Whose Advice? Hagar is Found

An important step in planning any journey is getting advice. When going to the grocery, that may mean checking the ads to see who has the best sales. Perhaps a friend tells us that roasts are only $2 a pound someplace. We may decide to change our normal buying routine and go to a store that we don’t normally visit based on the advice we get. Sometimes we get good advice and sometimes we find out the information was wrong. (We get to the store to discover that roasts aren’t on sale after we fill our basket with other food.) On our journey with Hagar, we reach the point of the journey where we need to get advice.

Hagar did not get good advice before she left Abram’s camp. We don’t know if she talked to other members of the tribe or if she just decided to run away. In any event she found herself, as we saw last week, at “a spring of water in the wilderness.” She is at a fork in the road on her journey. Alone and confused, Hagar thinks she has nowhere to turn. She enters into a conversation with the “angel of the Lord” who gives her some rather unwelcome advice.

And he said, ‘Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?’ She said, ‘I am running away from my mistress Sarai.’ ’The angel of the LORD said to her, ‘Return to your mistress, and submit to her.’ The angel of the LORD also said to her, ‘I will so greatly multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude.’ And the angel of the LORD said to her, ‘Now you have conceived and shall bear a son; you shall call him Ishmael, for the LORD has given heed to your affliction. He shall be a wild ass of a man, with his hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him; and he shall live at odds with all his kin.’ (Gen. 16:8-12)

Hagar is advised to return to Sarai. This is not the counsel she wants. Often when we come to a turning point or crossroads on our journey we are confronted with unwelcome advice. Friends may point out that we need to quit some habit that is bad for our health or advise us to leave a job we are unhappy with.

“I don’t want to return to Sarai,” Hagar may have argued. “If Abram really wanted this child, he would have come after me. I don’t want to go back to the camp. It will be worse now than it was before. How do I know you are really from the God of my master?”

Hagar, like us, is hesitant to follow the advice. To soften the blow, and to encourage her, the messenger tells Hagar ‘your offspring [will be so many] that they cannot be counted for multitude.’ To start this dynasty, she will bear a son who will be named Ishma-el. The name means El (God) hears or listens and understands. Names were more important in ancient times than they are in the modern western world, so this name was assurance to Hagar that God knew about her “affliction.” Every time she speaks to her son, she will be reminded of this encounter.

Hagar is confronted, in the midst of her distress, by the active, present, all-knowing, loving God. She is given the assurance, through the name of her son, that God always sees and understands her situation.

“How can this be, I am only a slave girl?” Hagar’s confusion is understandable. “If I return to Abram, my son will no longer be mine, but will belong to him.”

Then the angel tells her that Ishmael will “be a wild ass of a man…and he shall live at odds with all his kin.” This is not necessarily a comforting comment to a pregnant woman who hopes for security for her unborn child.

Like each of us Hagar had to decide whether to accept the words of the angel and believe that God could accomplish what was promised or she could refuse to listen and obey. We have to be careful who we ask for advice and what advice we heed. We have the option of listening to caring friends or of taking no action at all.

There is always someone willing to tell us what we think we want to hear—comforting words rather than true advice. At other times good counselors direct us toward God (like my grandchild sharing the Bible with mom's guinea pigs). The same God who met Hagar, sends us good advisors for the big decisions we need to make. It’s up to us to listen and act on their advice.

Who do you listen to when you need advice? Friends? Scripture? The web? Co-workers?

How do you decide whose advice is good and whose isn’t that great? One way is to check with more than one source or friend. Another is to listen to what your heart tells you about the advice. Prayer is often our last option, esp. taking/finding time to listen to God’s response. I find one way to focus my questions and seek answers is:
SPEND time in prayer, laying your current questions and concerns before God.
THEN take time to sit in silence and listen for any answer that may come.
BE AWARE throughout the week of conversations, articles, or other ways that God may be speaking to you.
RETURN again to prayer again to “be still and know God”.

We only have a couple of more weeks with Hagar. Next week we'll see whether or not she listened to the advice of the messenger of the Living God. See you then.

The Journey Begins

We are at the start of a new year and a new decade. Like me, you may have made resolutions for the direction of your journey this year. It’s easy to make a resolution, but if I don’t plan how to follow through and get there, it is easy to get lost. Over this next year, I’m inviting you to join me in a journey of discovery or re-discovery of Biblical women and men who can mentor us, even in our very different world, if we let them. Between now and mid February we’ll explore what Hagar can teach us about journeys and planning.

Hagar was the Egyptian slave maid of Sarah. She was one of the pieces of ‘property’ gained by Abraham in Egypt when he allowed Pharaoh to take his wife into the royal harem. A few years later, back in Canaan, Sarah decides she must use Hagar as a surrogate mother to give Abraham a child. However, when Hagar conceives, Sarah becomes jealous. She treats Hagar cruelly and the maid runs away.

Hagar is one model of someone who was disenfranchised from her people, as a slave; hated by her mistress, for her fertility; angry at God for allowing her exile. She did not plan prudently, but we will see over the next few weeks that God did not abandon her and doesn’t abandon us, no matter how poorly we plan.

This week we’ll look at the basic steps to take when planning a journey of any kind. Today we’ll see that whether it’s a trip to the grocery, a cruise, determining what job to take, or a new direction for your life, the steps are the same. All are journeys and all require some planning. Although you might not think through the process for something as simple as a trip to the grocery, you do review the steps in your mind.

First we have to decide where we are going—grocery, Alaska, new career, diet, etc.

Then we have to map our route to get to the goal—lists of what we need and streets to get to the store, airplanes and ships or driving to Alaska, schooling and resumes to get a new career, buying healthy foods and joining a gym to help our diet..

This means we must get advice from friends and experts—which store has the best sales, what should we see in Alaska, how to get the best preparation for a new job, is a trainer needed for weight loss…?

We set out on the journey and see results—buying the food needed, taking off for an Alaskan vacation, sending resumes, or starting our diet.

After we’ve been on the journey for a time, we need to re-evaluate our goal. This often happens naturally. We see something else on sale at the store or hear of a unique side trip on the vacation. Maybe a job offer comes from an unexpected source or we miss a week of exercise and diet because of visitors.

Every so often, however, we should stop and really look at our journey. Is the store we habitually shop at really the best for our needs? Would we take another Alaskan tour? Is our career choice or employer fulfilling our needs? Should the diet be adjusted in some way?

The same is true in our spiritual journey. We are all spiritual beings, by whatever name we call God. Each of us in on a unique journey with God and it follows the same steps:
Determining where we are going—finding a deeper relationship, for instance.
Getting advice from friends, the Bible, books, church, etc.
Setting out is something we’ve been doing since birth, but sometimes the journey is more intentional than others.
Evaluate where we are on the journey—do I feel closer or farther from God, do I need to change my habits or find a mentor?

Have you ever broken your life down into stepping stones and looked at the path you have taken? I would encourage you to take time to do so as we set out on this journey with Hagar. Break your life into 3, 5, or even 10 year sections and reflect on what was important to you in each of those times. Think about family, spiritual (not necessarily church related), environment (home, school, friends), and major life changing events for each of the steps of your life.

For me, a major stepping stone happened in 2000. I started down a new pathway that has led me to new friends and new adventures. In many ways it feels like yesterday, but it has been a decade. I didn’t really anticipate that my first book, It is I, Joseph, would lead to 6 other books, a blog, a website, speaking engagements, and several studies based on the books. Rather like Hagar in the Old Testament I jumped in without really knowing what I was doing or what I was getting into.

Next week we will start walking with Hagar and see what new directions it will take us in our journey together this year. See you here.