Hagar At the Fountain

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

Genesis 16:13-14

And she called the name of the LORD that spoke to her, You God see me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that sees me?…

I. In speaking of Hagar I shall first dwell for a little upon HER REMARKABLE EXPERIENCE.

1. Observe that Hagar had outlawed herself. The untamable spirit which afterwards showed itself in her son Ishmael raged in her bosom. So, too, have we met with those who have deliberately left the ways of God and the people of God, and all semblance of goodness, because they have thought themselves badly used. They do not, indeed, care what becomes of them: they would flee from the presence of God Himself if they could.

2. While she was there, in the moment of her desperation, she was found by the angel. What was there about her that Jehovah should come out of His place to seek her? Yet He came in unexpected grace as He is wont to do. He remembered the low estate of His handmaiden, and because His mercy endureth forever, He found her by the fountain in the wilderness.

3. When the angel of the Lord found Hagar, He dealt graciously with her. Indeed this was the object of His finding her; He Game in pity, not in wrath. Blessed be God, it has happened to tens of thousands that where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. When they have run away and outlawed themselves, grace has followed them, grace has convicted them, grace has admonished them, and grace has made large promises to them.

II. Now I want you to notice HER DEVOUT ACKNOWLEDGMENT. When that which we have described happened to her, she acknowledged the living God. My text says, "She called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me."

1. She spake to Him that spake to her: after this fashion do we all begin our communion with God. Oh, when God speaks to you, you will soon find a tongue to speak to Him. What did she say?

2. She acknowledged Him to be God. "She called the name of the Lord that spake to her, Thou God seest me." It is one thing to believe there is a God, but it is quite another thing to know it by coming into personal contact with Him.

3. Observe that she acknowledged His observant love. She could not help acknowledging it, for it flashed before her eyes.

4. In the presence of that God she felt overpowered and ready to yield. She was so overwhelmed that no rebellion remained within her. She girds her garments about her, and she makes the best of her way home to the tent of Sarai. Her mistress is hard; but sin is harder.

III. Let me now call to your notice THE MANIFEST AMAZEMENT of this woman; for in her glad surprise she uttered a sentence which runs as follows: "Have I also here looked after Him that seeth me?" Expositors will tell you that as many senses may be given to this sentence as there are words in it; and each one of these senses will bear a measure of decent defence. I shall not go into them all, but I think I see clearly that she was amazed that God should care for her. "Thou God seest me. Have I also here looked after Him that seeth me?" Does He see me? Do I see Him? Do you not say, "Why me, my Lord? Why me?" Sit still in holy wonder, and adore and bless the Lord.

5. I think her next amazement was that she should have been such a long time without ever thinking of Him who had thought so much of her. She says, "Have I also here looked unto Him that seeth me?" "What! Have I been these years with Abraham, and heard about the God who has been looking at me in love, and have I never glanced a thought to Him?" Her ungodliness astounds her.

6. But next, she is amazed still more to think that at last she does look unto God. In effect she cries, "What! Has it come to this? Have I also here looked after Him that seeth me? Is Hagar at last converted? What a surprise it must be to rebels to be thus seized in the arms of grace and transformed into friends of the King! I ask God that such a surprise may await some who are here today. May you also inquire in amazement, "Have I here also looked after Him that seeth me?"

7. One other surprise Hagar had, and that was the surprise to think that she was alive. It was the common conviction of that age that no man could see God and live. The awakened sinner, when he is met with by the God of grace, wonders that he has not been cut down as a cumberer of the ground.

IV. HER HUMBLE WORSHIP.

1. She worshipped God heartily and intelligently, according to her knowledge.

2. She worshipped beyond her knowledge, according to her apprehension.

3. Her worship was wonderfully personal.

4. Her worship proved itself deeply true, for it was followed by immediate practical obedience to the command of the Lord.

V. We will conclude by glancing for an instant at the well which became THE SUGGESTIVE MEMORIAL of this special manifestation and singular experience. That well — we do not know what it had been called before — but that Beer, or well, was henceforth called Beer-lahai-roi, or the well of Him that liveth and seeth. Will we not all at this time drink of that well? It was a very happy thought to attach a holy name to a well, so that every traveller might learn of God as he refreshed himself. When a person comes to drink at certain fountains he reads, "Drink, gentle traveller, drink and pray." The inscription is most suitable. It is fit that men should pray when they receive so precious a refreshment as pure water. It was specially meet that travellers should henceforth and forever pray at a spot where the Lord Himself had been, and had called to Himself a wanderer who had felt compelled to cry, "God lives, and God sees."

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