Genesis 16:13
Harry Foster
WE seldom pay much attention to little Hagar. The allegorical use of her as the slave mother in Paul's letter to the Galatians, tends to make us think slightingly of this Egyptian and her son. We are told that they had to be cast out, and on the whole we are prepared to leave it at that.
But Hagar was more than an allegorical figure -- she was a human being whom God loved. It is true that she was a stranger by birth and a slave at heart, but is not that where we all begin? She has things that can be said against her but she has left us all in her debt, for she it was who first pronounced this wonderful spiritual truth: "Thou God seest me". I, for one, thank her profoundly for such comforting words.
It is typical of graceless men that they distort this happy confession and make it into an attack [97/98] upon the God of the Old Testament. Is there a single writer with some early experience of the Bible who can resist a sneer at this conception of a malicious snooper upon human affairs? One after another, in their biographies or novels, they describe the wall-text with a large EYE, and the ominous warning that a fault-finding God is spying on you in your most private room. It almost seems a 'must' for those who want to have a sly dig at the Old Testament. If they sincerely considered the matter they would discover that the description applies equally to the Jesus of the New Testament, and if they really verified their reference by turning to the actual story in Genesis they would find that Hagar -- far from resenting God's all-seeing eye -- found the sweetest comfort in her discovery of an understanding God.
"Thou God seest me." Is it a warning? Well, if Abraham's daughter-in-law, Rebecca, had just remembered that story of Hagar, she might not have plotted with Jacob to deceive Isaac. Her old husband was blind, and fair game for their deception, but God is not blind. He sees it all. She might have saved her family from that disgraceful quarrel if she had kept Hagar's words in mind. True, she did not foil God's purposes -- nobody can do that -- but she lost her pampered son Jacob, and never saw him again, and all because she ignored that all-seeing eye of God.
Later on, a happier recollection of this divine title took place down in Hagar's native Egypt, for Joseph rejected the immoral advances of Potiphar's wife with the reminder that although her husband might not see them, God could. As he fled the temptation he exclaimed: "How then can I do this great wickedness against God?" (Genesis 39:9). "Thou God seest me." That reminder sent Joseph to an unjust prison but it preserved him for God's highest purposes. Had he not heeded that warning he might have avoided immediate trouble, but he certainly would have missed the throne!
So even as a warning, the phrase can be most helpful. Nevertheless, it was not coined with this in mind, but was the grateful ejaculation of a greatly tried slave-girl, who found that God loves slaves.
IT must have seemed to Hagar that nobody cared for her at all. She was far from her native land. We remember that the visit of Abram and Sarai to Egypt was a matter of wilful unbelief, so we have no reason to think that their employment of Hagar was a matter of prayer. She was available; she was probably cheap; possibly she was actually sold by her parents to these affluent Hebrew visitors. It is unlikely that her wishes were consulted, either then or later. She was a mere chattel.
"Ah," but somebody will say, "What a privilege to live in such a godly home!" That is a very doubtful assumption. The truth is that there is only a godly atmosphere in a home where husband and wife honour God's Word and pray together. Did Abram and his wife share the promises of God round a family altar? If they had done so, then Sarai would never have made her unbelieving proposal to exploit Hagar for their own convenience, and if she had, Abram would not have listened to her. Did the husband and wife wait together on God in family prayers? If they had, God would not have left them to their own carnal devices and would not have let them spend thirteen empty years with no message at all from Himself. No, I fear that the truth is that Hagar lived and worked in a home where there was little, if any, evidence of God's presence. Any home where there is no regular sharing of God's Word and no mingling of praise and prayer at the Throne of Grace is a place where people do not meet God. Hagar never did.
