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As Christians, we are concerned about whether God is listening to our prayers, but do we really understand that God is watching and listening to our lives?

In Genesis 16 and 21, we find the story of Hagar, an Egyptian woman who was Sarah’s servant and who found herself in a very difficult situation with Abraham and Sarah.

The Situation

As many of you know, Abraham and Sarah (at the time their names were Abram and Sarai) were unable to have children. In an attempt to fix this situation, Sarah gave her servant to Abraham in hopes of conceiving a child. Abraham agreed.

But after Hagar became pregnant, things unfolded differently than Sarah expected. Hagar’s pregnancy elevated her status in the household and she despised Sarah, who sought revenge.

Abraham, after taking Hagar as his wife, left her to Sarah’s abusive behavior—while Hagar was pregnant! Sarah’s abuse was so bad that Hagar tried to run away. Think about that for a moment. Sarah, renowned for her beauty, abused a pregnant woman out of anger—anger at a situation caused by Sarah’s own actions! And Abraham, who had willingly engaged in sexual relations with Hagar, abandoned her to the will of someone who wanted to hurt her, when he could have stopped it. All this while Abraham was in covenant with God.

God Finds Hagar

While Hagar was away, God came and found her, and was very interested in her situation. He did not despise her because she was a slave, nor did He reject her because she was Egyptian. Instead He sent her back to Abraham and Sarah but with promises about her son, a prophecy about his life, and a name for him from God (Gen. 16:7-13). His name was to be Ishmael, which means in Hebrew, “God is listening.”

We aren’t told about what happened when Hagar returned to Abraham and Sarah, but imagine what Abraham must have thought when he heard Ishmael’s name.

Wait, you mean God is listening? To Hagar?

In the naming of Ishmael, God put Abraham and Sarah on notice that He was aware of their actions. And if you know anything about God, when something gets His attention, He does something about it. We’ll get to that later.

Here We Go, Again

After Isaac’s birth (Genesis 21), Sarah started things up again—she wanted Hagar kicked out of the house entirely! This time God consented and Abraham sent them away with some water and bread. That’s it. Abraham, who had 318 servants in his house to help him rescue his nephew Lot (Genesis 14:14), only gave Hagar water and bread. No animals, no servant to protect them, nothing. And this was his first-born son!

But God was listening and He found Hagar and Ishmael again, reminded her of His promise to her, and helped Hagar and Ishmael to survive (Gen. 21:15-21).

The story doesn’t end there.

The Outcome

Hundreds of years later, Abraham’s descendants found themselves in the land of Egypt—Hagar’s country—and there they were enslaved, oppressed, and treated unfairly by the Egyptians. God, based on his covenant with Abraham, delivered the Israelites—who in their deliverance traveled the same path as Hagar.

Hagar left Egypt as an enslaved woman (Gen. 16:1); the Israelites left as enslaved people (Ex. 13:3). Hagar was cast out of Abraham’s house (Gen. 21:9-14) and the Israelites were cast out of Egypt (Ex. 12:33) . After leaving Abraham’s house, Hagar wandered in the desert seeking water (Gen. 21:15-19), as did the Israelites after leaving Egypt (Gen. 17:1-6).

It is not a coincidence that Abraham and Sarah’s descendants ended up in the same position as Hagar, the enslaved woman that they mistreated. There are consequences for our actions, the full ramifications of which we cannot comprehend. So whatever you are doing, or whatever action you’re taking, imagine that God is right there listening to you.

Because He is.

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The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold,
but the LORD tests hearts.

Proverbs 17:3

The parallels in this proverb are very interesting:

1. The refining pot is matched with the Lord, so we see that in the same way precious metals are purified by the refining pot, the Lord purifies people’s hearts.

2. The silver/gold is matched with people’s hearts.  It reminds us that while people place high values on silver and gold, God places a high value on people’s hearts.

Lovely and insightful imagery.

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In Luke 17:11-19, Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem and passed between the cities of Samaria and Galilee. As He entered a certain village in the area, He was met by 10 leprous men who stood far from Him and cried out for mercy.  The men were far away because it was customary at that time for lepers to live separately from others, because they were unclean.

When Jesus moved closer to where they were, He told them to go see the priests. This would have been very encouraging for them, because under the Law, the priests were the ones who declared lepers clean.  So the lepers went, and as they were going to see the priests, they found themselves healed!

In seconds, Jesus had changed their lives.  Once they were declared clean, they would no longer be social outcasts. They would be able interact freely with friends and family, and would be restored to fellowship with the rest of their communities.  One man, when he saw that he was healed, was so happy he returned and glorified God “with a loud voice.”

