The players:
Mistress: Sarai,
Hubby’s wife
Hubby: Abram,
Mistress’ husband
Maid: Hagar,
Sarai’s servant
Angel: Angel of
the Lord
Act 1:
Childless through many years of marriage, Mistress is
frustrated. One night, she turns to Hubby in their tent:
Mistress: “The Lord has held back children from me. Go,
sleep with my maid. Maybe we can have children through her.”
Hubby hearkens to Mistress. Listening with interest, he
willingly grants her request.
Maid becomes with child.
It all backfires. Besides a big belly, Maid gets a big head.
Maid, singing taunts to Mistress: “I’m pregnant and you’re
not! I’m pregnant and you’re not!”
Later, Mistress to Hubby: “It’s all your fault!”
Hubby: “She’s your
servant. Do what you want with her.”
Mistress, then, treats Maid harshly.
Act 2:
Treated severely, Maid runs away to the wilderness.
Feeling forsaken and utterly alone, Maid, in tears over her
plight, sits by a spring of water, somewhere on the way to Shur (meaning a
wall), where she encounters an Angel of the Lord.
Angel: “Where did you come from? And where are you going?”
Maid: “I am running away from my Mistress.”
Angel: “Return to her and humble yourself to her. Then, I
will greatly multiply your descendants. The Lord has heard your cry of
distress.”
Act 3:
Maid names the Angel: The Living One Who Sees Me.
She also names the well: The Well of the Living One Who Sees
Me.
Finale:
Maid goes back where she belongs...serving her Mistress, the
one ruling over her. And she is blessed with a multitude of descendants.
Personal application:
Act 1: The problem
Question 1: Have you ever had a situation that just wasn’t
working out right?
Question 2: Have you ever had a problem, or been a part of
someone else’s problem, and you, or the other person, did something without thinking
it through?
Question 3: Has someone treated you so badly that, in your
hurt, you wanted to escape?
Act 2: The consequence
1): Maybe, like Sarai, you got tired of waiting on God. You tried
to help Him out by acting on your own, doing something that wasn’t His plan, and
you suffered overwhelming consequences.
2): Maybe, like Paul, when those around you struck out on
their own, not consulting God, you got caught in their aftermath, and you felt as
if you were shipwrecked.
3): Maybe, like Hagar, you ran from your situation to the wilderness,
where you sat down all alone, forsaken, and cried a bazillion teardrops. Maybe
you ran up against a Shur-wall.
Act 3: The application
At one time or another, we have all experienced at least one
of the above three scenarios.
When circumstances become overwhelming and our heart is
aching, we all want to run to the wilderness to escape our problems, whether of
our own or someone else’s doing, and cry.
We might feel alone and forsaken, but are we? No. God is
with us. It’s not like the song, I Guess
the Lord Must Be in New York City! He’s not
somewhere else.
In the Old Testament, God’s name and His presence were
synonymous: Jehovah-shammah, meaning the Lord is present or there. In the New
Testament, it is the same; Jesus’ name is Immanuel, God with us.
God is present; He is with us. He sees our tears; He sees
our heartaches; He sees our struggles.
He says, “I will be with you. I will not leave you nor
forsake you.” (Josh. 1:5 NKJV)
We cannot run to a place so desolate, so forsaken, that the
Lord will not find us. For wherever we go, there He is! No running away from
any circumstance can ever separate us from God’s presence.
*Denouement
(conclusion)
Running to your prayer closet to seek the Lord is preferable
to running away from your trials. In God’s presence, you will receive His
guidance, comfort, provision, love, forgiveness, joy, and His peace. Whatever
your heart needs.
When you sit by the well of the One Who sees you, you are
filled with courage and strength to return to where you belong...to serving and
submitting to the One ruling over you.
No matter where you go, what you do, what your need, or what
happens to you, God is there and you will encounter Him. And you will be blessed
in your returning to Him.
In your tears and your heartaches, in your wilderness times
of distress, remember...
...The Living One sees you.
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