Genesis 16, 17, 21
We are going to jump to chapter 16, but first I will give a little summary of what has occurred. We see the effects of sin in the world through the stories of Cain and Abel (Genesis 4), Noah’s Ark (Genesis 5-10), and the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11). However, we see the mighty hand of the Lord overpower sin and redeem His people every time. In Genesis 12, God calls on Abraham and establishes a covenant with Him: “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing” (12:2). In Genesis 15:5, God says to Abraham, “Look toward the heaven, and number the stars…So shall your offspring be.” God established a covenant with Abraham that he would be the Father of many nations and God’s people would be descended from him.
Now, Abraham had a wife whose name was Sarai and she was barren. Sarai had a servant named, Hagar. Sarai began to second guess God and took matters into her own hands. She told her husband to “go in to my servant,” so that she may “obtain children by [Hagar]” (16:2). Hagar conceived, Sarai dealt harshly with her, and Hagar ran from Sarai. God’s plans are bigger than Sarai’s and an angel of the Lord appears to Hagar in the wilderness. This is the first appearance of an angel in Scripture, and it is to a woman! God meets Hagar, a foreign (Egyptian) servant woman, where she is at. The angel asks where has she come from and where is she going (16:8). Hagar replies with what happened and the angel tells Hagar to return to Sarai. Yet, the angel of the Lord also says to Hagar, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude…Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael [“God hears”], because the Lord has listened to your affliction (16:10-11). While her son Ishmael will not be Abraham’s heir of the covenant since God’s original covenant was with Abraham and Sarai, the Lord still cares for Hagar and what has happened to her. Therefore, her descendent will still enjoy the blessings of God: “Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation” (Genesis 21:18). We see God’s promise to Hagar and Ishmael fulfilled through both Islamic and Jewish texts, as both name Ishmael to be the founder of many northern Arab nations.
Hagar’s experience in the wilderness is best summarized by Wiersbe: “Hagar’s experience brought her face-to-face with God and taught her some important truths about Him. She learned that He is the living God who sees us and hears our cries when we hurt. The name of the well [named Beer-lahai-roi in Genesis 16:14] means ‘The well of One who lives and sees me.’ He is a personal God, concerned about abused people…He knows the future and cares for those who will trust Him.” God uses Hagar, a foreign woman, to teach all of us that He hears us, for He heard her! Hagar returns to Sarai and gives birth to Ishmael.
Even though Sarai took matters into her own hands and sinned, God still cares about her! He remembers his covenant with Abraham and Sarai and gives Sarai a new identity, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her” (17:15-16). At this point, Sarah is 90 years old, which we know that is too old to bear children. Yet nothing is impossible for God and God created women’s bodies to do amazing and hard things! Through the power of the Lord, Sarah is able to conceive and give birth to a son, Isaac. It is through Sarah and Abraham’s descendants that Jesus is born. We see through Sarah and Hagar, that God uses women to bring life into the world and establish nations!
