God Who Sees

For Genesis 21:9-21, I'm reposting a piece from the Invisible Woman series

 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. ² So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. ³ Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. (Genesis 16: 1-3)

God had promised Abram and Sarai that they would have descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and grains of sand on the beach.  But by Genesis 16, Abram was nearly 80,  Sarai was ten years younger but still very post-menopausal, and they had no children.  But they did have a north African servant girl named Hagar. 

Law and custom permitted the lady of a great household to use a female servant as a surrogate mother.  The servant girl was supposed to lose legal rights to her biological child which the boss-lady would raise as her own.  Genesis 30:1-12 notes that of the patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel were the product of similar arrangements.  You could call it servant surrogacy, or arranged marriage and adoption, or you could call it sexual exploitation of underclass and denial of their parental rights.  Whatever the terminology, Hagar got pregnant by her boss’s husband, ,who was her boss, and also now her husband, too (Genesis 16:3-4).

The shocking, surprising, and absolutely inevitable result of an old lady putting a young lady in bed with her husband ---- was drama. 

“When [Hagar]saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes.”  Hagar got a permanent attitude, but Sarai wasn’t about to put up with an uppity servant girl, sister-wife or not. 

Genesis 16:5-6

Sarai to Abram:  This is all YOUR fault.  Now, I swear to God you better do something about this little girl. 

Abram to Sarai:   She works for YOU.  Do whatever you want.  Just leave me out of it.
Abram to himself (in a Danny Glover whisper):  I’m getting to old for this dung.

84% of homeless women had been physically or sexually abused.  HALF of all homeless women report that domestic violence was the IMMEDIATE CAUSE of their homelessness.

By the  end of Genesis 16:6, Hagar was pregnant, alone, and homeless, fleeing an abusive household in which her rich baby’s daddy had done nothing for her but get her pregnant.

Yeah, I know.  This ancient Bible stuff doesn’t relate to what happens in the modern world.  (Insert sarcastic eye-roll)

67% of the victims of the women who are seriously injured by their abusers never seek medical treatment.  Let me rephrase that: 2/3 of the women who are wounded by their abusers hide their wounds, and that is part of the problem.  Victims of domestic abuse feel invisible.  Our culture treats the victims of domestic abuse as if they are invisible.

They are not invisible.  Not to every one. 

Hagar was alone, homeless, and pregnant with no midwife and no community of women to look after her (i.e., no healthcare), but she was not invisible ---- to God.  God met Hagar in her distressed and disclosed to her a plan, a Divine plan to protect her and to prosper the legacy that would be realized in her yet unborn son (Genesis 16: 11, 12).  

Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, “Have I also here seen Him who sees me?” (Genesis 16:13)

 

God saw Hagar. 

She was not invisible.

Hagar returned to the home of her abusers.  Not surprising.   On average, it takes a victim seven times to leave before staying away for good. 

Years later, Genesis 21:1-19 explains, after the child promised to Sarah was born, Abraham conceded

to his first wife and evicted Hagar and her son Ishmael.  Hagar, now a single mother, again homeless,
 unable to provide for her teenage son. 

But, God was still the God who sees.  Hagar was still not invisible.

The Lord had gotten her out of the abusive home for good, and now the God-Who-Sees “opened her eyes,” so that she could see how to survive, how to provide for her son without compromising her dignity, how to not just survive, but SUCCEED.  The God-Who-Sees invisible women, transformed an abused, abandoned, homeless single mother into the patriarch of a great nation.  

Genesis 25:16 says that Ishmael had 12 sons who were “twelve princes.”  Abraham wouldn’t have 12 male heirs for 2 more generations.  And, because God invented irony, when Abraham’s 12  descendants turned on their brother Joseph, they tried to sell him to Hagar’s descendants (Genesis 37:25-27).

The abused and abandoned women are NOT INVISIBLE.  God sees.  God saves.  God has, can, and will do great things for them.

