To be seen and known.
Completely.
By God.
Hagar was a servant in the wealthy household of Abram and Sarai. She was Sarai’s servant. God had promised Abram many descendants, yet Sarai had not been able to bear any children. As she got older, past the normal years of childbearing, her hope grew dim and her faith flickered. Perhaps God was not going to bless her with a child after all.
As Sarai thought about the problem, an idea came to her. It was a common custom of the time for a childless woman to bear a child through one of her servants.
This could be the answer: her servant, Hagar, could bear a child for her!
Sarai brought her plan to Abram, and he agreed.
“So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived” (Genesis 16:4).
Sarai had looked to the society around her for an answer to her problem. Perhaps she believed it was a way to fulfil God’s promise to Abram – but God’s purposes are never accomplished by adopting the sinful patterns and ways of the world. In seeking to do “what everyone else was doing”, she (and Abram) veered away from God’s design for marriage.
At creation, God said, “a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). God’s intention for marriage is one man and one woman for life. By giving Hagar to Abram, Sarai was introducing an additional person into their marriage relationship. This would prove to cause much future heartache and trouble.
God created us, and He knows what is best for us. His Word, the Bible, is a handbook that instructs us on how to live as He intended. When we go against God’s ways, we not only sin against Him, but we also harm ourselves. God’s laws are there for our good. It is worth waiting on God and trusting His ways; this is especially true when it comes to relationships and marriage. The Bible clearly warns: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 16:25).
There were consequences for Sarai’s actions:
“And when [Hagar] saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes” (Genesis 16:4).
Hagar’s attitude toward Sarai changed. Now that she had conceived a child, she felt superior to Sarai. This haughty attitude soon caught Sarai’s attention and angered her. When she received no help from Abram, Sarai took matters into her own hands and began to treat Hagar very harshly.
When Hagar could take it no longer, she fled.
Most likely, she was heading for Egypt, where she was from. We find her in the wilderness on the way to Shur (north Egypt), beside a spring of water.
I’m sure Hagar had many fears as she paused on the wilderness road that day. What would happen to her? Where would she go for help and support? She was just a servant; alone and pregnant. Who would care about her?
But there was One who cared – Hagar was unaware that God was watching her.
“Now the Angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur” (Genesis 16:7).
“The Angel of the LORD” is a term that is used throughout the Old Testament when God Himself appears to someone in the form of a man or an angel.
This is the first mention of “the Angel of the LORD” in the Bible. I love the fact that it is not to a mighty king or a brave warrior that God first appears in this way, but to Hagar – a woman, a servant.
How surprising this seems! And yet, not – for is this not the heart of our God? “God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34 KJV). God does not judge according to the world’s social standards and value system.
Many years later, the Lord Jesus would speak of how valuable each one of us is to God:
“Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6,7).
“The Angel of the LORD found her” – what a beautiful phrase! God’s love and care for Hagar caused Him to move toward her. He went to where she was. He sought her out. He came to her in her time of need. The depth of God’s love always results in action.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16).
He loved. He gave.
He came.
“In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:9).
“He saw me plunged in deep distress,
He came to my relief;
For me He bore the shameful cross,
And carried all my grief.”[1]
In Part 2 we will continue the story, and see how God in His love brings a challenge to Hagar. She must examine her own heart honestly and acknowledge that there is a God who sees her and knows her completely.
[1] From hymn by Samuel Stennett, Majestic sweetness sits enthroned.
