God’s Loving Kindness

God’s Loving Kindness

Psalm 63:3

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b38ttun-apc

As I was approaching what to say for this Mother’s Day message, two distinct things came as I was in prayer. The first was to look at the lovingkindness of God, and the second was the story of Hagar.

Now, the lovingkindness of God really got my interest, because it is mentioned throughout the Bible, and through its many stories in the Bible. But I wondered how the story of Hagar fit into a Mother’s Day message, because there isn’t much said about her, except she was the Mother of Ishmael, the son of Abraham, and the father of the Arab people.

But then taking another look at the story, I saw the lovingkindness of God on full display. And so, let me share with you what I see within these two areas, Hagar and the lovingkindness of God.

Hagar’s story is found in Genesis chapter 16 and 21. But, to understand, the story found in these two chapters and what lies between them isn’t about her, it’s about Abraham and Sarah. It’s about God’s promise of a son to Abraham, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, along with the time they spent in the land of Gerar.

So, let me take a moment and give to you what it says and what happened with Hagar in these two chapters.

Hagar was a female bondservant, some versions say, “slave,” that served Sarah. Back in those days, one of the ways that someone entered into the service of another as a bondservant, or slave, was when they either sold themselves, or were sold by their family to pay a debt. This may have been how Hagar became a maid servant to Sarah.

But it was also a practice during these times that a child could be born to a family through one of their servants. We see an example of this practice in the story of Jacob with his two wives, Rachel and Leah, who gave to Jacob their two maidservants, Zilpah and Bilhah. And it is from all four that the 12 tribes of Israel originate.

Well, as Sarah’s maid servant, Hagar, was offered to Abraham by Sarah as a surrogate to bear to Abraham and Sarah a son, to fulfill God’s promise. The only problem is that this was never God’s idea, and thus it produced trouble in the family dynamic, to say the least.

After she got pregnant, it says that Hagar began to despise Sarah, and so Sarah began to treat Hagar harshly, maybe even abusively. Well, Hagar could only take so much so she ran away, but the Angel of the Lord met her on the way and told her to return and submit herself.

But along with this request came the promise of a son who would give her descendants too numerous to count. Further, she was to call his name, Ishmael, which means, “God hears.” This is instrumental in our understanding because God heard her cry and was going to intercede.

What I find interesting at this point is that Hagar is the only woman who gives God a proper name. She said, “You-Are-the God-Who-Sees,” or “El Roi.” And the well of water in which the Angel of the Lord met her, she gives the name, “Beer Lahai Roi,” or the “Well of the Living One that Sees me.”

And so, the Lord both heard and saw her, and what we could say heard and saw the child, Ishmael, within her womb, and gave to her a promise to see both of them through these difficult times.

Later, God visited Abraham and Sarah, and Sarah became pregnant with Isaac, and after Isaac had been weaned, Abraham threw a feast, but instead of celebrating, Ishmael began mocking.

Sarah then had Abraham send both Hagar and Ishmael away. Soon, their water and food ran out and Hagar left Ishmael under some bushes so she couldn’t hear his cry or see him die. It was then that the Angel of the Lord came again and said that God had heard the cry of Ishmael, and opened her eyes to a well of water, and again promised that Ishmael would grow and become a great nation.

And so, we get to the second part of our message and that is the lovingkindness of God.

The verse that came to mind when I saw this was Psalm 63:3, which was part of a praise and worship song that was quite popular in my early years as a Christian from Maranatha Music, which simply put Psalm 63:3-4 to music.

“Thy lovingkindness is better than life,

My lips shall praise Thee, thus I will bless Thee,

I will lift up my hands unto Thy name.”

But for this message it was the first part of verse 3 that captured my attention.