The mother on the street, again.  The sister whose last boyfriend put his hands on her like boyfriend before him.  The woman and child pleading because they CAN'T go back again: God sees them.  

If we truly serve God, we will open our eyes and see them, too.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (Genesis 16; 21)

 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. ² So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. ³ Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. (Genesis 16: 1-3)

God had promised Abram and Sarai that they would have descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and grains of sand on the beach.  But by Genesis 16, Abram was nearly 80,  Sarai was ten years younger but still very post-menopausal, and they had no children.  But they did have a north African servant girl named Hagar. 

Law and custom permitted the lady of a great household to use a female servant as a surrogate mother.  The servant girl was supposed to lose legal rights to her biological child which the boss-lady would raise as her own.  Genesis 30:1-12 notes that of the patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel were the product of similar arrangements.  You could call it servant surrogacy, or arranged marriage and adoption, or you could call it sexual exploitation of underclass and denial of their parental rights.  Whatever the terminology, Hagar got pregnant by her boss’s husband, ,who was her boss, and also now her husband, too (Genesis 16:3-4).

The shocking, surprising, and absolutely inevitable result of an old lady putting a young lady in bed with her husband ---- was drama. 

“When [Hagar]saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes.”  Hagar got a permanent attitude, but Sarai wasn’t about to put up with an uppity servant girl, sister-wife or not. 

Genesis 16:5-6

Sarai to Abram:  This is all YOUR fault.  Now, I swear to God you better do something about this little girl. 

Abram to Sarai:   She works for YOU.  Do whatever you want.  Just leave me out of it. 
Abram to himself (in a Danny Glover whisper):  I’m getting to old for this dung.

84% of homeless women had been physically or sexually abused.  HALF of all homeless women report that domestic violence was the IMMEDIATE CAUSE of their homelessness.

By the  end of Genesis 16:6, Hagar was pregnant, alone, and homeless, fleeing an abusive household in which her rich baby’s daddy had done nothing for her but get her pregnant.

Yeah, I know.  This ancient Bible stuff doesn’t relate to what happens in the modern world.  (Insert sarcastic eye-roll)

67% of the victims of the women who are seriously injured by their abusers never seek medical treatment.  Let me rephrase that: 2/3 of the women who are wounded by their abusers hide their wounds, and that is part of the problem.  Victims of domestic abuse feel invisible.  Our culture treats the victims of domestic abuse as if they are invisible.

They are not invisible.  Not to every one. 

Hagar was alone, homeless, and pregnant with no midwife and no community of women to look after her (i.e., no healthcare), but she was not invisible ---- to God.  God met Hagar in her distressed and disclosed to her a plan, a Divine plan to protect her and to prosper the legacy that would be realized in her yet unborn son (Genesis 16: 11, 12).  

Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, “Have I also here seen Him who sees me?” (Genesis 16:13)

 

God saw Hagar. 

She was not invisible.

Hagar returned to the home of her abusers.  Not surprising.   On average, it takes a victim seven times to leave before staying away for good. 

Years later, Genesis 21:1-19 explains, after the child promised to Sarah was born, Abraham conceded

to his first wife and evicted Hagar and her son Ishmael.  Hagar, now a single mother, again homeless,
 unable to provide for her teenage son.  

But, God was still the God who sees.  Hagar was still not invisible.

The Lord had gotten her out of the abusive home for good, and now the God-Who-Sees “opened her eyes,” so that she could see how to survive, how to provide for her son without compromising her dignity, how to not just survive, but SUCCEED.  The God-Who-Sees invisible women, transformed an abused, abandoned, homeless single mother into the patriarch of a great nation.  

Genesis 25:16 says that Ishmael had 12 sons who were “twelve princes.”  Abraham wouldn’t have 12 male heirs for 2 more generations.  And, because God invented irony, when Abraham’s 12  descendants turned on their brother Joseph, they tried to sell him to Hagar’s descendants (Genesis 37:25-27).

The abused and abandoned women are NOT INVISIBLE.  God sees.  God saves.  God has, can, and will do great things for them.

