Found

“Now the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness,

By the spring on the way to Shur”. (Genesis 16:7) NKJV

I have a terrible sense of direction. I’ve been lost often. Having a GPS has made things better, but I still get turned around sometimes and end up just short of my destination. If you’ve ever lost your way, you know the stress it causes. Since Genesis 16:7 suggests that Hagar was found, one would assume she’d been lost. But Hagar was not lost! She was headed home, back to Egypt by way of Shur. Exhausted from running, she stopped to rest at a spring o water south of Palestine and just east of Egypt. Things had not turned out as she expected. What a colossal mess! After ten years of being Sarah’s maidservant, Hagar was done.

Found in this passage means something altogether different. After a physical attack at the hands of her mistress, Hagar fled. True to her name, she ran to safety. (Hagar means “flight” stemming from a root word meaning “to flee”.) Where did she end up? In the presence of the Angel of the Lord. Found in this passage means “The Angel of the Lord” came to her aid. Suddenly, Hagar has a theophany in which she receives a prophetic promise of personal blessing from God. How very rare and unique! It’s the first encounter with “the Angel of the Lord” in the Bible. Note: He makes no appearance after the birth of Jesus, and is generally identified as the pre-incarnate Christ.

Hagar was running, but we can’t outrun our problems. She thought she could, but the Angel of the Lord stopped her in her tracks, not once, but twice. Her thrilling story is far from finished. If you’d like to read it in its entirety, you can. It’s available in Women of the Bible and God’s Redeeming Love. We need not despair even though trials and hardships will affect all of us at one time or another. Jesus knew they were coming. His half-brother, James promised adversity in James 1:2, when he said “when” trials come, not “if” they come. It’s not heaven yet. Our lives here include various hardships: death, divorce, illness and disease, unemployment, betrayal, physical and emotional struggles, financial woes, wayward children – many things. If we run, most often our troubles accompany us on the journey. A geographical cure never works! I speak from experience. I was a runner, and running never solved one thing. Really, most of the time it complicated matters all the more.

Prayer: Mighty and gracious Lord, you are my refuge and strength. I will run to you in times of trouble. You know my heart and hear my despair. Calm my fears and fill me with your peace, the peace of God which passes all knowledge and understanding. Thank you, Jesus. I will trust in you. Amen.