THE BIRTH OF ISHMAEL
GENESIS 16:1-16
Genesis
15 leaves off with a number of promises given by God to Abram. They are wide ranging and sealed with a
dramatic covenant ceremony in which animal sacrifices are set forth and the
presence of the Lord moves between the carcasses of the animals to bind Himself
to his oath. Abram is given the assurance from heaven that:
• God
will protect him from Chedorlaomer and the king of
• God
will make him rich.
• God
will multiply his descendants greatly.
• God
will give him the
Abram
believed these promises and rested upon them.
As the weeks went by, he waited for God’s promises to be answered. The weeks turned into months and the months
turned to years and still Abram waited.
It is at this point that he is presented with a plan to help bring about
the promised son.
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Genesis 15 |
Genesis 16 |
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Begins with God
coming to Abram with a message. |
Begins with
Sarai coming to Abram with advice. |
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Abram believed
the Lord. |
Abram listened
to the voice of Sarai. |
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God gave to
Abram promises of protection, of a seed, and of the possession of the land. |
Sarai gave to
Abram her handmaiden Hagar to fulfill the promise of the seed. |
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God spoke to
Abram and gave him instruction and promises. |
God spoke to
Hagar and gave her instructions and promises. |
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Abram is
promised a son who will be his heir. |
Hagar is
promised a son who will be a wild man. |
While
Genesis 15 is a chapter of Abram’s belief and victory, chapter 16 will be a chapter
suggesting unbelief and failure. The
failure will involve both a lack of faith on the part of Abram as well as a
lack of leadership within his own family.
This
tells me something about the characters of the Bible. They are not stained glass saints. They are real people with real failings and
real struggles. Abram was not chosen by God because he was so strong and
faithful; he was chosen by God as a gift of grace in spite of the fact that he
was undeserving. The grace of God in
using Abram means that God can use you and He can use me.
This
chapter is centrally located in the Abraham narrative. It serves as something of a pivotal point for
the entire story of Abraham.
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Promises given
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Travels in the land
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God’s covenant ceremony with Abram and promise of
the Land (15) |
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Hagar and Ishmael (16) |
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God’s covenant naming of Abraham and promise of Seed
(17) |
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Travels in the land
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Promises fulfilled
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The
chapter will be seen in two parts and two encounters. The first is an encounter between Hagar and Sarai, the second will be an encounter between Hagar and
God.
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16:1-3 |
16:4-5 |
16:6 |
16:7 |
16:8-9 |
16:10-16 |
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Hagar
Encounters Sarai |
Hagar
Encounters God |
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Sarai’s Plan |
Domestic Strife |
Abram’s Solution |
Hagar’s flight |
God’s Instructions to Hagar |
God’s Promises to Hagar |
Up
to this point, the story line of Genesis has been largely masculine in
focus. Only at the temptation in the
Garden of Eden have we been treated to the perspective of a woman. That changes in this chapter. The perspective shifts from Abram to her
wife, Sarai, and to her handmaiden, Hagar.
When Abram is mentioned at all in this chapter, it is in a relatively
minor role.
THE
PLAN OF SARAI
1 Now Sarai,
Abram's wife had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name
was Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, "Now behold, the LORD
has prevented me from bearing children. Please go in to my maid; perhaps I
shall obtain children through her." And Abram listened to the voice of
Sarai. 3 And after Abram had lived ten years in the
This
chapter begins with a problem. It is the
ongoing problem that underlies everything in the Abram narrative up to this
point. It was first introduced at the
end of Genesis 11 when we were first told of Abram and his wife. The wives of Abram and Nahor
were named and then we were immediately told:
And Sarai was barren; she had no child (Genesis 11:30).
Just
in case we had forgotten this was the case, it is repeated here at the
beginning of this chapter. Ten more
years have passed and Sarai still has not borne children to Abram. It is at this point that she comes up with a
plan to provide a son. She in barren,
but there are local customs that will allow her to provide a son through her
Egyptian handmaiden.
