Beer-Lahai-Roi

Women I believe are just so powerful. God’s beautiful design for us from the very beginning is truly incredible. I think of the story of Abram and Sarai specifically Hagar. Sarai was barren, but her husband was to be the father of many nations. Sarai gives her servant Hagar to her husband to become pregnant to fulfill this promise of the Lord. Genesis 17:5 We could dig deeper into this, how Sarai relied on her own “strength” to fulfill this promise instead of relying on the Lord and trusting him and his timing, but that’s a topic for a different day.

 Lets jump to Hagar. A servant, who is told to go and lay with her master’s husband. So, she does what she is told and becomes pregnant according to Sarai’s plan. She obeyed her master then her master becomes angry, bitter, resentful and just cruel to her out of jealousy that she is carrying her husband’s child. I don’t think I can even imagine how devastating that would feel, Hagar did nothing wrong but was being treated poorly because of her obedience. The bible tells us that Sarai dealt harshly with Hagar until Hagar fled. Hagar fled into the wilderness, pregnant, alone, emotionally distraught. Hagar fled to the wilderness until she comes to a spring of water …she cries out to the Lord. What happens next is crucial. The Lord hears her cries, and the angel of the Lord appears to tell her to back to Sarai…what? Go back? Yes, go back to and the Lord would multiply her seed exceedingly. I took this to mean this “season” would not last forever and she will be blessed rest assured, and she did as the Lord said,  as tough a pill that must have been to swallow she did as she was told. That spring of water…where the angel of the Lord appeared to her, is called Beer-Lahai-Roi which means WELL OF THE LIVING WHO SEES ME. Even in our darkest hour, when we feel nothing is going right, we are being mistreated and we just want to run away, we can always be assured that he sees us. Run to him, cry to him because he hears the tears of his people. Pslams 34:17 I don’t know about you, but sometimes I need that reminder. Our friends, our family, our spouses may not always understand what’s going on or how we feel or be able to comfort us in time of need but we can always count on the Lord.

Another Beer-Lahai-Roi moment I love is Hannah.  A woman who just wanted to have a child. She was loved by her husband, yet her womb remained closed. I can certainly relate to Hannah. We can tend to tie our value as women into our ability to have children. To anyone who has struggled with fertility, there is certainly much to learn from Hannah. Her story is found in 1 Samuel chapter 1 & 2. Hannah prays, she weeps for a child but feels alone and probably inadequate because she was barren. Add in the fact that her husband’s second wife Peninnah has children. So not only is she unable to have children but she is living with her husband’s other wife who DOES have children.. yikes. To add insult to injury Peninnah taunted and tormented Hannah because of this because Hannah could not have children which is of course already a soft spot. Sure, Peninnah was just jealous because Hannah was loved by Elkanah, but how heartbreaking that must have felt to just be tormented over something you are unable to do, but so desperate for. Still Hannah leaned on the Lord during this time.  Her husband even said “Why are you crying, you have me? Aren’t I better than 10 sons” insert eye roll here…. While we won’t get into why our husbands say silly things like this, we will just focus on the fact that no one understood how sad she felt, not even her husband. The bible tells us she was in bitterness of soul. The Lord heard her prayer though. Psalms 34:4. Hannah is of course blessed with this son she so prayed for. The Lord saw her, delivered her from her afflictions (not immediately) but, in any affliction we face he sees us, he is close to the broken hearted, the heavy laden he will give us peace and comfort, rest in him, trust in him. He sees us. Another good reminder that God does not operate on our time. Hannah prayed for what we can assume was a significant time because of the narrative. Sometimes we want things we are not ready for. Perhaps there was a level of faith or magnitude of love for God that Hannah needed to have first before she could be ready for this blessing, after all Samuel had a high calling on his life. Maybe the shift was when Hannah vowed to the Lord that if he would give her a son she would surely give him back to the Lord to worship the Lord all of the days of his life 1 Samuel 1:11. Maybe it wasn’t until then, that her heart was completely turned toward the Lord, that the Lord decided she was ready. She had to be willing to give this child she desperately wanted and prayed for, back to the Lord. That meant she would not see her child daily, he would not be growing up before her eyes like she imagined, perhaps she would not have been willing to give him to the Lord had she gotten her answered prayer sooner. Can you think of a time in your life when you didn’t get something you prayed for when you prayed for it but got it later?  I encourage anyone who is battling something, even the battles no one else knows about, maybe something you just don’t think would be understood or don’t feel comfortable talking about. Be assured God hears you. He is close to you, he is the living who sees you. Thank you, heavenly Father, for seeing me, hearing me, and delivering me.