August 6, 2025 • 8 mins
I. This heartfelt episode of The Wooden Cricket Podcast, we open Genesis 16 and walk with Hagar a woman caught in a story not her own, rejected and lone. But in the wilderness, she meets the Living One who sees her.
This story is a powerful reminder that God notices the broken, the cast out, and the hurting. And through Jesus, we too are seen, heard, and loved.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
The Wooden cricket welcome, welcome.
Welcome back to the Wooden Cricket podcast.
I'm your host, Lawrence, and I am so glad you're here.
Today's been a bit of a crazy day for me, but I am finally
getting this episode to you a little bit later in the day.
But here we go. And I'm calling this episode He
Sees Me, the God who finds the broken.
(00:25):
We're going to dive into Genesischapter 16.
It's a powerful story of Hagar, a woman who was rejected and
mistreated and alone but met Godin the wilderness.
It's a story about being seen when no one else sees you, or
about being loved when you feel forgotten, and most importantly,
(00:45):
about how Jesus steps into our wilderness and brings us life.
So let's read the word together.We'll go through the whole
chapter 16 of the NLT version ofthe Bible, and then we'll
reflect on it at the end a little bit and see how that
goes. So Genesis chapter 16.
And I'm sorry as always if I pronounce some of the names
(01:08):
wrong in advance. All right.
Now Sarai Abraham's wife had notbeen able to bear children for
him, but she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar.
Sir. Sir, I said to Abraham, the Lord
has prevented me from having children.
Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children
(01:28):
through her. And Abraham agreed with Sir's
proposal. So Sarai, Abraham's wife, took
Hagar, the Egyptian servant, andgave her to Abraham as her wife.
This happened 10 years after Abraham had settled in the land
of Canaan. So Abraham had sexual relations
with Hagar and she became pregnant.
But when Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her
(01:52):
mistress Sarai with contempt. Then Sarai said to Abram, This
is all your fault. I put my servant into your arms,
but now that she's pregnant, shetreats me with contempt.
The Lord will show who's wrong, you or me, Abraham replied.
(02:12):
Look, she is your servant, so deal with her as you see fit.
Then, Sir, I treated Hagar so harshly that she finally ran
away. The Angel of the Lord found
Hagar beside beside a spring of water in the wilderness along
the road to Shure. The Angel said to her.
(02:34):
Hagar, Sarai's servant, where have you come from and where are
you going? I'm running away from my
mistress, Sir, I replied. The Angel of the Lord said to
her. Returned to your mistress and
submit to her authority. Then he added, I will give you
more descendants than you can count.
(02:55):
And the Angel also said you are now pregnant and will give birth
to a son your to name him Ishmael, which means God hears,
for the Lord has heard your cry of distress.
This son of yours will be a wildman as untamed as a wild donkey.
(03:15):
He will raise his fist against everyone and everyone will be
against him. Yes, he will live in open
hostility against all his relatives.
Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord who
had spoken to her, she said. You are the God who sees me, she
(03:36):
also said. She also said I have truly seen
the one who sees me. Or have I truly seen the one who
sees me? So that well was named Beer
Lahai ROI, which means well of the living one who sees me.
(03:58):
And it can still be found between Kadesh and Bered.
So Hagar gave Abraham a son, an Abram named him Ishmael.
Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born.
Sometimes it's not our own choices that cause pain, right?
(04:20):
It's someone elses. So let's look at this.
Haggard didn't ask to be caught up in Syrian Abrams desperation.
She was a servant, likely acquired in Egypt, far from
home, with little to say in her future.
Then one day she's handed over to Abraham as a backup plan, and
(04:43):
she becomes pregnant, and instead of being honored, she's
hated. So she runs.
And how many of us have run frompain that wasn't our fault,
really? Maybe you've run from, I don't
know, betrayal or someone else'ssin from injustice that landed
on your shoulders. And maybe you're in that
(05:05):
wilderness right now, but here'sthe good news.
God doesn't abandon the runaway.He finds them.
The Angel of the Lord found Hagar.
This moment in Scripture is probably sacred.
God seeks out Hagar in the middle of nowhere, not because
(05:26):
she prayed the right prayer, andnot because she earned His
attention in any way, but because He sees those that no
one else sees. And the Angel calls her by name
Hagar. Siri never did.
