Rejection To Protection - Deserts: God’s Provision in the Wilderness

“Hagar used another name to refer to the LORD, who had spoken to her. She said, ‘You are the God who sees me.’” (Genesis 16:13, NLT)

Whether you’ve put yourself out there on a dating app, in a new small group, or at work, you’ve experienced being turned down. It cuts deep.

The first two deserts we are going to visit in our studies together will be the Desert of Shur and the Desert of Beersheba. For Hagar, an enslaved woman on the run, both locations represented profound, abusive rejection.

Hagar’s story is set in a place where many people get lost and die of thirst. But not Hagar or her son. God brought them through the most severe form of rejection to get them to a place of protection.

God could have easily omitted this story from the canon of Scripture, but instead, he chose to expose the wrongdoings of some of the original faith family. Although I prefer to skip over stories in the Bible like Hagar’s, I am also comforted that our righteous God, the God of justice and mercy, intentionally gives Hagar’s exploitation a place in his Word. In a way only God can, he simultaneously gives voice to Hagar’s plight, tells on Sarai and Abram, teaches us how to avoid their mistakes, and ensures we know that he can be trusted to protect us.

Only God could author a literary masterpiece thousands of years old set in a totally different culture with ancient characters and settings we can hardly pronounce while also telling true stories we can all relate to for all time.

God wants us to move on from rejection and into his protection, just like Hagar.

This is not to say God wants or wills you to go through rejection. God is good. He has good plans for you, plans to prosper and not to harm you (Jeremiah 29:11). He may allow each of us to experience the consequences of our own sin or the sin of others, but we can be confident in God’s character: He is always redeeming our stories. God is a protecting God. Give him long enough, and you’ll see that he’s working all things out for your good. Even through rejection.

Hagar was discarded, disgraced, and displaced. But God. He came near to her in her time of greatest need. Hagar becomes the first and only person in the Bible to name God. Seen by God, she names him El Roi, “the God who sees.” So, too, does he see us.

Read:

Genesis 16, 21

Prayer:

Dear God, you are the one who sees me in my pain, frustration, and rejection. Help me to remember that, even when I feel abandoned, you are drawing near to me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.