1. Hagar the Egyptian: She had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar
(16:1).
The handmaiden chosen for this duty is named
Hagar. We are told that she was an
Egyptian. It may be that she was
acquired by Abram when he traveled to
Why is this detail mentioned in the text of
Genesis? It is mentioned because the
Israelites for whom this book is written have recently come out of
2. Sarai’s Desire for a Child: So Sarai said to Abram, "Now behold,
the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go in to my maid;
perhaps I shall obtain children through her." (16:2).
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Notice the
phrasing employed by Sarai: "The
LORD has prevented me from bearing children.”
Is she blaming the Lord or is she merely recognizing God’s evident
sovereignty in the matter of her ability to bear children? |
Sarai makes no mention of the promises of God. She may not have been sure that those promises
had any application to her. God had
promised that Abram would have offspring, but no mention had been made that
this promised offspring would come through Sarai.
We are not told what was Sarai’s motivation in this offer. She makes no mention of the promise of God,
though it is entirely possible that she is acting according to the customs and
legal codes of her day to bring about that promised offspring. On the other hand, it is equally possible
that she merely wished to give to Abram that for which the both of them had
longed.
3. Sarai’s Precedent.
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Gilimninu has been given to Shennima
as wife. If Gilimninu
bears children, Shennima shall not take another
wife, But if Gilimninu
does not bear, she shall take a slave-girl from the Lullu-region
as wife for Shennima. As for the concubine’s offspring, Gilimninu shall not send them away. —A Personal Archive from the Nuzi
Tablets. |
From the Nuzi tablets, we
know that Sarai’s proposal was considered to be both
legally and socially acceptable. It was
to the ancient world what fertility drugs and invetro
fertilization are to the modern world.
In the event a woman could not bear children, she had the option of
giving to her husband a servant who would become a secondary wife to him.
Abram’s
response to Sarai’s suggestion is one of
acquiescence. That he agrees to her plan
does not necessarily denote a lack of leadership on his part. He may also have considered this to be the
means by which God was going to give to him a child.
DOMESTIC
STRIFE
4 And he
went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived,
her mistress was despised in her sight. 5 And Sarai said to Abram,
"May the wrong done me be upon you. I gave my maid into your arms; but
when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her sight. May the LORD
judge between you and me." (Genesis 16:4-5).
Hagar
becomes pregnant with child from Abram and it is not long before Hagar begins
to look down on Sarai, her former mistress.
The situation recalls the words of the Proverbs:
21 Under three things the earth quakes,
And under four, it cannot bear up:
22 Under a slave when he becomes king,
And a fool when he is satisfied with food,
23 Under an unloved woman when she gets a husband,
And a maidservant when she supplants
her mistress. (Proverbs
30:21-23).
The
slight against Sarai was not imagined, for the text tells us that her
mistress was despised in her sight.
Sarai caught the vibes very quickly.
I have learned that when one woman wants another woman to know what she
is thinking, she does not have to say a word.
Sarai got the message in short order.
Sarai goes to her husband with the problem and dumps it in his lap. She calls for the Lord as a witness and a
judge between them.
ABRAM’S
SOLUTION
But
Abram said to Sarai, "Behold, your maid is in your power; do to her what
is good in your sight." So Sarai treated her harshly, and she fled from
her presence. (Genesis 16:6).
Abram’s
solution looks harsh to our western sensitivities, but in reality, he handles
the situation in what was considered to be a fair and appropriate manner. Sarai was his chief wife by reason of her
original marital status and this gave her authority in the family.
On
the other hand, Sarai’s harsh treatment of Hagar is
more reminiscent of the Pharaoh’s harsh treatment of the Israelites when they
were in bondage in
The
irony of this similarity to the Exodus of the Israelites would not have been
lost to the original readers of this text.