Abram never did, but God does, friend.
(05:47):
He knows your name. He knows my name.
When no one else remembers who you are, when you feel reduced
to a title or a number or just arole, God sees you as His.
Hagar doesn't just survive. You know this, this encounter.
(06:08):
She names it, she says, Have I truly seen the one who saves me
or who sees me? And so that well was named Beer
Lahai Roy, the well of the living one, who sees me as what
she said. And what if we started naming
the places where God showed up in our lives?
(06:30):
You know, not in the hospital room, but you know the place.
The Living 1 gave me peace, not the night I broke down, but but
the night the Living One held metogether.
That's what Hagar does. She worships and she remembers
and she marks the place. Jesus is still meeting people
(06:54):
beside Wells today, still stopping for the broken, the
cast outs and the herding. Jesus came for people like
Hagar, the woman at the well, you know, the leper that nobody
would touch, the bleeding woman,the tax collector, the criminal
on the cross beside Jesus. He didn't come to impress the
(07:15):
powerful. He came to rescue the hurting
and he still does that today. Jesus is the living One who sees
you. He sees what they did to you.
He sees how hard you're trying. He sees your Knights of silence
and your tears and your prayers.And he says, I know your name, I
(07:38):
know your pain, and I'm not leaving you.
I'd have no idea where this episode finds you today, but I
believe someone listening right now could use this message.
You're not forgotten. You're not too far gone, and
you're not alone in the wilderness.
God still meets people by the well, and maybe this episode is,
(08:01):
you know, your beer, Lehigh Roy,your moment of realizing that
the living One sees you. Through Jesus you're known and
through Jesus you are heard, andthrough Jesus you will never be
alone. Thank you so much for spending
some time with me today on the Wooden Cricket Podcast.
This message spoke to you in anyway.
Please share it with a friend, give us a little follow and like
(08:23):
whatever you can do. Um, you can find us on Spotify,
Apple podcasts and Instagram. Just search up the wooden
cricket podcast and Please remember, until next time, keep
walking with Jesus, live with purpose and remember the living
one sees you wherever you are and will always meet you.
(08:44):
Have a great day friends, and until next time, it's been
Lawrence on the Wooden Cricket podcast, please.
The Wooden cricket welcome, welcome.
Welcome back to the Wooden Cricket podcast.
I'm your host, Lawrence, and I am so glad you're here.
Today's been a bit of a crazy day for me, but I am finally
getting this episode to you a little bit later in the day.
But here we go. And I'm calling this episode He
Sees Me, the God who finds the broken.
(00:25):
We're going to dive into Genesischapter 16.
It's a powerful story of Hagar, a woman who was rejected and
mistreated and alone but met Godin the wilderness.
It's a story about being seen when no one else sees you, or
about being loved when you feel forgotten, and most importantly,
(00:45):
about how Jesus steps into our wilderness and brings us life.
So let's read the word together.We'll go through the whole
chapter 16 of the NLT version ofthe Bible, and then we'll
reflect on it at the end a little bit and see how that
goes. So Genesis chapter 16.
And I'm sorry as always if I pronounce some of the names
(01:08):
wrong in advance. All right.
Now Sarai Abraham's wife had notbeen able to bear children for
him, but she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar.
Sir. Sir, I said to Abraham, the Lord
has prevented me from having children.
Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children
(01:28):
through her. And Abraham agreed with Sir's
proposal. So Sarai, Abraham's wife, took
Hagar, the Egyptian servant, andgave her to Abraham as her wife.
This happened 10 years after Abraham had settled in the land
of Canaan. So Abraham had sexual relations
with Hagar and she became pregnant.
But when Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her
(01:52):
mistress Sarai with contempt. Then Sarai said to Abram, This
is all your fault. I put my servant into your arms,
but now that she's pregnant, shetreats me with contempt.
The Lord will show who's wrong, you or me, Abraham replied.
(02:12):
Look, she is your servant, so deal with her as you see fit.
Then, Sir, I treated Hagar so harshly that she finally ran
away. The Angel of the Lord found
Hagar beside beside a spring of water in the wilderness along
the road to Shure. The Angel said to her.
