

So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram named his son whom Hagar bore Ishmael. Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram. The first thing to notice in verse 13 is that the Egyptian slave who was afflicted, who counted herself as less than the least, not only in the status of her own house now that her mistress hated her, but she was despairing even unto death.

She was willing to run into the wilderness as a pregnant woman and die, potentially kill the life within her and take her own life in the wilderness. She was sojourning with no plan, no direction, really no hope.

She was just wandering aimlessly. And that is when God intervened. She had not known as far as we can tell the God of Abram. Certainly after Abram has been abusing her, do with her as you please. She means nothing to me, Sarai.

However you wanna treat her, you treat her. I'm not gonna interrupt. And Sarai says, well, that's fine because I'm gonna be cruel, evil, spiteful and abuse her. So she runs now, certainly if she had any inclination toward Yahweh, the God of Abram, she wouldn't have begun worshiping now.

Well, if this is the God of Abram and Sarai, seeing how they treat me, why would I ever wanna worship that God? But look at verse 13. She calls the name of the Lord. She calls the name of the Lord. She names God.

She's naming God so that she can call upon God. This is short way of saying she's calling upon the name of the Lord. She's worshiping the Lord. She has to name the God who she encounters so that she might worship him.

She calls the name of the Lord who spoke to her. You are the God who sees. And this is what she confesses. I've seen him who sees me. I had never understood that you saw me in the tent. When I was grieving, when I was running away, I didn't realize you were present.

You've come and sought me out.

You've found me.

Are you the God who sees me? And now I've seen you.

She's worshiping.

Even though Abram has shown utter disregard for her life. As we said, there's no search party being sent out to find them. We don't read somehow in between Abram rallying his 318 men.

Let's go out.

Everyone take a different direction. Try to look for footsteps. We have to try to find her. We don't read a Sarai coming to an end of her spitefulness and saying, how could I have done this? This was really my fault.

I compelled Abram to go in and take her. And now I've driven her away. I need to make this right. I must myself run into the wilderness and find her. We don't read that. The only one who seeks her is the Lord.

You know, it's a sad thing when God's people become a reason for people not to follow God. It's a sad thing when people name us as a reason not to worship God. It's hard, we think of what Jesus says about a prophet having no honor in his hometown.

And many of us, we always have a hard time and we're always praying when we get close to those family get-togethers, those holidays, those birthday parties, because a prophet has no honor in his hometown.

And they have a whole context of life with you and they've seen all the warts and all the stains and all the behavior, and they've convinced themselves, look at how prideful they are now. They just do this to make themselves feel better.

And I just feel like they're so arrogant when they're around me. Always condemning me, always judging me. You know, if this is the kind of God that loves them and that they serve, then that's the kind of God I won't follow, I won't serve, I won't worship.

Until they actually encounter the Lord. Until they actually encounter the Lord. And then like Hagar, they call upon his name. There's a great wisdom in what Scripture says, let God be true and every man a liar.

It's shameful that people use us as an excuse, but it's natural, isn't it? Some of that guilt lies upon us and we ask God to forgive us, but much of that guilt is just a weak, flimsy excuse. People will say, you're the reason I won't follow God.

You say, I'm a sinner, that's why I'm following God. You're a sinner too, that's why you should follow God. Let God be true and every man a liar. Not only me, but also you. Because you're lying to yourself.

You're in no state to actually understand who you are, who he is. You cannot rightly gauge yourself, you're a broken instrument. Everything you do is corrupt. You're actually looking for excuses and reasons to hide from him.

You don't want to be found by him. The reason you don't like being around Christians is because you don't wanna be provoked. You don't want your conscience to ring the alarm bells. You don't wanna think through your life, how it's a vapor and the end is coming.

And there's two ways to live. There's a way that seems right to a man,.

But its end is death.

And such is the delusion of sin that men trudging through the wilderness to inevitable ruin think they've found the right way to live. I'm actually quite happy, quite comfortable, quite content. Jesus would really mess that up right now.

Oh, you bet he would.

But you're embracing the way of death. And in him alone is life and peace and light and truth and mercy, fullness. It was the great preacher, William Gadsby, who said, in him is all fullness, right? In Christ is all fullness.

