What is the matter?

Genesis 16: ⁷The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. ⁸And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
      ”I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.

 ⁹ Then the angel of the LORD told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” ¹⁰ The angel added, “I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count.”

 ¹¹ The angel of the LORD also said to her:
       “You are now with child
       and you will have a son.
       You shall name him Ishmael, 
       for the LORD has heard of your misery.

 ¹² He will be a wild donkey of a man;
       his hand will be against everyone
       and everyone’s hand against him,
       and he will live in hostility
       toward all his brothers.”

 ¹³ 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.” ¹⁴That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

 ¹⁵ So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. ¹⁶ Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

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Genesis 21: ¹⁴Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the desert of Beersheba.

 ¹⁵ When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. ¹⁶Then she went off and sat down nearby, about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there nearby, she/he began to sob.

 ¹⁷ God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. ¹⁸ Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”

 ¹⁹ Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

 ²⁰ God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. ²¹While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.

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I’ve been really enjoying our study of Genesis in ladies’ Bible class. A few weeks ago we were looking at Hagar and we saw something that has been really helpful for me this last week.

In Genesis 21 God hears the crying. He hears the heart cry out and He comes. I love that the question put to Hagar is “What is the matter Hagar?” We’ve learned that God asks questions for our benefit … not His. In this instance I put my own tone to it, to indicate that He’s almost saying, “What is the matter? Surely you are not crying because you think your son is going to die … didn’t I make a promise to you … don’t I keep my promises?”

I’m not sure of the tone … or the exact purpose of the question … but it has been good for me to think about.

How many times do I sit crying over something that God has promised He is taking care of? How many times do I feel like my world is collapsing around me and I begin to freak out … even though His promises say that freaking out is not needed?

I think of a child that is afraid of the monsters under the bed. As an adult … we know nothing is there … but the child’s fear is real. We see the senselessness in their fear as we ask, “What is the matter?” But we comfort them all the same. We don’t scream at them for being irrational … we comfort them.  Just as God comforts us. He sees us. He hears our cries. He comes. He reassures.

A few posts ago I was also reminded that instead of looking at what’s wrong with me and my world I need to look at what is right with God. Last night I fell asleep trying to thank Him for specific things that were “right” about Him. It felt a lot better than staring at the ceiling listing all the things that are wrong with me.