16.1-16

Genesis

Abram may have thought he was being patient with the covenant. But after waiting ten years (v3), he fathered an illegitimate son (v16). God took 14 more years to fulfill "His" timing (Gen 17:1). Taking God's plans into our own hands has consequences. Enmity forms between Sarai and her handmaid once Hagar conceives (v4). Abram and Sarai's marriage suffers (v5). Ultimately, Hagar is reminded of her place in the household as a slave, and is likely beaten, "So Sarai afflicted her" (v6). When Hagar is fleeing in the desert, God appears and tells her: "Return to your mistress" (v9). Though Hagar had not cried out to God, He "heard her affliction" (v11). Yahweh tells Hagar she will bear a son and call his name Ishmael. יִשְׁמָעֵאל (Yishmael), Shem (to hear), and el (God): "God shall hear." This is the first time a child is named before his birth. Hagar responds, “You are a God who sees... Have I even remained alive here after seeing Him?”(v13). God רֱאִי ro-i, "sees" and רָאָה raah, is "seen." Even in sin, even when we do not know to cry out to God, He hears us. He sees us. And He reveals Himself to us with direction.

CHAPTER 16

Sarai and Hagar

1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian servant-woman whose name was Hagar.
2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Now behold, Yahweh has shut my womb from bearing children. Please go in to my servant-woman; perhaps I will obtain children through her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
3 And after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant-woman, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife.
4 So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. Then she saw that she had conceived, so her mistress became contemptible in her sight.
5 And Sarai said to Abram, “May the violence done to me be upon you. I gave my servant-woman into your embrace, but she saw that she had conceived, so I became contemptible in her sight. May Yahweh judge between you and me.”
6 But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant-woman is in your hand; do to her what is good in your sight.” So Sarai afflicted her, and she fled from her presence.
7 Now the angel of Yahweh found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur.
8 And he said, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant-woman, where have you come from and where are you going?” And she said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.”
9 Then the angel of Yahweh said to her, “Return to your mistress and humble yourself under her hands.”
10 Moreover, the angel of Yahweh said to her, “I will greatly multiply your seed so that they will be too many to be counted.”
11 And the angel of Yahweh said to her further,
“Behold, you are with child,
And you will bear a son;
And you shall call his name Ishmael,
Because Yahweh has heard your affliction.
12 “And he will be a wild donkey of a man,
His hand will be against everyone,
And everyone’s hand will be against him;
And he will dwell in the face of all his brothers.”
13 Then she called the name of Yahweh who spoke to her, “You are a God who sees”; for she said, “Have I even remained alive here after seeing Him?”
14 Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.
15 So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.
16 Now Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.