Called by name

Have you ever heard God call you by name?  We are all familiar with ‘God so loved the world’ but wonderful though that is, it that can seem a little impersonal or distant.  But when God calls you by name, the God that we cannot see suddenly becomes our God, the one who knows us. I remember the thrill I felt when I realised God was speaking to me by name. I wasn’t just a believer, I was Christine.

One of my favourite Bible passages is in John 20 when following the dreadful crucifixion of their Lord, Mary Magdalene went to Jesus’ tomb to anoint the body with spices. She was distraught when she found the body had gone and when a man appeared she thought he was the gardener until he called her by name. Mary must have been familiar with hearing Jesus voice but it wasn’t until he called her Mary, that she realised he was Jesus.

Many of the great people in the Bible were called by name; Abram, Jacob, Moses, David, Paul and even Hagar. That one is a surprise. Hagar was a slave in the household of Abram and Sarai, bought out from Egypt.  When Sarai (as she was known then) couldn’t conceive the promised heir, she came up with the plan for Abram to sleep with her servant girl Hagar and get a son that way.

I wonder what Hagar thought of that. Was she pleased to be elevated to concubine or was it rather hard to sleep with an old man probably 60 years older than herself? Nevertheless she became pregnant and had no difficulty despising the childless Sarai. So much so that Abram withdrew any protection he may have had for the mother of his child and told Sarai she could do what she liked with Hagar. The despiser became despised and fled from her ill treating mistress out into the desert. 

It was there in the desert that the angel of the Lord found her and called her by name. When she admitted she was running away, the angel told her to return to her mistress but he also encouraged her that the child she bore would also have descendants too numerous to count. He did qualify this by telling her that this child would not be popular with anyone. 

Hagar though was so encouraged that ‘She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen^] the One who sees me.” 

The God of Abram now became her God – God had seen her and she had seen him. What had been second hand and impersonal now became deeply personal enabling her to return to Sarai.  

God knows each one of us by name. That is a great encouragement.  When God feels far off, remember that he will come and find you wherever you may have wandered and will remind you of his presence by speaking your name.

God sees

‘You are the God who sees me ….. I  have now seen the One who sees me’ Genesis 16: 13

There can be a tendency on our part to believe that God neither sees nor cares about us nor our situation in an individual way; we are just another believer in the midst of millions of others. When our prayers don’t seem to be being heard or not as we would like or within our time frame, our cry can echo that of both Martha (Luke 10:40) or the disciples in the midst of the storm (Mark 4:38 ) ‘Lord, don’t you care?’

The story of Hagar though is a source of comfort that God knows, sees and cares about us. He sees and acts and it has nothing to do with good behaviour on our part or a faithful prayer life. God sees and intervenes on an individual basis out of his great compassion for us. 

Hagar was Sarai’s Egyptian maidservant. God had promised Abram that he would become a great nation but at the age of 86 and Sarai 76, no child was in sight. Sarai came up with the plan that they should build their family through a child from her maidservant and gave her to Abram to sleep with. She duly became pregnant and then having had the child Sarai could not have, Hagar despised her mistress. As a result Sarai started to mistreat her. Hagar ran away and on the desert road the angel of the Lord met her and asked her what she was doing. She told him her story and he told her to return to her mistress but not to worry she would have a son and so many descendants that ‘they will be too numerous to count’. Knowing that it was God who had spoken to her, she declared that ‘you are the God who sees me.’

14 years later when the child of promise, Isaac, had been born, on the day he was weaned, Abraham held a feast but Ishmael mocked the occasion. Sarah demanded Abraham get rid of both Ishmael and Hagar. Reading between the lines, there had probably been quite a bit of tension between Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael and Isaac. Abraham was not keen to send them away but God assured him that it was alright to do so and he would make both boys into great nations.

Hagar was again in the desert and this time dying for lack of water. No doubt feeling very resentful at her mistreatment, she and Ishmael lay down waiting to die. Again the angel of the Lord appeared to her and reassured her that God knew her situation and had not forgotten his promise to make her son a nation. He showed Hagar a well and the situation was saved. The final encouragement from this story is that ‘God was with the boy as he grew up’ (Genesis 21:20).

God promised Abraham and Sarah a son who would become a great nation and even when they conceived their own version, he extended the promise to cover Ishmael and Isaac. God is faithful even in the midst of our devising our own plans and will continue to work out his promises despite us.

Today if you are feeling that God has forgotten you or the promises that he has made to you, let us take fresh heart from the story of Hagar. Despite her weaknesses God did not turn his back on Hagar or Ishmael. He saw them and today he sees you. On both occasions that the angel met with Hagar in the desert he called her by name. The angel was not just passing by; he was sent by God to Hagar personally to meet with her in her hour of need. He will do the same for you.