The mother on the street, again.  The sister whose last boyfriend put his hands on her like boyfriend before him.  The woman and child pleading because they CAN'T go back again: God sees them.  

If we truly serve God, we will open our eyes and see them, too.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 30: 23b "Rebellion or Revolution---for Girls"

Proverbs 30: 21  [NKJV]   For three things the earth is perturbed.  Yes, for four it cannot bear up:
22     For a servant when he reigns,
A fool when he is filled with food,
23     A hateful woman when she is married,
And a maidservant who succeeds her mistress.

Proverbs 30: 21, 23b.  Number4, and final, in this list of shifts that shake the world is a maidservant who succeeds her mistress.  Some translations says a handmaid that is heir to her mistress.

So basically we’re talking about a servant who ends up in her boss’s place. 

In a positive sense, this passage about the glory of upward mobility.  An elite leader recognizes and rewards the merits of her lowly employee who is more qualified to lead than her well-connected peers.

In the negative, this scripture is about a sneaky sister who steals her boss’s place (possibly by stealing her boss’s man).

The point is that sisters can choose to be a Hannah or a Hagar.

Hannah was one of two wives in a polygamist marriage (1 Samuel 1: 1-6).  Her sister-wife (actually the Bible calls the other lady Hannah’s rival) had children, but Hannah was barren.  Socially and legally under the Mosaic law, this depressed Hanna’s status to that of junior wife (Deuteronomy 21: 15-17).  In many ancient families, a junior wife without children was little more than a servant to the “blessed” wife/wives.

But 1 Samuel 1 implies that Hannah was a more virtuous woman than her rival.  For this reason, even though she’d given him no heir, Hannah was her husband’s favorite.  When the time came to divide the profits and favor of the family business, the husband gave Hannah a double-portion (1 Samuel 1: 4, 8)  In the Mosaic system, the double portion goes to a man’s chosen HEIR.

Hannah, the virtuous woman, superseded the other woman, and became the family’s HEIR.

God honored Hannah’s godly heart and gave her a son.  Hannah honored God by giving her son back to the Lord to be trained as a priest ( 1 Samuel 1: 9-28). 

That son was named Samuel.  Samuel was not entitled to high rank in the family, but out of his place in the temple, he became the most important spiritual and political figure in the nation.

Samuel instituted the monarchy in Israel.  He prophesied the rise and fall of high priests and kings.  Samuel consecrated the biological line of the Messiah. 

Through virtue, humility, and the integrity to keep her promises to God, Hannah brought forth a son who changed the world.

Hagar was maidservant to Abraham and Sarah.  Hagar got caught up in a scheme to use sin (adultery in this case) as a backdoor to attaining God’s promised blessing.  Drama ensued when Hagar gave birth to  Abraham’s firstborn son. 

Hagar got an attitude with Sarah.  Abraham copted out of his responsibility. Sarah abused Hagar.  Hagar ran away with the child. Then they came back. (Genesis 16)  

Abraham was crazy about his son.  He exalted the child, which meant that he exalted Hagar (Genesis 17: 18).  The young maidservant supplanted her mistress.

Hannah’s rise was based on godliness.  Hagar’s rise was based on sin.

Hannah’s son became one of the greatest prophets in history.  He was the kingmaker of Israel. 

Hagar’s son Ishamael became the patriarch of the Arab nations.  He is ultimately the reason Islam, the religio-political enemy of the Jewish nation, exists.

In Proverbs 30: 23, God speaks directly to and about women.  The Holy Spirit delivers an extraordinarily empowering message to the daughters of the King.

No matter where you start, sister, you can rise to the highest status.  Like men, women also leave a legacy.    If your rise is based on godliness, then your legacy will be great.  If your ascension is based on sin and deception, then no matter whom else you blame----your legacy will be one of corruption.

You can climb the ladder in a way that is sinful and REBELLIOUS, or you can advance in a way that is righteous and REVOLUTIONARY.