(02:34):
Hagar, Sarai's servant, where have you come from and where are
you going? I'm running away from my
mistress, Sir, I replied. The Angel of the Lord said to
her. Returned to your mistress and
submit to her authority. Then he added, I will give you
more descendants than you can count.
(02:55):
And the Angel also said you are now pregnant and will give birth
to a son your to name him Ishmael, which means God hears,
for the Lord has heard your cry of distress.
This son of yours will be a wildman as untamed as a wild donkey.
(03:15):
He will raise his fist against everyone and everyone will be
against him. Yes, he will live in open
hostility against all his relatives.
Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord who
had spoken to her, she said. You are the God who sees me, she
(03:36):
also said. She also said I have truly seen
the one who sees me. Or have I truly seen the one who
sees me? So that well was named Beer
Lahai ROI, which means well of the living one who sees me.
(03:58):
And it can still be found between Kadesh and Bered.
So Hagar gave Abraham a son, an Abram named him Ishmael.
Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born.
Sometimes it's not our own choices that cause pain, right?
(04:20):
It's someone elses. So let's look at this.
Haggard didn't ask to be caught up in Syrian Abrams desperation.
She was a servant, likely acquired in Egypt, far from
home, with little to say in her future.
Then one day she's handed over to Abraham as a backup plan, and
(04:43):
she becomes pregnant, and instead of being honored, she's
hated. So she runs.
And how many of us have run frompain that wasn't our fault,
really? Maybe you've run from, I don't
know, betrayal or someone else'ssin from injustice that landed
on your shoulders. And maybe you're in that
(05:05):
wilderness right now, but here'sthe good news.
God doesn't abandon the runaway.He finds them.
The Angel of the Lord found Hagar.
This moment in Scripture is probably sacred.
God seeks out Hagar in the middle of nowhere, not because
(05:26):
she prayed the right prayer, andnot because she earned His
attention in any way, but because He sees those that no
one else sees. And the Angel calls her by name
Hagar. Siri never did.
Abram never did, but God does, friend.
(05:47):
He knows your name. He knows my name.
When no one else remembers who you are, when you feel reduced
to a title or a number or just arole, God sees you as His.
Hagar doesn't just survive. You know this, this encounter.
(06:08):
She names it, she says, Have I truly seen the one who saves me
or who sees me? And so that well was named Beer
Lahai Roy, the well of the living one, who sees me as what
she said. And what if we started naming
the places where God showed up in our lives?
(06:30):
You know, not in the hospital room, but you know the place.
The Living 1 gave me peace, not the night I broke down, but but
the night the Living One held metogether.
That's what Hagar does. She worships and she remembers
and she marks the place. Jesus is still meeting people
(06:54):
beside Wells today, still stopping for the broken, the
cast outs and the herding. Jesus came for people like
Hagar, the woman at the well, you know, the leper that nobody
would touch, the bleeding woman,the tax collector, the criminal
on the cross beside Jesus. He didn't come to impress the
(07:15):
powerful. He came to rescue the hurting
and he still does that today. Jesus is the living One who sees
you. He sees what they did to you.
He sees how hard you're trying. He sees your Knights of silence
and your tears and your prayers.And he says, I know your name, I
(07:38):
know your pain, and I'm not leaving you.
I'd have no idea where this episode finds you today, but I
believe someone listening right now could use this message.
You're not forgotten. You're not too far gone, and
you're not alone in the wilderness.
God still meets people by the well, and maybe this episode is,
(08:01):
you know, your beer, Lehigh Roy,your moment of realizing that
the living One sees you. Through Jesus you're known and
through Jesus you are heard, andthrough Jesus you will never be
alone. Thank you so much for spending
some time with me today on the Wooden Cricket Podcast.
This message spoke to you in anyway.
Please share it with a friend, give us a little follow and like
(08:23):
whatever you can do. Um, you can find us on Spotify,
Apple podcasts and Instagram. Just search up the wooden
cricket podcast and Please remember, until next time, keep
walking with Jesus, live with purpose and remember the living
one sees you wherever you are and will always meet you.
(08:44):
Have a great day friends, and until next time, it's been
Lawrence on the Wooden Cricket podcast, please.
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