The other nine?  Not so much.

Jesus noticed their absence, and responded to the one man’s thanksgiving by asking: “where are the nine?”  He knew that He had healed 10 men—the exact number.  When Jesus told them to go see the priests, it wasn’t because of any disinterest on His part. He didn’t just see a group of men; He saw each one of them.  They were sent to the priests because the priests were the ones designated by God to validate their condition, and to help the men to be received back into the community. Jesus was looking out for the men’s best interests when He sent them to the priests.

But only one was thankful enough to return and glorify God.

It is easy for us to see the failings of the nine former lepers who showed no gratitude. Obvious, even.  More challenging is to look at our own lives and see where we have not glorified God  or recognized His blessings and work in our lives.

Take some time today and thank God for everything He is doing and has done in your life.

God’s Glory: God was glorified by the healing of 10 men (seemingly at the same time) and also by the gratitude of those who were healed—even when that gratitude is loud!

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The poor are shunned even by their neighbors,
but the rich have many friends.

Proverbs 14:20

You definitely get the sense from this proverb that the rich person’s friends are really “following the money.” Which would mean that they aren’t true friends at all.

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In Daniel 3, we find three Israelite captives, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, being threatened with certain death because they have refused to bow to a gold statue setup by King Nebuchadnezzar.  After their refusal they are thrown into the furnace, and joined by a fourth figure (one “like a son of God”), and miraculously preserved from death.  By the end of the story, they are promoted to high-level positions within the kingdom, and God is glorified.

Many of us have heard this story before and are glad to hear that no harm comes to the men because of their faith in God. But there are a few aspects of this story that we rarely think about:

1. Their faith didn’t help them avoid the fiery furnace, it was the reason they went in. The faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego led to their refusal to worship the statue, and this refusal caused them to be thrown into the furnace. Think about that. It was their faith that got them in the situation to begin with! We should not think of our faith as helping us to avoid trials—because it often leads us directly into them.

2. They didn’t assume that God would prevent them from suffering. This is what the three men said when confronted with the choice between the fiery furnace and worshipping another God:

“[O]ur God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” (Dan. 3:17-18)

Notice how the men allowed for the possibility that God wasn’t going to prevent them from suffering.  They didn’t know what God was going to allow to happen to them, but their faith wasn’t dependent on what God did or didn’t do for them—they believed in God no matter what happened.  This reminds us of Job, who said, in the midst of very difficult trials: “Though he slay me, I will hope in Him” (Job 13:15).  For many Christians, faith in God is dependent on receiving a good outcome, but true faith believes in God whether the outcome of a situation is good or bad.  Notice that God allowed them to go right into a furnace so hot, it killed the men who opened the door for them.  It should not be a challenge to our faith that God allows us to face trials.

3. God preserved them in the fiery furnace. Ultimately, God allowed them to go into the fiery furnace, but preserved them while they were inside, so much so that the smell of smoke didn’t even get into their clothes (Dan. 3:13).  Now that’s protection!  We too can expect God to allow us to go through trials, and to preserve us in the midst of them.

God’s Glory – When the three men were delivered without any sign of the trial upon them, the King observed that “there is no other God who is able to deliver in this way” (Dan. 3:29). So God was glorified in the deliverance of his followers.

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If you’re wondering where the name “The Cloud” came from, here’s the answer: from the Old Testament, the New Testament, and technology-speak.

In the Old Testament, the cloud of God, or the cloud in which God was covered, led the Israelites out of Egypt and through the wilderness (it became a pillar of fire at night).  The glory of God also appeared to the Israelites in a cloud. So the cloud signifies the presence of God with us.  (Ex. 13:21-22, 16:10)

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul describes the “cloud of witnesses” in Hebrews 12:1 as representing the community believers throughout history. For us the cloud also signifies that we are not isolated, but are part of a much larger community made up of God’s people. (Heb. 11-12)

Finally, in technical parlance, the “cloud” refers to the Internet, so since we’re developing this community using the power and technology of Internet, naming this site The Cloud made sense from a technical perspective also.

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The Cloud is a blog and social networking site for Christian women across denominations.  The main blog posts center on teachings from the Bible and we invite comments, feedback and discussion on our posts.

The site is free to join, and we also provide members with a short profile and messaging capabilities to continue the discussions or begin new conversations.

Thanks for stopping by, and we hope to see you again soon!