Genesis 16: Hagar and Ishmael

Genesis 16

¹Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; ²so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”

Abram agreed to what Sarai said. ³So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.

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⁴He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.

When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. ⁵Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”

⁶“Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.

⁷The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. ⁸And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.

⁹Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” ¹⁰The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”

¹¹The angel of the Lord also said to her:

“You are now pregnant
    and you will give birth to a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
    for the Lord has heard of your misery.
¹²He will be a wild donkey of a man;
    his hand will be against everyone
    and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
    toward all his brothers.”

¹³She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” ¹⁴That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. ¹⁶Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

Genesis 16 (NIV)

At this time, Sarai had still not borne any children for Abram and she was starting to lose hope. She decided to take matters into her hands and put a spin on God’s word saying “Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her”. In her mind she probably thought that was the right thing to do: the child born was going to be Abram’s and so she assumed that was going to make him the heir God had promised.

Abram did as his wife had suggested and slept with Hagar who became pregnant and later birthed Ishmael.

By putting their own spin on God’s word in this way, they opened doors for discord and disorder – problems that have lasted even to this day.

Lessons from Genesis 16

Faith doesn’t bend to the pressure of time: Sarai got impatient with God when she did not get pregnant right after God had made the promise to Abram that he will have children of his own. She succumbed to the pressure of time and took matters into her own hands, her faith was shaken by doubt and unbelief. When walking with God, you have to trust His timing, faith does not bend to the pressure of time.
Never blame God for the troubles in your life: Sarai for some reason believed that God had kept her from having children, but this was simply not true. When you read Genesis 15 and previous chapters, you realize that God’s plan for mankind is that we be fruitful and multiply. Not only that, God specifically wanted to bless Abram and Sarai with offspring as many as the stars in the sky. God is a loving father, He will never bring harm upon you but when hard times arise, He will surely be with you in the midst of the troubles, ready to guard and guide you through.
When you hear the word of God, don’t let anybody dissuade you: Abram let his wife Sarai convince him that they could build the family God had promised them through her slave Hagar. Abram had heard directly from God but he let his wife convince him of something else. As a Christian, you should be a person of strong conviction, establish God’s word as truth in your life and stick to it even when things don’t happen when or how you expected. Have faith enough to say “I will do as God said and trust in Him all the way”.
Wait on God and don’t take matters into your own hands: in your season of waiting, lean on God. It is not always easy to exercise patience but it is necessary. Sarai took matters into her own hands after 10 years of waiting for God’s promise to come to pass and it backfired on her. Sarai had defiled the sanctity of marriage by telling her husband to sleep with another woman and now that the other woman (Hagar) had slept with Sarai’s husband (Abram) and had become pregnant, she started to treat Sarai in a contemptuous manner [she started to feel superior to Sarai even though Sarai was her mistress]. You have to trust that with God anything is possible and nothing is impossible for Him, when He requires you to act He will tell you what to do, just listen and obey.
When you try to “help” God, you will only make a mess: With everything happening, Sarai turned on Abram and started blaming him. Abram seeking to restore peace told Sarai to do as she pleased and this resulted in Sarai mistreating Hagar so much that she (Hagar) ran away. The problems in their household was just a shadow of what was to come: even today, the descendants of Hagar’s son Ishmael and the descendants of Sarai’s son Isaac are still fighting against each other. We are supposed to submit to God, not be superior to Him. There is nothing you can do better than God, He is the origin and center of everything. Instead of trying to “help” Him out, focus on doing what He says, how He says and when He says, trusting Him to do His part.
You don’t resolve a problem by running away from it: After Hagar ran away from Sarai, an angel of the Lord appeared to her and told her to go back to Sarai and to submit to her. In order to solve a problem, you need to face it head on and take the right actions to remediate the situation.
God hears the cries of the oppressed: An angel of God came to meet Hagar in the desert and brought her good news and comfort. She was told to name her baby “Ishmael” which means “God hears” because God had heard her misery, He saw what had happened between her and Sarai and came to her aid. God hears you when you cry out to Him.
Even when you make a mess, God has the ability to clean it up if you come to Him with a repentant heart. This does not however give you the permission to go around causing problems. As a child of God, your desire should be to live in obedience and not in a constant rebellion-repentance cycle. Imagine how you would feel if someone in your life keeps hurting you and apologizing just to turn around and do the same thing again, that is such a toxic cycle and just as you don’t like it, God doesn’t either.

Reflection

What do you do when God seems to be taking too long?
Are you wise enough to do EXACTLY what God says to do?
In what areas of your life can you apply the lessons from today’s chapter?

Prayer

Lord, I put my trust in you. I will wait on you and not get tired, I will not succumb to the pressure of time. Forgive me for the times I took matters into my hands instead of waiting in Faith. I submit myself to you today [my mind, my will and my emotions], be my guide and direction, let your voice be the loudest one I hear and the only one I follow. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.