Genesis 16:8 reveals how God uses powerful questions to expose the hidden fears, wounds, and thought patterns shaping our lives. In this devotional, Jennifer Slattery reflects on God’s interaction with Hagar and shows how the Lord still asks believers today: “Where have you come from, and where are you going?” These questions are not rooted in condemnation, but in God’s loving desire to guide His children toward healing, wisdom, and peace.

Highlights

God’s questions often uncover hidden fears, wounds, and insecurities.
Genesis 16 shows God intentionally pursuing Hagar in her place of overwhelm.
Emotional reactions are often connected to unresolved pain from the past.
God invites believers to examine where they’ve come from and where they’re headed.
Obedience to God requires trusting His heart, even when the path feels difficult.
God’s guidance is rooted in love, provision, and long-term healing.
Reflecting honestly with God can lead to greater peace, wisdom, and emotional health.

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Full Transcript Below:

When God Asks Powerful Probing Questions

By: Jennifer Slattery

Bible Reading:

And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered. (Genesis 16:8, NIV)

God’s questions have a way of piercing to the deepest places in our souls—where lies and insecurities often reside undetected.

When anxious and overwhelmed, I have a difficult time demonstrating the love and grace of Christ. Add enough challenges and frustrations to my day, and I can become irritable with the people I most love. But I can rarely, if ever, will myself to respond better. Relying on self-control might help momentarily, but eventually, the undealt with gunk in my soul bubbles out and onto those I hold dear.

That was how I behaved the night my husband and I checked into our VRBO to escape Nebraska’s bitterly cold winter. We make this journey each January, beginning with a long road trip during which we see as many grandkids as possible.

This is always a lovely… and exhausting endeavor that involves hours in our vehicle, standstill traffic, and clamoring in and out of numerous hotels (Our mini-golden doodle was not a fan and alerted us to this by barking all night at other guests roaming the halls. We have since learned that under no circumstances will we allow the hotel clerk to give us a room near the elevators!).

By the time we reached our destination, where we planned to remain all month, I felt frazzled, anxious, and struggling to untangle my brain’s swirling mess of have-tos and a series of new problems that felt insurmountable.

In short, I didn’t handle the situation well. More accurately, I behaved more like a temper tantrummy toddler without a nap, than the Spirit-empowered reflection of Christ to which I’m called.

Initially, this evoked latent shame. Had this occurred a few years ago, I might’ve stayed in that place of self-condemnation. That only would’ve added to my stress. But God is teaching me to go deeper—in myself, and with Him. To move past surface-level attempts at holiness to consider the roots of my reactions, He used today’s verse to do so.

The morning after my ungracious response to my very gracious husband, I sensed God’s whisper, “Where have you come from? Where are you going?”

He wasn’t asking about my present location. He wanted me to prayerfully consider how past experiences were impacting my present. What wounds distorted my perception and challenged my trust? What lies lurked in my subconscious and wreaked havoc on my present?

And, where was I going? First, where did I want to go? Did I want to stay stuck in dysregulated responses, or did I want to become healthier and holier? Did I want to follow God’s lead moment by moment and day by day, in my times of overwhelm, included?

These questions evoked others, such as, do I trust the direction in which God is leading me enough to follow?

Finally, I sensed Him inviting me to consider where He’s taking me, and this is something He’s been reiterating to me for some time. Often, when obedience feels difficult, He reminds me of His heart and plans for me and those I love. This helps steady me by assuring me that He remains faithfully in control, regardless of how out of control I might feel in that moment.

The Lord spoke a similar message to an Egyptian slave named Hagar. If you’re familiar with Old Testament history, you might know her story. Scholars suggest she might’ve been part of the “gifts” given to Abram by the Pharaoh in Genesis 12. This alone must have felt traumatic—to be treated as property, torn from her homeland, and forced to live in servitude with a clan she knew little about.

Then, around a decade later, she experienced an abuse that must’ve cut deep into her soul. Sarai gave her to Abram, Sarai’s husband, to impregnate. You can imagine how traumatic this must’ve been, and the bitterness and fear that might’ve invaded her soul.

Once she conceived, the tension between her and Sarai became so intense that Hagar fled. Perhaps she intended to return to Egypt. Maybe she simply reacted out of fear and overwhelm, triggering a flight response. Regardless, she soon found herself pregnant, vulnerable, and defenseless in the wilderness.

There, beneath the intense Middle Eastern sun, she might’ve died, if not for “the Angel of the Lord”, who many scholars believe was pre-incarnate Jesus.

According to Genesis 16:7, He found her—I love that phrasing, as it implies that He intentionally went looking for her. He found her near a spring in the desert beside the road to Shur.

And He asked her the same two questions He asked me: Where have you come from and where are you going.”

I read this as an invitation for a holy pause. An opportunity for her to re-engage rational thinking and consider where her panicked reaction led her. And where are you going, as in, “Is this the direction you really want to head? Further into the wilderness, to raise your baby alone?”

I must acknowledge that this account feels uncomfortable. I don’t like to think that the Lord told her to return to the place in which she’d been abused. But I also see how this was an act of care, love, and provision. By His grace, He brought Hagar back under His covenantal blessing and allowed her to raise her son with direct access to his father, who came to love him deeply. Then, when that child became older, He released him and his mother, again, with His blessing.

Intersecting Life & Faith:

Unprocessed wounds, fear, and catastrophic thinking can lead to self-sabotaging decisions. When experiencing pain and injustice, often, all we want is relief. But what happens when our desire for relief leads us to greater danger?

Thankfully, God meets in our place of overwhelm and invites us to consider where we’ve come from and where we’re going. The more we learn to do so, the greater our peace and the less our shame and regret. And eventually, standing on the other side of obedience, we recognize that God truly knows best. His love was leading the entire time.

Further Reading:

Genesis 3:9-10

1 Kings 19:3-15

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