Episode 1657: Hearing the Voice

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Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 1,657 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

Amanda Blackwood: I'm Amanda Blackwood. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to love up your calling. Having the ability to recognize trauma and what we can do about it is key, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this The Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

Scott Maderer: And that they are a loved child of God, just as surely as we are. Oh Lord. Hear our prayer. Not to wake up God, but rather to wake us up to remind us that we are a people that [00:01:00] hear because. We have a God that hears.

Amanda Blackwood: Welcome and thank

Scott Maderer: you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling.

In the Inspired Stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk about Genesis chapter 21, verses eight through 21. I share what we mean when we say, Lord, hear our prayer. And I also talk with you about how even in the messiness of life being heard is powerful. Genesis chapter 21, verses eight through 21, says, [00:02:00] the child grew and was weaned and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

But Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian whom she had born to Abraham, playing with her son, Isaac. So she said to Abraham, cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac. The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son, but God said to Abraham, do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman.

Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, verdict is through Isaac. That offspring shall be named for you. As for the son of the slave woman, I'll make a nation of him also because he is your offspring. So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder along with the child, and sent her away and she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of be Sheba.

When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him, a [00:03:00] good ways off about the distance of a bowshot for, she said, do not let me look on the death of the child. And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, what trebles you?

Hagar? Do not be afraid for. God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him. Then God opened her eyes and she saw well of water. She went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. God was with the boy and he grew up.

He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Peran and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt. In the tradition that I belong to often when saying prayers, we repeat at the end as a community, as a congregation, oh Lord, hear our prayer. What does that really [00:04:00] mean as part of our liturgy?

It, it, it kind of seems strange that it's up to us somehow to call upon God to hear our prayer, that somehow or another God needs to be spurred into action or he, his attention needs to be brought to something. Or maybe God won't even respond to things until someone prays about it. That we somehow control the responses of the spirit by the how and the wind and the weather we pray.

But I don't think that's really why we say that. And reflecting on this passage, this is one of those passages that makes it clear that if you really read the Bible and pay attention to it, it's not like the Bible only tells the good side of the story. The Bible isn't just this clean, whitewashed story of human activity.

Instead it is full of sinfulness, selfishness, and shortsightedness, and that comes [00:05:00] out in this text this week. I don't think anyone really comes out. Well in the text this week, Abraham Hagar, Sarah, even God seems to sort of make some choices that. It don't sit all that well with us as we read. Now, granted, God's view and God's will is always larger than ours, and there's something going on here that maybe we're not able to see, but it still feels wrong to let Hagar and Ishmael bear the weight of the wrong choices that Sarah and Abraham made.

I don't wanna make excuses or try to explain away the bad behavior in the biblical text. I think a lot of people try to do that. They pick and choose and try to avoid calling out any of the things that clearly show bad behavior. Maybe they say, well, it's not really that [00:06:00] bad if you look at it this way.

And it's true. We don't ever have the whole picture, and God's ways are not our ways. But I do think we should lean in when we see texts like this and still look and listen for the gospel message. Let's face it, a mess has been made that cannot be denied, and there's wounds being given here by human actions and human decisions wounds for Sarah, wounds for Hagar wounds for Abraham and Isaac and Ishmael.

And there's. Issues going on that are reflected in the world as well. Without a doubt, when we look around, there are people that are treated like property, treated like less than cast aside. We live in a broken world, and yet into that world we hear and God heard the [00:07:00] voice of the boy. God heard the voice.

It's a promise and it's a hope. God heard. We are heard, the boy was heard, the woman was heard. God's people are heard, and the people that don't even know God are heard. That's the gospel message, and when you're heard, when God hears our prayers, you realize you're not alone, and out of that presence comes hope and the ability to act.

Yeah. Then we can open our eyes and see hope. See sustenance, see resources. God hears. That's the gospel message from the story of Genesis. God is with us. We're not alone. God hears those voices crying out from pain, from abandonment, from being mistreated by being abused, the messiness of life, and yet God [00:08:00] hears.

And out of that hearing, we can choose to respond to those needs around us. We can focus outward, not just inward. We can care about people who aren't like us. People who aren't like our tribe, aren't like our clan, aren't like our family. We can hear the outcasts two, we can hear as well the voice of the other.

And recognize that they are just like us and that they are a loved child of God. Just as surely as we are. Oh Lord. Hear our prayer. Not to wake up God, but rather to wake us up to remind us that we are a people that hear because we have a God that hears. Thanks for listening.[00:09:00]

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