And so all else is emptiness.

That's Sarah in the wilderness. It is empty. That's a sinner in the wilderness. It is empty. And everything they pick up is a mirage. Christ is fullness. He is the one who sees. Have I seen him who sees me?

She recognizes something about who this Lord is. Not only his power, he's all present. His knowledge, he's all knowing. She's been addressed by name. But something of his character. He's the only one that's come after her.

And look how tenderly he comes to her. Hey God, where have you come from?

Where are you going?

Do you see God's character shining through? This is the son of God. Abram's been faithless. Sarah's been faithless. They've both been abusive. She's been afflicted. God is faithful. Jeff Thomas says it so well.

Think of Hagar.

Brought to bed by Abram, then completely rejected by him. How much confidence would she have in the religion of a man like Abram? Abram wronged her, but the God of Abram comes looking for her in the desert.

Meets her face to face. Just like he had met with Abram. Just like he'd meet with Moses. Our God, he says, is the God of sinners.

He's the God of sinners.

Like Hagar, and Abram, and me, and you. God meets us in the time of affliction, as we said. He doesn't meet with her in the tent. He doesn't meet with her in the laughter, in the closeness of a relationship with Sarai.

He doesn't meet her when things are going relatively well. He doesn't meet her when she's trying to cobble things out. He meets her when she's at a desperate strait, when she's at the plight, when she's in the wilderness, in a time of trial.

That's when God intervenes. Notice that Hagar doesn't invite him. Hagar doesn't come out crying. If there's some meaning to this, is there some purpose to my life? God, please show yourself. No, God intervenes.

She's not even doing that much.

Most sinners won't do that much. You get to a place, hopefully, where your conscience, under work of the Spirit of God, gets you to the place where you ask the question, how can God be merciful to me, a sinner?

And then you get to the stunning realization that you're seeing the God who has seen you. And so here we have a glimpse of the mercy of God. This site, this encounter will become a place that people go and draw water from.

Thirsty travelers will know. This is Bir Lahai Roi, the well of the living one, who sees me, or it could be translated the well of the seeing one who is living. This is the well of the living God. This is water in the wilderness, a stream in the desert.

John Gill, great 17th century Baptist,.

Gifted Hebrew scholar.

He says, Hagar, perceived by experience, his eye was upon her. Wherever she was, saw all that she did. Saw all her transgressions, her contempt for Sarai, her flight. Saw when she was at the fountain, reproved, recalled her, sent her back.

Saw all the workings of her heart, her repentance, her sorrow for her sins. Looked, smiled upon her, gave her precious promises. Looked upon her with his eye of omniscience. In other words, he knows all.

But also his eye of providence. He controls all. He looked upon her both with his eye of omniscience and providence, and with his eye of love and grace and mercy. She knew all this in this encounter. And therefore, she names him through this conviction.

The living God who sees all. In the time we have left, I want to just unfold and meditate and reflect upon this God who sees. And I hope we have enough time to consider seven points about it. Seven points.

Seven angles on this God who sees. And the first is, what strikes me in the text is, how intensely personal this is. So the first point is this. The God who sees me. The God who sees me. There's nothing generic about this.

There's nothing blurry or gray about this. This is the God who sees me. Have I seen him who sees me? That's what Hagar says. Not just who sees, who must see a lot, who must go from place to place. It's intensely personal.

And we're not in, you know, 21st century Western individualistic times here. Still, notice this. It's the God who sees me.

Only to Hagar does God speak.

We already brought out that point. God's not speaking to Abram. God's not speaking to Sarai. God's in the wilderness, revealing himself to Hagar. Scholars have pointed out that for this time, at this period in ancient Near Eastern literature, there is not a single text where a deity addresses a woman by name, except this here in Genesis 16, verse seven.

This is the only writing that we know of from the ancient Near Eastern world where a deity addresses a woman by her name. Hagar. Hagar, where have you come from? Hagar, where are you going?

Hagar, go back.

