And the Angel of Jehovah found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur.
Hagar has run from Sarai's harsh treatment, pregnant, with no home to go to and no plan beyond escape. Scripture does not record what she did next, only that she was found — and the one who found her is called "the angel of the LORD."
The messenger who meets Hagar makes promises only God can keep. That settles who He is.
In the verses that mention the angel of the Lord (vv. 7, 9, 10), the angel is clearly the Lord Himself. It is He who multiplies Abram's descendants. The term "angel" means a messenger, and Malachi 3:1 speaks of "the Lord whom you seek" as "the messenger of the covenant."
The title itself is flexible, and the surrounding words decide its sense each time it appears.
This expression, "the angel of the LORD," occurs over 100 times in the Old Testament. It means messenger or agent. Sometimes it describes an angelic messenger. Sometimes it refers to the Lord Himself. The context makes clear which is meant. In Genesis 16:7 the context proves that the Angel of the Lord is the Lord Himself.
Hagar is not the one searching here. The word "found" carries the weight of the verse. The search was on God's side. And the question He asks next shows how little she had planned.
But the Lord still had a good and kindly interest in Hagar. The angel of the Lord comes to her in her lonely distress as she is by a spring of water. At least she could find water, but it was a different matter to find food and shelter. The angel asked her where she had come from and where she would go. She could answer the first, but had no answer for the second. She was fleeing from her mistress. But where could a pregnant woman go, especially with no relatives or friends to contact?
Shur lay on the way back to Egypt, the country Hagar came from. Her direction of travel matches her name, and both fit the meaning Scripture itself gives her.
Of Hagar we also have the inspired interpretation. She is the covenant "from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery" — the only form of religion that man's natural thinking leads him to. Hagar is an Egyptian, a child of nature, or, as the letter to the Galatians interprets it, "the elementary principles of the world." Law tends to leave the place of a servant, and her very name shows it — Hagar means "fugitive." So the angel of the Lord finds her by the well, going down to Egypt. When Abram's house sends her away at last, she is found again with her son, drifting down toward Egypt. Afterwards Ishmael lives in the wilderness on Egypt's borders.
Hagar was not innocent. But she was also a servant with no say in the arrangement that put her here. God's answer meets both facts at once.
At this point the Angel of the Lord intervened. By the customs of that time, it seems Hagar had no choice in the matter. And God is a God of pity, and of judgment. Even if she had been rude to her mistress, she was not to be left in the wilderness in her need. But on her return she was to be subject and submit to her mistress. Looking at her personally, apart from what she pictures, she was as much sinned against as sinning. God's intervention held the scales of justice evenly.
The water source in this verse gets a name from Hagar's own lips, and that name outlives her visit. Years later the son of promise settles at the very spot where the Lord met the runaway.
Notice how beautiful this name Lahai-roi is, which means "the well of Him who lives and sees me." That was Hagar's own word. She realised the wonderful care of the Lord for her — how He had met her in her need, while she was fleeing from her mistress Sarah, to bring her back. He ministers to her by the springing well which He discovers for her. But Isaac lives there. Isaac, the child of the free woman, is our representative — the true child of God in this picture. He is the one who gets the well and controls it.
- Fugitive. Hagar's name means "fugitive." Her route through Shur was the road back to Egypt. She was running away, not toward anything.
- Found. The verb belongs to God. She could say where she had come from but not where she was going; He came to her while she was in distress.
- Divine. Scripture calls the one who found her the angel of the LORD. But He speaks as God Himself and promises what only God can give.
- Just. He neither excused her attitude nor abandoned her. He sent her back to submit, and He did not leave her in the desert.
- Named. The spring where grace found the runaway became "the well of Him who lives and sees me." Later it became the home of Isaac, the child of the free woman.
And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maidservant, whence comest thou? and whither art thou going? And she said, I am fleeing from the face of my mistress Sarai.
Hagar has run into the desert to escape a mistress who made her life unbearable. At a spring of water, a messenger of the Lord stops her with two questions: one about her past, one about her future.
She had no plan and no destination. One writer traces the flight back to the treatment she received once Sarai had been given a free hand with her:
Sarai took advantage of this permission from Abram and made life hard for Hagar. Countless employers have done the same, keeping their workers in misery by cruel oppression. Understandably, Hagar became a runaway, not knowing where she was going, but going anyway.
The second half of the question exposes that emptiness. She can name what she is running from, and nothing more:
But the Lord still had a good and kindly interest in Hagar. The angel of the Lord comes to her in her lonely distress as she is by a spring of water. At least she could find water, but it was a different matter to find food and shelter. The angel asked her where she had come from and where she would go. She could answer the first, but had no answer for the second. She was fleeing from her mistress. But where could a pregnant woman go, with no relatives or friends to turn to?
