Do you know the story of Cinderella? It is one of the most beloved fairy tales; a young girl loses her mother and then her father. She is left to be raised by her cruel step-mother and to defend herself from her jealous and wicked step-sisters. They treat her like a slave in her own home. She is downtrodden and hopeless until one day by the grace of her fairy godmother, Cinderella is able to meet the prince of her kingdom. He loves her at first sight and pursues her relentlessly until he finds her in her sad and lowly state- a despised and unworthy servant girl. Instead of seeing what is apparent to all-- that she merits nothing in the worldly esteem-- he brings her into glorious restoration and makes her a princess. Rather than repaying evil for evil, Cinderella forgives her step-mother and step-sisters and shows them kindness. Her joy is made complete because she is loved and rescued by her prince. It is the ultimate redemption story.
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| My little sister's hip depiction of Cinderella [source] |
Why does this story resonate so deeply with so many people? There is an everlasting truth held in this children's tale. In the Bible I was struck with two similar stories (and don't go assuming I'm about to talk about Ruth... twists & turns, people!)
The first is found in Genesis 16*. A young Egyptian servant named Hagar lives with her mistress Sarai and her wealthy husband Abram in the land of Canaan. Sarai has no children because she is barren. She begins to plot how she can build a family by looking to Hagar to be a type of surrogate; Hagar is called upon to bear children with Abram in Sarai's place. Hagar becomes pregnant, but rather than pleasing her mistress, this torments the childless woman. Sarai begins to abuse and mistreat her servant. When her despair overwhelms her, Hagar flees into the dangerous open country back to Egypt. She has no protection, no husband, no nothing. There is no place to go but down when something extraordinary happens. The angel of the Lord finds pregnant Hagar lost and alone by a well on the road to nowhere.
Now you will just have to take my word on this, but many scholars agree that "the angel of the Lord" in the Old Testament is Jesus Christ of the New Testament. They use the term pre-incarnate to describe Jesus' appearances before he was born in the flesh. I did a quick search on BibleGateway.com which returned 50 mentions of "the angel of the Lord" in the OT [
link]**. There are no references to the angel of the Lord in the NT, which perhaps provides further evidence that he and Jesus are the same person.
If the angel of the Lord is truly Jesus, this encounter he has with Hagar is truly remarkable. He calls her by name and title-- Hagar, servant of Sarai. Then he asks where she has come from & where she is going. He is not asking because he does not know; he has already revealed that he knows her even though she does not know him. In fact, the reason the angel has come to her is because he knows exactly where she's headed and it's not good. Hagar responds saying she is running away from Sarai. Surprisingly, the angel of the Lord tells her to go back and to submit to her mistress (I couldn't help but think of these passages in the NT:
Ephesians 6:5-9 &
Colossians 3:22-4:1). It was an unexpected command because the women's relationship was so badly damaged.
The angel of the Lord then reveals things that were unknown to Hagar. He promises her innumerable children; a privileged assurance that God gave to Abram previously was now extended to his foreign servant. The angel also shares with her that she will have a son who is to be called Ishmael- meaning "God hears". Though your first impression of the angel may have been that he was harsh with her, he demonstrates how tenderly he cares for her. The promise of a multitude of descendents showed the world that you were blessed by God. By giving her son the name Ishmael, God was telling Hagar that he had been with her and knew her troubles. It also is an encouragement that when she returns to her master's household, she goes knowing that the Lord is near to her.
Hagar's response is beautiful. She says, "You are the God who sees me... I have now seen the One who sees me." This lonely woman now confesses that she has never been truly alone and she has seen the proof of it with her own eyes. She does just as the angel of the Lord says to do and returns to Sarai. Though this passage is not exhaustive, we can infer that Hagar was accepted back into the household. There is no more mention of discord between Sarai and Hagar about envy or jealousy. Hagar also must have told about her encounter with the angel in the desert. Abram, having accepted Hagar's testimony, named his son Ishmael just as the angel instructed. Every time Hagar said her son's name, she would remember God who came to her at her lowest and most helpless state and led her home with peace and hope.
Since I have become long winded (or however one is supposed to say that about typing), I'll save my parallel story for another day. This may not be so "fairy tale" to you, but you've got to get out of the fantasy mindset. I had not mentioned before, but this is the very first mention of the angel of the Lord in the Bible. Presupposing the angel is Jesus, the first mention of him should smack you in the face with surprise. He did not come to a descendant of Noah's son Shem (who was Abraham's ancestor), or a powerful person, or a wealthy person, or even a man. Christ first reveals himself to an unwed pregnant slave from Egypt. He tenderly calls her by name and talks to her. At this point Hagar appears as though she'd rather die than endure one more day of Sarai's cruelty. Jesus tells her he's seen what has happened to her and heard how she's suffered, but the answer isn't running away from her problems.
How often do I try to escape from my problems wrongly thinking the Lord isn't actively watching over me or hearing my prayers?
Jesus tells Hagar that she must submit to Sarai. The implication is that she hadn't really submitted before. I'm not suggesting that she didn't do as she was told, but Jesus desired for her effort to be sincere. It was clear Hagar had become bitter, and her poor judgment had put her life and her baby's life in danger. God doesn't want us to overlook the blessings in our lives when we go through hardship, and that seems like the message Jesus wanted Hagar to see. Jesus then added to her blessings; before she knew she was having a baby, then she learned it would be a boy and they would increase infinitely in number. I think for those ancient people this would have been equivalent to achieving the "American dream". It was more than a maidservant living in a foreign land could have imagined for her future.
I wanted to tell y'all about this because it blew me away. I had read this passage in Genesis a handful of occasions and easily overlooked its significance. After I became a Christian but before I had studied the Bible much, I had a preconceived notion that the Old Testament was all about God showing his favor only to Jewish men. To me, a non-Jewish girl from a not so prominent family, Hagar's story illustrates that from the beginning Jesus has been loving towards all kinds of people. He found me at my lowest place and enabled me to face the people and circumstances that overwhelmed me. He gave me hope for a future. I couldn't help but feel like Hagar's story was a bit like of my own. And just like Hagar, I can't help but talk about how good and loving Jesus is. How reassuring to know that my Savior was the same then as he is now and ever will be.
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* (Here's a link to the passage in case you wanted to read it for yourself!)
**(It should be noted I searched NIV. Also, the one result from Matthew isn't referring to the angel of the Lord. In the context of the passage, Matthew writes "an angel of the Lord" appeared to Joseph in verse 1:20. When Matthew writes "the angel" later in the passage, he is simple referring back to the one he had previously mentioned).
