Hagar ... broken & alone ... or was she?... Lesson 5

By Patsy Norwood © 2025  All Rights Reserved!  Any and all commercial use of this study is strictly prohibited.  

Genesis 12: 4-20; 16:1-15; 21:8-21 (NKJV)

Welcome back to our study on Hagar!  Last week we watched Hagar have her first encounter with the Lord.  He told her what He wanted her to do, did she obey?  That’s what we’re going to find out in today’s lesson.

Let’s pick up with Genesis 16:15 …

15 So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.

Hagar obeyed God and returned to her mistress.  She bore Abram his first-born son and named him Ishmael, just as the ‘the Angel of the LORD’ had commanded.

Even returning under the strength of the LORD along with her encounter with the LORD, how hard do you think this would have been for Hagar?

Did the tensions between Sarai and Hagar that had been there before return?  I think it’s likely, after all nothing had changed except Hagar’s relationship with God.  Sarai had to live with the reminder every day that Ishmael was her husband’s son by another woman, a woman that she had once felt somewhat close to, but now despised, and as we’ll soon see, Hagar wasn’t completely innocent either!

Fast forward some 13—14 years, Abram is 100 years old, and Sarai is 90.  God has changed Abram’s name to Abraham and Sarai’s name to Sarah (Genesis 17:5, 17). 

Abraham, concerned about Ishmael’s future, says to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before you!’ (Genesis 17:18).  Is Abraham making a plea to God that Ishmael be the ‘promised child’ or is Abraham, out of love for his son, requesting God to bless him also?  We don’t know, but what we do know is that God tells Abraham that Sarah would bear the promised son.  (Up until this time, it hasn’t been specifically stated in scripture that God had said the son of promise would be born of Sarah.  Could that have been the reason Abraham went along with Sarah’s plan to involve Hagar in helping God keep His promise?) God even goes so far as to tell Abraham the name he was to give to the promised child he and Sarah would have. (Genesis 17:19)

Let’s move over to Genesis 21 and continue our study there …

The events in this chapter take place some 25 years after Abraham and Sarah’s sojourn in Egypt.  They were now living in the area of Gerar or maybe Beersheba.

Verse 8:  So the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was weaned.

The child referred to here is Issac, who was possibly around 3 years old, the time when children were weaned at this time in history. His weaning signified his ability to eat solid food and his transition from infancy to a young child.  The feast Abraham gave was a celebration of this milestone in Isaac’s life.

Verse 9:  And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, scoffing.

According to the Greek Lexicon, the word scoffing means:  to laugh, to mock, to play, to jest, to laugh outright, to sport, to ridicule, to scorn.  Wonder where Ishmael learned that?  Could it have come from observing the way his mother and Sarah interacted with each other.

If we are calculating everyone’s ages correctly, this would have put Ishmael around the age of 17.  Seventeen-year-old Ishmael was making fun of 3-year-old Isaac!  Ishmael should have known better!

All the years of watching Abraham interacting with Ishmael and seeing their relationship grow deeper and deeper, likely came to the surface when Ishmael scoffed at Issac.  That was probably the last straw!  The mama bear in Sarah came out in full force ...

Verse 10: Therefore, she said to Abraham, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac.” 

According to the laws and customs of that time, Sarah had the right to do and make this decision.

Oh boy!  Here we go again only this time, it seems that Hagar and her son are being cast out by Sarah’s choice.  Is Hagar going to leave Abraham and Sarah’s home for the second time?  Is Abraham going to let this happen, I mean Ishmael is not a babe in Hagar’s womb anymore?  Abraham has had several years to grow to love his son, is it going to make a difference?

Meet me back here next Thursday and we’ll see how this scene plays out.

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