The messenger does not call her Abram's wife or Ishmael's mother. He calls her Sarai's servant — the very relationship she had grown proud of escaping:
In the Lord's judgment, Hagar was badly out of place in despising her mistress. He meets her in her wanderings, and He knows her only as Sarah's maid. So He sends her back with this instruction: "Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand." She may receive promises about the son she will bear, but she is Sarah's maid still, and submission is her only duty.
Hagar was not simply in the wrong, and God does not treat her as if she were:
By the customs of that time, Hagar clearly had no choice in the matter. And God is a God of pity, and of judgment. Even if she had been rude to her mistress, God would not leave her in the desert in her need. But in returning she was to be subject and submit to her mistress. Looking at her as a person, apart from what she pictures, she was as much sinned against as sinning. God stepped in and held the scales of justice even.
Going back was not merely a change of address. It required the very thing that had caused the trouble to be reversed:
She was not only to return, but to stop despising her mistress, and instead submit to her. A wrong attitude had made it hard for her. To change her attitude into one of submission would of course make Sarai's attitude more favourable toward her.
Her name and her direction both say something. One writer reads her as a picture of the law given at Mount Sinai:
Of Hagar too we have the inspired interpretation. She is the covenant from Mount Sinai, the covenant that produces slavery. It is the only form of religion that man's natural thinking leads him to, and the one we fall back to if grace is let go. Hagar is therefore an Egyptian, a child of nature, or as the letter to the Galatians interprets it, "the elements of the world." … The tendency of law, as it were, to leave this place of service is shown in her very name — Hagar, that is, "fugitive"; and so the angel of the Lord finds her by the well, going down to Egypt.
The point is plain. No idol could have heard her or watched over her:
Can idols hear, or can they also look after people? No, the true God of heaven alone could hear and see when Hagar had run away. He is the same today. He hears you and sees you in the way you go. And not only that, but He loves you too.
- Found. God's messenger meets Hagar in her distress by a spring. She had run where no friend could follow, and He was already there.
- Questioned. She can say what she fled; she cannot say where she is going. Running away answers the past and leaves the future blank.
- Named. He addresses her as Sarai's servant. He knows her only in that relationship, and He restores her to it rather than releasing her from it.
- Weighed. She was as much sinned against as sinning. God holds pity and justice even. He will not leave her in the desert, and He will not excuse her contempt.
- Sent back. The cure is not a new place but a new attitude. She must go back and stop despising her mistress.
And the Angel of Jehovah said to her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands.
Hagar has run into the desert to escape Sarai's harsh treatment, and the Angel of the LORD finds her there. Why would God send a mistreated woman straight back to the mistress she fled?
The one who gives this command is not simply a heavenly messenger. Writers point to the wording of the chapter itself as proof of who is present.
This expression, "the Angel of the LORD" [Jehovah], occurs over 100 times in the Old Testament. It means messenger or agent. Sometimes it describes an angelic messenger, and sometimes it refers to the Lord Himself. The context makes it clear which is meant. In Genesis 16:7, for instance, the context clearly proves the Angel of the Lord is the Lord Himself.
And of everyone tangled up in this chapter, she is the only one God addresses.
We are not dealing here with the broad principles of moral good and evil, or with God's ordering of the world. We are dealing with man's ways inside the calling of God — man's, or woman's, workings and plannings, and the result left in God's hand. Hagar was the only person here who was in any way right, apart from despising her mistress, for which she suffered. And it is to her that an Angel, a messenger from Jehovah, speaks. He speaks to no one else in the chapter.
The instruction has two halves, and the second is the harder one.
There was only one course open to her, as the angel tells her: "Return to your mistress and submit to her." She was not only to return. She was to stop despising her mistress, and instead submit to her. A wrong attitude had made things hard for her. Changing that attitude into one of submission would of course make Sarai's attitude toward her more favourable.
Hagar was not the author of this mess. She had been handed to Abram, and she was pregnant and alone. God's answer meets both sides of that.
At this point the Angel of the Lord stepped in. By the customs of that time Hagar clearly had no choice in the matter, and God is a God of pity and of judgment. Even if she had been rude to her mistress, she was not to be left in the wilderness in her need. Only, on returning she was to be subject and submit to her mistress. Looking at her personally, apart from what she pictures, she was as much sinned against as sinning. God stepped in, and His intervention held the scales of justice even.
