Genesis 12: 4-20; 16:1-15; 21:8-21 (NKJV)
Welcome back to our study on Hagar! Last week we
could almost feel the tension that not only existed but seemed to grow and escalate
between Hagar, Abram and Sarai! Whew …
it was thick and palatable to say the least so much so that Hagar decided to flee!
Let’s see what happens next …
Genesis
16
Verse 7:
Now the angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the
wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur.
Hagar, likely on her way back to Egypt,
stops by a spring of water in the wilderness.
(This was evidently a well-known watering place on the route to Egypt.)
While there, the angel of the LORD appears
to her. This angel of the LORD was none
other than Jesus pre-incarnate.
Verse 8:
He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from and where are
you going?” And she said, “I am fleeing
from the presence of my mistress Sarai.”
Look at Hagar’s answer: “I am fleeing from
the presence of my mistress!” She
acknowledges that she is Sarai’s handmaid.
The fact that she was with child nor the fact that she had run away
changed her position … she was still Sarai’s handmaid. Her responsibility to
Sarai had not changed!
Hagar could flee from Sarai, but not from
the presence of God. She was engaged in
an illegal flight which could have been punished severely, even with
death. In addition, there would be
terrible dangers and hardships on the journey that lay ahead of her if she
persisted.
Look at what the LORD told her to do …
Verse 9:
Then the angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to your mistress, and
submit yourself to her authority.”
Return and submit! She was to return to Sarai, her position;
submit to Sarai’s authority and fulfill her responsibilities.
Two wrongs don’t make a right, Sarai had
done wrong but so had Hagar by running away!
One has to wonder what thoughts ran through
Hagar’s mind as she heard the LORD’s words and contemplated going back.
Did pride and defiance rear its ugly head
in Hagar’s heart? Could she have thought
something along the lines of ‘I will not, I’d rather die!’ Could she have blamed it all on Sarai and
maybe even Abram? Did she feel betrayed
by Abram? Why didn’t he stand up for her
and their unborn child? Or was she simply dumbstruck by the encounter with the
LORD?
I’m sure many such thoughts swirled through
her mind as she contemplated what the LORD was saying to her … and He wasn’t
finished yet!
Verse 10:
Moreover, the angel of the LORD said to her, “I will greatly multiply
your descendants so that they will be too many to count.”
This was the same promise God had made
earlier to Abram in Genesis 15:5 and Genesis 22:17.
It would be easy to assume that the promise
God made to Abram and the one He made to Hagar were meant for the same child,
their child, but we know from Genesis 17: 15-22 that it was Abram’s and Sarai’s
child that was the promised child, not Abram’s and Hagar’s.
Verses 11 and 12: And the Angel of the Lord said to
her: “Behold, you are with child, and you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, Because
the Lord has heard your affliction.
He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man, And
every man’s hand against him. And he
shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.”
In other words, Ishmael would ‘live in
hostility’ among his family and with everyone around him.
Doesn’t that still play out through Ishamel
and Isaac’s descendants today? Look at
the conflict in the Middle East, this is where it all started!
Look at what else God tells Hagar about her
unborn child …
Her unborn child was a boy …
She was to name him Ishmael …
His nature would be that of a wild, hostile
man …
He would be aggressive and hostile toward
others.
Verses 13 and 14: Then she called the name of
the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said,
“Have I also here seen Him who sees me?” 14 Therefore the
well was called Beer Lahai Roi; observe, it is between
Kadesh and Bered.
It’s here that Hagar has her own personal encounter with ‘the God Who sees.’ No longer is she observing and hearing about Him via Abram and Sarai, here she learns first-hand that God cares about her … a poor, broken, pregnant and alone Egyptian slave.
Hagar has met the Lord and while her circumstances haven’t really changed in a physical way, her spiritual circumstance has changed in every way! While Hagar didn’t have God’s written word, we do and so the question begs to be asked, ‘Does meeting God in His word change our lives and circumstances?’
Does Hagar obey God’s command to return to Sarai
and submit to her? If she does, do you
think things will be better for her?
We’ll find out next week when we meet back here on Thursday for another
lesson in the life of Hagar.
patsy
@ From This Heart of Mine
~ a place for women to gather and study God's Word ~
Sources used for this study:
Various
translations of the Holy Bible
Various
commentaries
Several
trusted and biblically sound online sources
Dictionary
of New Testament Background, Editors: Craig A Evans & Stanley E. Porter
Archaeological
Study Bible
All
the Women of the Bible by Edith Deen
Daughters
of Eve by Lottie Beth Hobbs
Halley’s
Bible Handbook by H. H. Halley
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