The Bible is full of surprises. There is an overarching story that God is directing, and yet he chooses to write it with human characters. Even when they go “off-script”, God’s story will get told, with extra twists and turns included.
In season five we're learning to listen to and pray Bible stories or narratives. In our podcast we take time to listen to God's word, reflect on it and then pray it back to God as well as carry that word with us through the rest of the day.
Abram and Sarai were promised great blessing by God, but they also struggle to fully embrace God's timing and methods of working. Often other people get caught up in the consequences, whether Pharaoh, Abimelech or in today's episode Hagar. Sarai takes an active role in this chapter of the story much like Eve in Genesis 3.
Hagar has a similar experience to Hannah in 1 Samuel 1-2 (see the early episodes of season 5). Through her difficulties, she comes to realize that Yahweh is the God who sees me (El Roi) and her son is named God hears (Ishmael), a name very similar in root and meaning to Samuel.
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