Sarai had tried to solve her own bad idea by force, and Hagar tried to solve hers by running. Neither works. The results of a wrong step have to run their course.
"The bondwoman" cannot be got rid of by harsh treatment. When we make mistakes and find ourselves having to face the results, we cannot undo those results by acting with a high hand. We often try this method, but we are sure to make matters worse by it. If we have done wrong, we should humble ourselves and confess the wrong. And we should wait on God for deliverance… So Hagar had to return, and give birth to her son.
The same writer draws the lesson wider: "Grace forgives the sin and restores the soul, but what is sown must be reaped."
God addresses her by her position — Sarai's maid — and that title governs everything He then says to her. Her place in the house also pictures something larger.
In the Lord's judgment, Hagar's despising of her mistress is very much out of place. When He meets her in her wanderings, He knows her only as Sarah's maid. He sends her back with this command: "Return to your mistress and submit to her." She may receive promises about the son who is to be born to her. But she is Sarah's maid still, and submission is her only duty. The law, too, has its hour. It may fill the house of God for a time, just as Hagar and her son now fill the house of Abraham for fourteen years. But to the heirs of the promise, even the age of the law was only a servant.
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- Found. The Angel of the LORD is the LORD Himself. Of everyone in this chapter, He speaks only to the runaway maid.
- Faced. Flight settled nothing. What was sown had to be reaped. Neither Sarai's harsh hand nor Hagar's distance could cancel the cost of one wrong step.
- Sent back. God returns her to the exact place she fled — not because the treatment was right, but because the way forward for her ran through it.
- Submitted. The command has two parts: return, and stop despising. Changing her attitude was the one thing in her power, and the thing most likely to change Sarai's.
- Held even. She was as much sinned against as sinning. God does not excuse her contempt, and He does not abandon her in the desert — pity and justice arrive in the same sentence.
And the Angel of Jehovah said to her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.
Hagar has run into the desert, pregnant and with nowhere to go, and the first words spoken to her there are a promise, not a rebuke. Two questions follow: who is this "angel of the LORD," and why does the chapter's greatest promise fall on a runaway servant?
The title "angel of the LORD" does not always point to the same person. Writers say the context decides it.
This expression, THE ANGEL OF THE LORD [Jehovah] occurs over 100 times in the Old Testament, meaning messenger or agent. Sometimes it describes an angelic messenger, and sometimes it refers to the Lord Himself. The context makes it clear which one is meant. The context of Genesis 16:7, for instance, clearly proves The Angel of the Lord is the Lord Himself. None but a Divine Person could speak such words.
The same writer notes how long the world waited for a moment like this.
Two thousand years of human history had rolled by before we have any record of angelic ministry. The first time, the angel of the Lord met Hagar — in truth the Lord Himself. Her child Ishmael was to be the father of a multitude that should not be numbered. This lifts the scene out of what is purely personal.
Genesis 16 is full of people making plans. God addresses only one of them, and it is not Abram or Sarai.
We are not dealing here with the large principles of moral good and evil, or with God's ordering of the world. We are dealing with man's ways inside the calling of God — man's, or woman's, workings and plans, and the result left in God's hand. The only person who was in any way right was Hagar, apart from despising her mistress, for which she suffered. To her an Angel — a messenger from Jehovah — speaks; not to anyone else in the chapter.
Others had used Hagar, and she had answered her mistress with contempt. One writer weighs both sides of her case.
At this point the Angel of the Lord intervened. By the customs of that time, Hagar had no say in the matter, and God is a God of pity and of judgment. Looking at her as a person, apart from what she pictures, she was as much sinned against as sinning. By stepping in, God held the scales of justice even.
A great promise does not release Hagar from the duty she ran from. The promise and the command travel together.
In the Lord's judgment, Hagar's contempt for her mistress is badly out of place. When He meets her in her wanderings, He knows her only as Sarah's maid. He sends her back with this instruction: "return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand." She may receive promises about the son who was to be born to her. But she is Sarah's maid still, and submission is her only duty.
The promise was not poetry. Commentators trace it in visible history, and note that it began at once.
Flesh has its privileges quickly. Already was the beginning of what Jehovah's angel prepared Hagar to expect, "I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude." Jehovah listened to her affliction, and could not forget Abraham. Ishmael was to be a wild-donkey of a man. His hand would be against every man, and every man's hand against him, and he would live facing all his brothers (Gen. 16:10-12). As we may easily see, this too has come true exactly, from that time until now.
A countless family is not the same as the promised line. Writers link this to how God later sorts Abraham's descendants.
