{"id":4071,"date":"2022-07-02T05:28:36","date_gmt":"2022-07-02T10:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=4071"},"modified":"2022-07-02T05:28:36","modified_gmt":"2022-07-02T10:28:36","slug":"devotional-on-genesis-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-genesis-18\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Genesis"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-Lnqw2zh4ctM\/XMDetp6AQQI\/AAAAAAAA6xg\/qLmd3gpYffQPegdjotZ89ygf2FcVF_bJACKgBGAs\/s1600\/P5039342.JPG\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Horsethief Campground &#8211; Moab, UT<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Abraham and Sarah and Hagar<br \/>\nGenesis 16: You\u2019re the God who sees me!<br \/>\nThe story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar is such a sad one. While I know that I\u2019m reading an event from long ago that took place in a culture very different than mine, the way Hagar is treated is pitiful. Sarah, who&#8217;s childless, sees that those in the culture around her have a sort of solution for the problem. They use a slave girl as a surrogate. Apparently, giving one\u2019s servant to one\u2019s husband is less humiliating in that culture than being childless. Hagar has no say in the matter and Abraham docilely goes along Sarah\u2019s foolish plan. When the girl gets pregnant by Abraham the already horrible situation begins to unravel further. Hagar, who has never had much of a chance in life, decides to run away from the people who&#8217;ve abused her. My belief is that her choice to run is probably the right one. However in this case and in this day and culture, there are extenuating circumstances. As she flees, she encounters the God she&#8217;s heard Abraham and Sarah talk about. To her amazement, God not only knows about Abraham and Sarah, he knows her name too. This God cares about her and gives her a promise similar to the one he gave Abraham years earlier. Hagar connects with the Lord and calls him El Roi \u2013 the \u201cGod who sees.\u201d As I read this incident and then of Hagar\u2019s second encounter with El Roi a few pages over, I\u2019m reminded that God sees the plight of the outcasts of the world. He sees and he cares about their lives. Since I\u2019m a worshiper of this seeing God my values ought to reflect his values. I\u2019m to show compassion on those who are mistreated by society. As I\u2019m able, I\u2019m to help lift their burden. Whether I can do that or not, I\u2019m to value them as people the God I worship, El Roi, sees and cares about.<br \/>\nTake away: God cares about the abused and the outcasts. I\u2019m to do the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Abraham and Sarah and Hagar Genesis 16: You\u2019re the God who sees me! The story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar is such a sad one. While I know that I\u2019m reading an event from long ago that took place in a culture very different than mine, the way Hagar is treated is pitiful. Sarah, who&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1497,7],"tags":[127,198],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4071"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4071"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13711,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4071\/revisions\/13711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}