“Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her. The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” Genesis 16:6-8 NIV
What a question God posed to Hagar! “Where have you come from, and where are you going?”
Where have you come from? Isn’t this a question we deal with routinely throughout our lives?
Hagar was coming from being put in a very bad position by Sarai and Abraham. In the end she had been mistreated by Sarai so she decided to flee her current circumstances. Have you ever been in this type of situation? Have you ever found yourself in a situation that was so overwhelming you just wanted to flee? Perhaps you felt like running away, just like Hagar. You may have thought, “If I had to do that all over again….”
I find comfort in knowing that God always knows when we are overwhelmed. Our heartache and pain never go unnoticed by our God. In Hagar’s saddest, darkest moments, God was there to help.
Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up. Proverbs 12:25 NIV
That’s exactly what happened as the angel of the Lord ministered to Hagar. At the very moment she had a heavy weight upon her heart, the angel of the Lord came to give her encouragement.
For it is written:
I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered. Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” Genesis 16:8-10 NIV
Praise our Lord! Though Hagar had a life altering problem, and choose to flee from it without a real plan, the Lord sought her out and gave her the answers she so desperately needed. Then He encouraged her with a wonderful promise!
We need to remember this in our journey. The answer to our problems is always God. The Angel of the Lord, in our lifetime, just may be Christ himself, and often is. So don’t look back, and don’t flee from your troubles.
It is written:
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? Isaiah 43:18-19 NIV
Don’t focus on your painful past, seek the Lord instead. He holds the answer.
Love one another….
Barnabas
Special thanks to Barnabas for this guest submission.