From Romans 9:6-9, it would seem that Ishmael sets forth the unbelieving mass of Israel. There we read, "For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but 'Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.'" The unbelieving mass of the nation are children of Abraham according to the flesh. Only the believing remnant are the true seed according to promise. Still, even the children according to the flesh would be great on the earth.
- Who speaks. No created messenger could say "I will multiply." Commentators hold that here the angel of the LORD is the Lord Himself — the first such meeting on record.
- Who is heard. The promise falls on the one person God addresses in the chapter: a used, resentful runaway who was, as one writer puts it, as much sinned against as sinning.
- What she is given. A future she could never have arranged: descendants beyond counting, promised to a woman who owned nothing.
- How far it reached. The words came true in plain history. No one has ever counted the family of Ishmael, and the character named in verse 12 has held ever since.
- What it does not give. Multiplied is not the same as heir. God promised the child of the flesh greatness on earth. But the line of promise ran through Isaac, and He sent Hagar back a servant still.
And the Angel of Jehovah said to her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael, because Jehovah hath hearkened to thy affliction.
Hagar is a runaway slave, pregnant and alone in the desert, when a voice stops her and names her unborn son. The name carries a message — God had listened to her suffering — and it raises a question: who was speaking to her?
The one who meets Hagar carries the title "the angel of the LORD." Yet the promises He makes are God's own to make:
In these verses that speak of the angel of the Lord (vv. 7, 9, 10), the angel is clearly the Lord Himself. It is He who multiplies Abram's descendants. The term "angel" means a messenger, and Malachi 3:1 speaks of "the Lord whom you seek" as "the messenger of the covenant."
Hagar's mistress had treated her harshly. God's answer neither excuses her nor abandons her:
At this point the Angel of the Lord stepped in. By the customs of that time, Hagar plainly had no choice in the matter. And God is a God of pity, and of judgment. Even if she had been rude to her mistress, she should not be left in the wilderness in her need. Only, on returning, she was to be subject and submit to her mistress. Looking at her as a person, apart from what she stands for, she had sinned, but she had been sinned against just as much. God stepped in and held the scales of justice even.
This sets the true God apart from the idols people trust:
Can idols hear, or can they also look after people? No, the true God of heaven alone could hear and see when Hagar had run away. He is the same today. He hears you and sees you in the way you go.
The name points back to what God has just done. Hagar answers it by giving God a name of her own:
And not only this: God foretold the future of the coming son. He gave the boy his name and marked out his character. His name means "God hears." Hagar spoke of God as "You are the God who sees me," or "You are the God who reveals Himself" (New Trans.). The well where the angel appeared to her became known as "The well of the Living who was seen." So even poor Hagar gained blessing from this painful episode.
Besides Jesus, only a handful of people in Scripture were named before they were born, and Ishmael is one of them:
Five other people in the Bible were named before their birth: Isaac, Genesis 17:19; Ishmael, Genesis 16:11; Josiah, 1 Kings 13:2; Cyrus, Isaiah 44:28, and John the Baptist.
Years later Hagar is in the wilderness again, this time with a dying son. The name given here becomes the ground of her rescue:
The mother gave in to despair. She laid her son down to die at a distance from her. But "God heard the boy's voice," and His angel tells Hagar to hold him by the hand. Had not Jehovah called his name Ishmael, because He had heard her affliction? ... She may have forgotten God's promise that a countless multitude would spring from her, and that Ishmael would live in the presence of all his brothers. But God remembered him, and declares that He will make him a great nation.
Being heard is not the same as being chosen. Ishmael receives a promise and a future, but not the covenant line:
Before he was born, Hagar ran away because her mistress treated her harshly. The angel of the Lord appeared to her and told her to return to her mistress. Her descendants should be countless, and she was to call her son's name Ishmael, which means 'El shall hear.' ... Abraham prayed that Ishmael might live before God. But Ishmael pictures the seed of Abraham according to the flesh. So although God answered that He would bless Ishmael, and multiply him greatly ... yet the covenant should be established with Isaac.
- Heard. The name Ishmael records what God did before the boy was born. He listened to the affliction of a slave woman nobody else heard.
- Seen. The One who heard is the Lord Himself, under the title "the angel of the LORD." Hagar answers by naming Him the God who sees her.
- Sent back. Being heard did not lift Hagar out of her situation. God sent her back to submit to her mistress, and held the scales of justice even.
- Proved. Years later Hagar forgot the promise. In the desert God heard her son's cry — the name held even when her faith did not.
- Not the heir. God heard Ishmael and made him a great nation. Yet the covenant went to Isaac. To be heard by God is real mercy, but it is not the same as being the child of promise.