A.1. A Faithless Plan by the Chosen Couple Backfires, vv. 1-6
#1 (Genesis 16:1–6) Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can get children through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to look down on her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she looks down on me. May the LORD judge between you and me.” “She is your slave,” Abram said. “You can do what you like with her.” Then Sarai began making Hagar’s life so unpleasant, that she decided to run away.
A.1.1 “Standing on the promises”? 16:1-6
In ch. 15 Abram was discouraged that God’s original promises had not yet come true, and he began to wonder if the promise that he would become a great nation would have to be fulfilled by adopting his servant Eliezer of Damascus. He also was wondering when he would begin to possess the land that God had promised him in chapter 14, after Lot left him. So now God gave him two additional promises to address those two worries:
• that his becoming a great nation would begin not with adopting his slave, but with a son borne from his own body (15:4), and
• that his descendants who would be as numerous as the stars of heaven, would indeed inherit the land of Canaan where he was not living, but only after a long period of slavery in a foreign land (15:13-14, not named “Egypt” yet).
At that time, even in his distress, Abram had not attributed his childlessness to Sarah’s infertility, although we were told as early as 11:30 that she was “barren.” Instead, he said—significantly—“you have given me no offspring” (15:3), confessing by these words his understanding that ultimately only God can cause the birth of a child.
A.1.1.1. Sarah’s Proposal, 16:1-2
16:1-2 Abram had not doubted these promises, but believed them, and on that basis God considered him worthy to receive them. For the time being Abram was restored in his faith. But after he and Sarai had been living in Canaan for 10 years, and they had not produced the promised son, she began to wonder. The promise was for a son from Abram’s body, but that didn’t necessarily mean also from her own.
So she had a bright idea: she had an Egyptian slave woman named Hagar who was unmarried, she could arrange for Abram to father the child of God’s promise through a second marriage to this woman. This was a widespread and accepted custom in the worlds of Mesopotamia and Canaan in which they had lived. It was neither illegal nor immoral in the eyes of society. In fact, later on it would be practiced by Jacob’s two wives Rachel and Leah [see note 39], both of whom would give their female slaves to their husband in order to procure children by them.
Sarah’s words in v. 2—“perhaps I may acquire children through her”—make it clear that she wasn’t writing herself out of the picture, but using Hagar as a surrogate mother.
Although her intentions may have been good, Sarah’s plan represented a lack of faith that God could fulfill his promise by making her fertile. It was then a contrast to Abram’s attitude in ch. 15 of simply “believing” God. Yet we are told that Abram agreed to this proposal (verse 2); so clearly we cannot blame this lapse of faith on Sarai alone. Like Adam before him, Abram went along with the proposal of his wife and must bear joint responsibility for its consequences. Neither one of them was yet showing the kind of faith that they eventually would, a faith described in the book of Hebrews in these words:
“It was also by faith that Sarah, in spite of being past the age, was made able to conceive, because she believed that he who had made the promise was faithful to it. Because of this, from one man, and one who already was as good as dead, there came descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the grains of sand on the seashore which can’t be counted.” (Hebrews 11:11–12)
A.1.1.2. Hagar Conceives, 16:3-4
16:3-4. In v. 3 Hagar enters the picture as a character in her own right. As a slave, she had no say in the matter: she must do as her master and mistress instructed her. Whether or not she loved Jacob was irrelevant.
But she fulfilled her duty, and was successful: she became pregnant with a child by Jacob. All seemed to be rosy with Sarai’s and Abram’s plan. This was the beginning of the “great nation” God had promised, and they had been smart enough to figure out a way to accomplish it without being told how by God! But a new complication appeared—one that the two of them ought to have foreseen. Hagar’s new status as Abram’s second wife and the apparent mother of his only child created in her a new attitude toward Sarah: now she saw Sarai as a failure, a married woman unable to succeed in her primary duty of producing a son and heir! We aren’t told how Hagar’s attitude manifested itself: perhaps by snide words to Sarai, perhaps by boasting to the other servants. However it showed itself, it was intolerable for Sarai. Now Sarai’s magnificent plan was now beginning to cost her something, and the price was more than she was willing to pay.
A.1.1.3. Rectifying the Situation the Wrong Way, 16:5-6
16:5-6. Sarah’s solution was to “wipe the slate clean”, undoing what she had arranged without so much as admitting her responsibility. Now Hagar would be homeless and with a fatherless son. But this was no skin off Sarah’s nose. Now she only made a bad situation much worse, and God would not stand idly by and allow Hagar and her son to suffer.
Before giving Hagar to Abram as a secondary wife, the woman was Sarah’s property. But now that she was Abram’s concubine (secondary wife, see note 39 and 16:1-2 [p. ? ]), he needed to be consulted before Sarah could act. Furthermore, Hagar would not allow herself to be expelled by Sarah. She would have to hear it from Abram himself.
Unfortunately, Abram himself continued to be totally passive in the matter, allowing Sarah to do what she wished without one word of caution or disagreement. He was mirroring Adam in the Garden of Eden and was equally at fault thereby.
A.1.1.4. The Seeing God Comes to the Rescue, 16:7-16
(Genesis 16:7–16) “The angel of Yahweh found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 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. Then the angel of Yahweh told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” The angel of Yahweh also said to her: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for Yahweh 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.” So she gave this name to Yahweh who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Truly I have now seen God, after he saw me!”[BKMK:Seeing God] That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi ["the spring of the Living One who sees me"]. It is still there, between Kadesh and Bered. So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.”
