Hagar in the Wilderness by Camille Corot, 1835
People being on the move is no new thing. Some of the earliest examples of human writing and record keeping demonstrate the need to be on the move. The very earliest cave paintings depict our early ancestors in pursuit of wild animals for their next meal. Their lifestyle followed the migration of animals and the seasonal nature of the harvest.
Other ancient literature, such as Homer’s Odyssey and the Iliad, tell of epic journeys from one far-flung place to another by brave and heroic people. A common narrative throughout these adventures is the pursuit of wealth and promised lands. Moby Dick and other adventures on the high seas often tell the stories of young men who have no other economic prospects in their home town.
Although the distances humankind travels nowadays are much greater than those transited by both fictional and real individuals who came before us, human migration is no new thing.
As humankind has always been on the move, so too have our religious texts reflected movement and human’s relationship with the Divine as we would go from place to place.
Siddhartha, before he became The Buddha, traveled around his kingdom and encountered the challenges ordinary people would face. After this revelation, he decided that he could no longer stay in his palace and went on a journey in search of enlightenment.
The Prophet Muhammed’s journey from Mecca to Medina is remembered and celebrated by Muslims as “Hijrah” and is one basis for modern Islamic pilgrimages. It was while on this journey that the Prophet Muhammad heard from God and experienced God’s protection from his enemies and the trials of the journey.
The Christian scriptures also have many examples of people on the move and God’s proximity to his people. Abram was called to leave his country and follow God. Jacob experienced God while traveling in the desert. Joseph was sold as a slave and involuntarily ended up in Egypt where God used him to save his family. Moses then led the Israelites out of Egypt and it was on their many years of travel and exile that they met with God on mountain tops, in pillars of cloud and flame, in a move-able and temporary tabernacle, and in the Ark of the Covenant. Other examples of people in movement in the Bible include Ruth, David, and Daniel. In all of these Biblical examples we see various drivers for their movement, some voluntary, others definitely less so. Regardless of the situation, through all of these examples we see God on the Move, bringing his faithfulness and justice with him.
Hagar, as told in Genesis 16, found herself forced out of her home due to jealously and unequal power dynamics. Genesis isn’t clear how exactly Hagar came to be a part of Abram’s migrating tribe and family, but Sarai refers to her as her slave. Her story is one of forced migration, and later, of sexual abuse for her master’s gain. After ongoing mistreatment from Sarai, Hagar runs away. It is on this desperate escape that Hagar meets the God of her master and finds that this God cares for her, the child in her womb, and her circumstances as much as he does for her master. In
Genesis 16:11 God says to Hagar:
“You are now pregnant
and you will give birth to a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
for the Lord has heard of your misery.
He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”
Hagar responds by saying, “You are the God who sees me. I have now seen the One who sees me.” A woman forced to be on the move by life circumstances comes face to face with God who was also on the move, in relentless pursuit of her.
In their meeting, Hagar learned that God cared for her and promised a future for her descendants as much as He had for the descendants of her master.
In our reading of God’s promises it could almost feel like a curse that God was speaking over Ishmael. But for a slave, impregnated against her will, mistreated by her master, this promise from God likely gave her hope. With this promise of a future in hand, Hagar returns to her master.
Later, in Genesis 21, Hagar again finds herself running away from the same abusive master, this time along with her infant child. At the brink of death, she again meets the God on the move on her desperate journey. God again sees her and provides for her.
This story, when viewed from Hagar’s vantage point, is an especially tragic one. Yet, while Hagar was on the move, the God on the Move was also the God who saw and heard her (El Roi - Gen 16:13) and the God who gives a hope and future (Gen 21:17-18).
This God is also a God of justice.
Justice, especially from a Western, guilt-and-innocence culture, is often thought about in terms of retributive justice, i.e. someone paying the consequences for something they have done wrong. Incarceration, fines, and other forms of punishment handed down by our modern criminal justice systems are all in the vein of retributive justice.
Retributive justice, however, is not the only way the Biblical term “mishpat” is translated and understood. The second way is as restorative justice. The Bible Project defines this kind of justice as seeking out vulnerable people who are being taken advantage of, helping them, taking steps to advocate for the vulnerable, and changing social structures to prevent injustice.
In Hagar’s case, we see God seeking out those who are vulnerable and helping them. We also see God provide a measure of restorative justice by giving Ishmael a part of the future and legacy that was promised to his father and his descendants, in spite of those around him trying to take away that legacy.
Throughout the Bible, we see many examples of people on the move in a variety of circumstances. But through it all, The God on the Move consistently shows his faithfulness in seeing the vulnerable and marginalized and providing them with justice.
El Roi - The God who Sees - continues to see the vulnerable to this day and lifts them up as a part of his Holy Justice. He also calls his people to do the same. Jeremiah 22:3 says God calls us to “Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.”
The New Testament also tells of the character of the God on the Move and the God who Sees in the parables of the lost coin, sheep, and son (Luke 15). God’s character is to notice the absence of the lost, go after the lost, celebrate the return of the lost, and to forgive those who have done wrong.
It is this example of Jesus and in the character of God that Jiwa International seeks out the vulnerable.
One-third of migrant workers in Taiwan experience some form of physical or verbal abuse.
Southeast Asians experience racism and prejudice from the Taiwanese people that dishonor the image of God that they each bear. Our desire at Jiwa International is that the migrant workers we interact with meet Motus Dei - The God on the Move - while on their own journey. We won’t stop until all we meet feel seen by El Roi and know that God gives hope and has a future for them.
Further Reading:
Check out this and other articles in Issue 2 of The Jiwa Journal.
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