Gen 16:1-16 · Read 10 min · think and write 15 min
In the last lesson, the LORD brought Abram outside to look at the stars and said, “So your offspring will be” (Gen 15:5); and, “he who will come out of your own body will be your heir” (Gen 15:4).
But Sarai still had no child. In this lesson, something happens in this household.
1Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had a servant, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.
2Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing. Please go in to my servant. It may be that I will obtain children by her.” Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
3Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram her husband to be his wife.
4He went in to Hagar, and she conceived. When she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.
5Sarai said to Abram, “This wrong is your fault. I gave my servant into your bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, she despised me. May the LORD judge between me and you.”
6But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your maid is in your hand. Do to her whatever is good in your eyes.” Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her face.
7The LORD’s angel found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain on the way to Shur.
8He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where did you come from? Where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from the face of my mistress Sarai.”
9The LORD’s angel said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hands.”
10The LORD’s angel said to her, “I will greatly multiply your offspring, that they will not be counted for multitude.”
11The LORD’s angel said to her, “Behold, you are with child, and will bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the LORD has heard your affliction.
12He will be like a wild donkey among men. His hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him. He will live opposed to all of his brothers.”
13She called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, “You are a God who sees,” for she said, “Have I even stayed alive after seeing him?”
14Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi. Behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.
15Hagar bore a son for Abram. Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.
16Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
No children. The passage begins: “Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children” (v. 1). Sarai said, “See now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing. Please go in to my servant. It may be that I will obtain children by her” (v. 2). “Abram listened to the voice of Sarai” (v. 2). The passage notes the time: “after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan” (v. 3).
Despised. “He went in to Hagar, and she conceived. When she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes” (v. 4). Sarai said to Abram, “This wrong is your fault,” and, “May the LORD judge between me and you” (v. 5).
Whatever is good in your eyes. Abram answered, “Behold, your maid is in your hand. Do to her whatever is good in your eyes” (v. 6). Then comes one line: “Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her face” (v. 6). One household, three people: the passage records only what they said and did, and takes no one’s side.
By a fountain in the wilderness. “The LORD’s angel found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain on the way to Shur” (v. 7). The angel calls her by name — “Hagar, Sarai’s servant” — and asks her, “where did you come from? Where are you going?” (v. 8). Hagar answers only the first half: “I am fleeing from the face of my mistress Sarai” (v. 8).
Return. The angel says to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hands” (v. 9). He also gives her a promise: “I will greatly multiply your offspring, that they will not be counted for multitude” (v. 10).
The LORD has heard. The angel says she will bear a son: “You shall call his name Ishmael, because the LORD has heard your affliction” (v. 11). The passage itself explains the child’s name: the LORD has heard.
A God who sees. “She called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, ‘You are a God who sees’” (v. 13). In a household where no one was looking out for her, she came to know, in the wilderness, ‘a God who sees.’
Eighty-six years old. “Hagar bore a son for Abram. Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael” (v. 15). The passage records Abram’s age again: “Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram” (v. 16). When he left Haran, he had been seventy-five (Gen 12:4).
At the place where Hagar met the LORD in the wilderness, there was a well: “Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi” (v. 14).
Later passages mention this well again. When Isaac was grown, “Isaac came from the way of Beer Lahai Roi, for he lived in the land of the South” (Gen 24:62); after Abraham died, “Isaac lived by Beer Lahai Roi” (Gen 25:11).
Readers can see this: the name a runaway Egyptian servant gave to that well stayed in use long afterward.
Perhaps you are in a family where you meant to set things right, and instead relationships broke apart. Perhaps you are like Hagar — looked down on, treated harshly, and you have walked out alone into a ‘wilderness.’
This lesson takes no one’s side in this household, and does not say who was right or wrong. What it shows you is this: in the wilderness, the LORD called a servant by her name, and heard her affliction. A psalm says to God, too: “You count my wanderings” (Ps 56:8).
This week: Begin your prayer with Hagar’s words: “You are a God who sees” (v. 13). Then tell him plainly about the ‘wilderness’ you are in now.
Scripture: World English Bible.