16:7
The Hebrew word we translate "angel" simply means "messenger." Many believe that this “messenger of Yahweh” was God himself, not just an angelic messenger, because he seems to speak as though he were God and not simply relaying God’s message. He says “I will” do such-and-such.
Clearly Hagar thought she was seeing God (p. ? ), because of what she said after he left her. The figure who addressed her must have had something about him that looked supernatural.
Later on, in ch. 18, we will read how God visited Abram’s encampment, accompanied by two others, and had a meal with him. So there was nothing unusual about God’s appearing in person, looking like an ordinary traveler, visiting his special friend Abram. Jas 2:23 reads: “Abraham put his faith in God, and this was considered as making him upright; and he received the name ‘friend of God’.” But Hagar wasn’t Abraham. She was only a slave woman. It was a remarkable honor paid to this Egyptian slave woman that God did not just send a messenger, but came to her rescue so-to-speak in person!
16:8
16:8. Note that God doesn’t ask who she is, but asks where she has come from and where she is headed. Hagar doesn’t answer the second question. She has no specific destination in mind: she is simply trying to escape from Sarah, whom she politely refers to as her “mistress.” There is no sign of haughty behavior in her words. She doesn’t call Sarah cruel. And by calling Sarah her “mistress”, she is admitting to this person that she is a runaway slave, which puts her in some peril, if this unknown person should capture and return her to Sarah. She seems to know that she can trust this man. Ancient bounty hunters often seized fugitive slaves and returned them for a reward.
16:9-12
16:9-12. At some point during this meeting Hagar came to realize that this was God speaking to her. But at precisely what point in the conversation? It isn’t clear, is it? The messenger gives Hagar a command and a promise. His command doesn’t seem a happy prospect for Hagar: he orders her to return to her mistress and submit to her abuse. This must have seemed very cruel to Hagar, and might even raise questions in our own minds about the justice of God here in not letting her escape, or at least ordering Abram and Sarah to stop abusing her.
But the promise that he gives Hagar was certainly encouraging to her. She knew she was pregnant, but could not know if it was a boy or girl, much less what the child’s future would be.
Although there is a dramatic contrast between the promises to Abraham about his descendants, and those to Hagar about her son’s: Abraham’s line through Sarah would produce the Messiah, who would save everyone from their sins and rule at God’s right hand over an eternal kingdom. Ishmael’s legacy, while it was a noble one, could never compare to that! Yet to Hagar the promises of her son’s descendants living free and powerful must have seemed like a dream come true. She was anything but free and powerful.
Hagar was told what her son’s name should be: Ishmael, and why that name was chosen by God. It means “God has heard your cry.” This tells us what the preceding narrative has left out: that Hagar in her suffering had cried out to God to save her, and God hears the prayer of any sincere petitioner. It also tells us that when we ask God for help, he often gives us much more than we ask for. Hagar asked God to rescue her from Sarah, and he gave her marvelous promises of the future of her son to boot. Fortified by these promises, she could go back and endure Sarah’s mistreatment, if she must.
16:13-14
vv. 15-16 imply that Hagar returned to Abraham and Sarah, as she was ordered to do: she believed and obeyed God. In a way, therefore, she is a replica of Abram, who also believed and obeyed God. As James would later write, “Faith that doesn’t lead to obedience is dead.” (James 2:26).
But vv. 13-14 also tell us that she not only believed and obeyed God, she worshiped him, praising him for answering her prayer, and giving a name to the place where God had appeared to her. “Yahweh,” she prayed, אַתָּ֖ה אֵ֣ל רֳאִ֑י “You are the god who sees me.” And she thought, “Truly I have now seen God, after he saw me!”
The Birth of Abram’s First Son, Ishmael, 16:15-16
Verses 15-16 describe the result of Hagar’s faith and obedience. We aren’t told if Abram and Sarai were surprised at Hagar’s voluntary return. Had they even noticed that she was gone? We also aren’t told if her situation improved under Sarai. God had told her to submit to her mistress. If she was truly obedient, she must have ceased putting on airs with the other servants and looking down on Sarai. About this the text is silent. What was most important in the narrative is that now Abram has his first son, and this made him happy, both humanly speaking as a father, and in his false belief that now God’s promise was being fulfilled in little Ishmael.
Asking Questions of This Section in View of What Will Follow
This will not be the end of the Hagar story. In future chapters we will see how her return did not end well. Eventually, she will be expelled again together with her son Ishmael, and this time at God’s explicit instructions to Abraham. This time not because of Hagar’s attitude toward Sarai, but because he was a competitor of Sarah’s son Isaac.
So why the delay? Why didn’t God just allow Hagar to leave at this point and have her baby away from Abraham and Sarah?
Although I raise this question now for you to think about, let’s postpone trying to answer it until we come to the later lesson treating the final expulsion of Hagar.
At that time too we must look at how St. Paul used the entire story of Sarah and Hagar in Galatians as a kind of picture of the difference between those who seek the fulfillment of God’s salvation promise by faith and those who seek to do it by deeds of law.
What is important here is the lesson God has for us in this passage. What do you see?
• God cares for everyone, for slaves as much as for kings
• We can’t always know how God will answer our prayers, we must just pray and trust him (Hagar)
• We shouldn’t be jealous of another person’s success, nor if we are the successful one should we gloat over it to others (Hagar and Sarai)
• Faith in the promises of God should enable us to put up with mistreatment by others (Hagar)
• God’s blessing is shown in different ways to different people (Abram, Hagar)
• Faith must result in both obedience and worship (Hagar)
• God’s ways and not our ways, and we must no assume that we can dictate to God how his promises should be fulfilled (Abram and Sarai)
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