In Genesis 16, Hagar, an Egyptian slave, was forced into becoming a surrogate mother for Abram and Sarai.
Rather than wait on the son of promise to be born to them, Abraham and Sarah acted in unbelief, and executed a plan out of their flesh, a plan that violated and devastated an innocent woman. It’s hard to read, but it is what happened. God’s people did the wrong thing, and Hagar was going to suffer for it. Abram had sex with her, and she got pregnant. No one asked Hagar how she felt about being a surrogate. No one got her permission for any of this to happen. The child she would now have to carry for nine months wouldn’t even be considered hers. It would be considered the child of Abram and Sarai.
Things between the women definitely changed. Verse 4 says that Hagar, the now-pregnant slave, looked at Sarai with contempt. Scholars say that means Hagar began to have an elevated view of herself over Sarai because she was able to become pregnant. Things were going to go from bad to worse for her.
Verse 5: And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt.”
Sarai was blaming Abram for the change in the atmosphere between the two women. To soothe Sarai, Abram told her to do to Hagar as she pleased. He gave her freedom to “put Hagar in her place,” and the text says at the end of verse 6, “Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.”
We don’t know what Sarai did to Hagar that was harsh, but it had to have been bad. Who flees by themselves when they are pregnant?
All of that was groundwork for what happens next: 7 The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur.
Hagar was fleeing in fear, maybe even in fear for her life. Hagar was desperate. She was alone. Hagar was running away from her pain, but God, found her!
Friend, you might be running. You might be dealing with pain that has been inflicted on you by people who have used you, people who have had a personal agenda of which you have become a human casualty, but I want you to know God is coming after you. You don’t have to live on the run. You don’t have to deal with your difficulty alone. You don’t have to be afraid for what will happen next. God is coming after you because He has seen what you have endured, and He has a word for you. On top of that, He has a blessing for you.
My best understanding of the Angel of the Lord is that this is actually the pre-incarnate Jesus who finds Hagar and speaks to her. Notice where the Lord found Hagar. He found her in the wilderness, literally in a desert place.
8 And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?”
First off, we notice that the Angel of the Lord knows her by name. He called her by her name. “Hagar” is a name that means, “stranger.” She may have felt insignificant and worthless, but she wasn’t either of those things to God. She wasn’t a stranger to Him. She was ONE God was seeking.
She was not only found by the Angel of the Lord, but she was known by the Angel of the Lord. I wonder what was going through her mind in that moment. I wonder if she thought, “How does this stranger in the desert know who I am, and why does He care where I have come from or where I am going?”
She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.”
You can tell by her words that she didn’t have a plan. I don’t think she knew where she was going. Some scholars say she was headed in the direction of Egypt, so may she thought she should try to go home and see if any of her old connections would welcome her. I don’t know, but I don’t really think she was thinking ahead. She was just thinking about escaping her place of torment.
9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.”
At first read, that can sound cruel and insensitive, but I will suggest four positive things that could result from her returning:
- Her best chance to have a healthy pregnancy and to deliver a healthy baby was to be in Abram’s house where she could be provided for.
- Facing things, rather than running from them, are the way to work through pain and trauma.
- “Submitting” to Sarai meant changing her attitude. She had a role to play in the fact that things got worse between her and Sarai. It wasn’t only that she got pregnant that riled Sarai up, but it was also how Hagar’s interaction with Sarai changed that escalated the situation. Yes, she had been a victim and had suffered, but she needed to have a change of heart regarding some wrongdoing on her part.
- Her son would be provided for in Abram’s household. What other way would she have for taking care of him than to be in the place where his father would provide for him?
10 The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.”
That promise of a legacy, of descendants, of a multitude, wasn’t only for Abraham. It was given to Hagar as well. God started making promises in the desert to a slave woman, a woman on the run. Something about being connected to Abraham was going to bring a blessing. Something that had brought her pain, being connected to Abraham, was also going to bring her blessing.
In verse 11, God told her she was going to have a son. And she was told to name her son, Ishmael, which means, “God hears.” Look at it: You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your affliction.
Every time she called his name, she would remember that God had heard and seen all she had been through, and He brought her words of hope when she was at her lowest point.
The ear of the Lord is tuned to your cry. The eyes of the Lord are on you and your situation.
Then, the Angel of the Lord went on to describe the kind of person Ishmael would be. 12 He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.”
I’m not sure how encouraging this description would have been to Hagar. I doubt that “Most likely to be stubborn like a donkey and live in contention with everyone” was what she was hoping for her son’s legacy, but at least she knew he would live. That was never a given back then. A lot of babies and their mothers died in childbirth. Hagar would have at least heard that her son would live to see a future. Even though there would be conflict, he would come out on top. He would rule, AND being the son of Abraham, he wouldn’t be born a slave.
And Hagar’s response to the encounter and the news about all of this is amazing. Look at verse 13: So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.”
No one in Hagar’s life truly saw the pain she was enduring, but God did. She said, “You are a God of seeing. You are the God who sees me.”
Hagar wasn’t a prominent woman. She didn’t wind up in the Hebrews 11 “Hall of Faith.” She wasn’t a woman of virtue or power. She isn’t credited with writing a book of the Bible. She wasn’t educated or wealthy. Hagar wasn’t someone anyone esteemed. Hagar was a slave. The fact that they had bought her or had acquired her in some transaction and that she was serving in a state of insignificance only added to her invisibility. She was used. She was taken advantage of. She didn’t have a voice. She couldn’t control her own destiny. She wouldn’t even be in the Bible if Sarai hadn’t been barren, but God never took His eye off of Hagar. And in that moment, Hagar saw Him who saw her. That was a defining and empowering moment.
When Hagar called the Angel of the Lord, “The God Who Sees Me,” or the “God of Seeing,” she used the Hebrew term, “El Roi.” This is the only time anyone directly confers a name upon God. Abram didn’t. Moses didn’t. Hagar did.
Giving someone a name, that’s a weighty privilege, and for God to record that it happened for all time is quite profound. Hagar had been known by God as she had been heard and had been seen and had been named. In response, she heard and saw and named Him in response, and He let her. He let her experience Him in a profound way.
Well, Hagar went back. She bore Abram the son, and Abram called his named, “Ishmael.” She was no longer invisible to Abram. He listened to her about the name the Angel of the Lord said the child should have. Abram went from giving Sarai permission to take charge of Hagar to listening to Hagar and believing her about her experience with God in the desert. In the ancient culture, I will call that redemption.
What Hagar gained from being seen by God and from seeing God enabled her to return and face what had been and embrace what God said would be. Yes, a word from God can change everything, but I don’t necessarily think it was the words she heard that made the difference for Hagar. I think what made the difference was the fellowship she had with the God who saw her, the God who would never take His eye off of her.
Do you feel invisible? God has seen every crushing moment you have endured. As you have faced every trial, He has never taken His eyes off of you. He understands why you are running, why you have isolated yourself, why you are afraid, why you are hurting. He is here right now to speak your name and to give you hope about the future that is waiting for you. Will you put your trust in the God who sees you?