One way or another, sisters ---- you have equal potential to turn the world upside down.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

Call  334-288-0577
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme@blogspotcom.

If you enjoy our work, please help support our work in the community. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church

Proverbs 30: 23b "Rebellion or Revolution---for Girls"

Proverbs 30: 21  [NKJV]   For three things the earth is perturbed.  Yes, for four it cannot bear up:
22     For a servant when he reigns,
A fool when he is filled with food,
23     A hateful woman when she is married,
And a maidservant who succeeds her mistress.

Proverbs 30: 21, 23b.  Number 4, and final, in this list of shifts that shake the world is a maidservant who succeeds her mistress.  Some translations says a handmaid that is heir to her mistress.

So basically we’re talking about a servant who ends up in her boss’s place. 

In a positive sense, this passage is about the glory of upward mobility.  An elite leader recognizes and rewards the merits of her lowly employee who is more qualified to lead than her well-connected peers.

In the negative, this scripture is about a sneaky sister who steals her boss’s place (possibly by stealing her boss’s man).

The point is that sisters can choose to be a Hannah or a Hagar.

Hannah was one of two wives in a polygamist marriage (1 Samuel 1: 1-6).  Her sister-wife (actually the Bible calls the other lady Hannah’s rival) had children, but Hannah was barren.  Socially and legally under the Mosaic law, this depressed Hanna’s status to that of junior wife (Deuteronomy 21: 15-17).  In many ancient families, a junior wife without children was little more than a servant to the “blessed” wife/wives.

1 Samuel 1 shows that Hannah was more than her rival.  For this reason, even though she’d given him no heir, Hannah was her husband’s favorite.  When the time came to divide the profits and favor of the family business, the husband gave Hannah a double-portion (1 Samuel 1: 4, 8)  In the Mosaic system, the double portion goes to a man’s chosen HEIR.

Hannah, the virtuous woman, superseded the master wife, and became the family’s HEIR.

God honored Hannah’s godly heart and gave her a son.  Hannah honored God by giving her son back to the Lord to be trained as a priest ( 1 Samuel 1: 9-28). 

That son was Samuel.  Samuel was not entitled to high rank in the family, but from his placement in the temple he went on to become the most important spiritual and political figure in Israel.
Samuel instituted the monarchy in Israel.  He prophesied the rise and fall of high priests and kings. 

Samuel consecrated the biological line of the Messiah. 
Through virtue, humility, and the integrity to keep her promises to God, Hannah left a world-changing legacy.

Hagar was maidservant to Abraham and Sarah.  Hagar got caught up in a scheme to use sin (adultery in this case) as a backdoor to attaining God’s promised blessing.  Drama ensued when Hagar gave birth to  Abraham’s firstborn son. 

Hagar got an attitude with Sarah.  Abraham copted out of his responsibility. Sarah abused Hagar.  Hagar ran away with the child. Then they came back. (Genesis 16)  

Abraham was crazy about his son.  He exalted the child, which meant that he exalted Hagar (Genesis 17: 18).  The young maidservant supplanted her mistress.

Hannah’s rise was based on godliness.  Hagar’s rise was based on sin.

Hannah’s son became one of the greatest prophets in history.  He was the kingmaker of Israel. 

Hagar’s son Ishamael became the patriarch of the Arab nations.  He is ultimately the reason Islam, the religio-political enemy of the Jewish nation, exists.

In Proverbs 30: 23, God speaks directly to and about women.  The Holy Spirit delivers an extraordinarily empowering message to the daughters of the King.

No matter where you start, sister, you can rise to the highest status.  Like men, women also leave a legacy.    If your rise is based on godliness, then your legacy will be great.  If your ascension is based on sin and deception, then no matter whom else you blame----your legacy will be one of corruption.

You can climb the ladder in a way that is sinful and REBELLIOUS, or you can advance in a way that is righteous and REVOLUTIONARY.

One way or another, sisters ---- you have equal potential to turn the world upside down.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064