Hagar, submit. Hagar, you're with child. Hagar, this is what you're gonna name your child because God hears your affliction, Hagar. Only to Hagar does God speak. It's the God who sees me. He addressed me.

Hagar can go back.

He's addressed me. He's been watching me. He's concerned about me. He cares what's going on in my life. He's concerned that I cry, that I'm afflicted,.

That I have a trial.

He's been watching me.

He sought me.

He knows me. It's the same awe. This is the pre-incarnate son. Let's go to the incarnate son. We're talking about the God who sees me. John, chapter one, beginning in verse 43. The following day, Jesus, right, the incarnate son, wanted to go to Galilee and he found Philip and said to him, follow me.

Now, Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter, right? These are the fishermen. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, we've found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

Nathanael said to him, can anything good come out of Nazareth? I don't know what the equivalent would be for us modern day. Can anything good come out of the Appalachians? I don't know, something like that, maybe the Ozarks.

How could the Messiah, how could the one we've been waiting for come out of this little no-name town, Nazareth? Bunch of hicks, bunch of backwater people in Nazareth. Could anything good come out of there?

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit. Nathanael said to him, how do you know me? Jesus answered and said to him, before Philip called you, you were under the fig tree.

I saw you.

And Nathanael answered and said to him, teacher, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. That's the most amazing exchange, isn't it? Normally, we have that kind of reaction when Jesus causes a lame man to walk or a blind man to see or a leprous man to be pure.

We see that kind of reaction when Jesus teaches some profound mystery of the kingdom or confounds the wisdom of the wise or causes the dead to rise. All Jesus said was, before Philip called you,.

I saw you under the fig tree.

And the response of Nathanael is, you are the son of God. In other words, only God could have known.

Only God could have seen.

And you've seen.

And so you are God.

And you are the one that we've been waiting for. You're the king of Israel. And Jesus answered and said to him, because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, you believe? Even Jesus is surprised by this.

Are you kidding me, that's all it took? Pal, I got a lot more, you should hang out with me. You will see greater things than these. Nathanael is absolutely shocked because only a God who is infinite, only a God who is omnipresent, this one that he has traveled to see for him to have been seen.

Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree. He knows this is the God who sees me.

He sees me, intimate and yet infinite.

Our minds break down when we, I try to do this every now and then, right? You've done this too, where you watch some video, you could do this on YouTube, where they do comparison of planets in our solar system, and then you start going to stars and outside of the solar system, and then even got, and so on.

And you just try to hang on to get that size comparison.

You're like, all right, all right, here we go, all right.

Okay, all right, Mercury, got it, all right,.

Earth, Jupiter, whew, okay, keep going. Wow, the sun, wow. And then you start getting to some of these bigger stars, and your mind just, it's like, nope, 404 error, cannot compute that kind of size. And God is not only constantly present in all of this vast domain, the borders of which we cannot discover, but he just spoke it into existence, infinite.

And even the word infinite cannot contain the reality of infinite. We're always looking for a border, a ceiling, a way to get our hands around it. It's frustrating for us. We have to surrender. We have to yield to what we cannot discover, what we cannot know.

God is infinite, all-powerful, all-knowing. He's everywhere, all of the time.

But he's intimate, he's intimate. Hagar, where have you come from?

Where are you going?

The God who sees me. Secondly, from the text, notice the God who sees affliction. The God who sees affliction. Our passage in verse 11. The angel of the Lord said to her, right, the son of God said to her, behold, you're with child, and you shall bear a son.

You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your affliction. He's not just the God who sees me, he sees me in my affliction. He's the God who sees affliction. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your affliction.

That's what Ishmael means, God hears. The thing that's so stunning about this passage is it's a preview of Israel in Exodus. In Exodus 1, we find Abram's descendants, they're in bondage, they're slaves, just like Hagar's a slave.

And they're in Egypt, the motherland for Hagar. And it's the same language, identical to Hagar's oppression. Think of this, this was Hagar's life, Genesis 16. They set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens, but the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad.

So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves. Ruthless, cruel, spiteful, vengeful. That's what Hagar was dealing with, with Sarai. And then we turn to Exodus 2. And I have to use the ESV here to make the point.