Getting to Know God - Part Two

Posted on August 26, 2007

 

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Genesis 16:1-17:27

ONE GREAT TRUTH: God wants you to know Him as the God who sees you and cares for you.

TWO GREAT QUESTIONS…

1.         Do you know the God who sees you in your pain? (El-Roi, chapter 16)

Abram knows better. Sarai knows better. Hagar even knows better, but bears the least guilt because she was responding to authority. God especially knows better but allows this decision to be made to fulfill His greater purposes for the planet.

Imagine the pain that Hagar feels – the feeling of being a slave, a second, a thing to be used rather than an object of loving intimacy. On top of the feelings associated with Abram there are the tensions between her and her Master’s wife. The pressure is too much, so she begins to run away. God visits her and tells her to return home and submit to her masters. Then He reminds her, “I’ve seen your affliction.”

Do you realize that no matter what you’ve been through, God sees you in your pain?

2.         Do you know the God who cares for you always? (El-Shaddai, chapter 17)

Abram (Father) becomes Abraham (Father of a Multitude). Yet, at 99, he still has no child with Sarai. She receives a name change too, from Sarai (Princess) to Sarah (Nobelwoman).

Here, God reveals Himself as El-Shaddai. The Hebrew word shad means breast, and it relates to a nursing mother. In other words, the Almighty Master is also like a nursing, nurturing mother to His children. There is such a tenderness here.

Romans 4:16-22 tells us more about Abraham’s journey of faith and believing in God at the ripe old age of 99. He hoped when there was no hope, he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief. How was he able to do this? Because he knew God who nursed and cared for him in the toughest moments of life.

·         God promised Abraham that he would be the Father of a Multitude through Sarah’s son, Isaac, and that kings and nations would proceed from him, pointing to King Jesus.

·         God promised Sarah that she would witness the same.

·         God promised to bless and multiply Ishmael too, and today he is still a vast nation of people, the Arab race.

·         God instituted circumcision as a sign of their covenant and of His identity, so that the generations to come and the surrounding nations may know El-Shaddai!

Do you know the God who cares for you throughout all of your life, who has a plan for you?