They would have found themselves identifying, not with Sarai, but with
Hagar. This is especially seen when we
read of the route taken by Hagar.
HAGAR’S
HEAVENLY ENCOUNTER
7 Now the
angel of the LORD 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 maid, 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 the LORD said to her, "Return
to your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority." (Genesis 16:7-9).
When
we next see Hagar, she is in the wilderness by the spring on the way to Shur. This would
have been a familiar place to the Israelites for whom Moses wrote the book of
Genesis, for Shur was the first place to which they
came after their crossing of the
She
is met by the angel of the Lord. This is
the first time in the Bible we have seen this designation. It is the first use of the Hebrew malach — angel, though such a designation would not
have been unfamiliar to the Israelites.
This is a messenger from Yahweh. Waltke points out that “in the ancient Near East the royal
messenger was treated as a surrogate of the king” (2001:253-4). By the same token, the angel of the Lord is
treated as though he is God Himself.
The
angel come to her and questions her: "Hagar,
Sarai's maid, where have you come from and where are
you going?" The fact that he
knows her name and her designation indicates that he also knows the answer to
the question he has asked. It is a
rhetorical question. It is not asked for
the angel’s benefit, but for the benefit of Hagar. She is instructed to look at her actions and
her plans and to see the foolishness of what she is doing.
He
instructs her to return and to place herself back under the authority of
Sarai. This will be an act of faith and
of submission to authority. Such a
concept is difficult for us to comprehend in today’s western culture where we
tend ti idealize the ideas of rebellion and
freedom. Christianity is a religion of
submission. It took the apostle Paul
many long years of imprisonment to learn this same lesson. It was in one of his Prison Epistles that he
was able to write these words:
...I have learned to be content in whatever
circumstances I am (Philippians 4:11b).
We
need to learn the same lesson. When we
do, we will be able to trust in the Lord, even when we find ourselves under the
authority of a harsh master or mistress.
Hagar
is told to return and to place herself under the authority of Sarai. A person operating under a naturalistic
viewpoint would disagree with this command.
The reason we struggle with this is because our tendency is to leave God
out of the picture.
The
Lord tells us to be submissive to those in authority and that He will take care
of the rest. This is vividly illustrated
in Romans 13:1 which tells us to be submissive to the higher powers. The highest power in the land at that time
was the Roman Emperor Nero. This man was
to become an enemy of Christianity as he greatly persecuted the church. Yet Paul told believers to obey him. This can only be done when you are resting in
the promises of God.
Hagar
is given such a promise to sustain her.
She is to go back and to place herself again under the authority of
Sarai, not because slavery is a good thing and not because Sarai will have a
change of heart, but because God is bigger than all of that and He is in
control.
THE
PROMISE TO HAGAR
10
Moreover, the angel of the LORD said to her, "I will greatly multiply your
descendants so that they shall be too many to count." 11 The
angel of the LORD said to her further,
"Behold, you are with child,
And you shall bear a son;
And you shall call his name Ishmael,
Because the LORD has given heed to 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 live to the east of all his
brothers." (Genesis 16:10-12).
The
promise given to Hagar is a mixed bag.
It contains both that which would sustain and encourage her and it also
contains that which might be considered distressing.
1. The Promise of a Multitude:
"I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they shall be
too many to count." (16:10).
This is virtually the same promise that had been given
to Abram concerning his own descendants.
He had been told that his descendants would be like the stars —
impossible to count. Now Hagar is told
that her own descendants will also be too many to count.
2. The Name of her Son.
And you shall bear a son;
And you shall call his name Ishmael,
Because the LORD has given heed to your affliction
This is a play on
words. Hagar’s son is to be named
Ishmael because she has been heard (shama) by God in the midst of her affliction. His name will be a reminder that Yahweh is
the God who hears our troubles.
3. The Character of his Future.
"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 live to the east of all his
brothers." (Genesis 16:12).
The son of Hagar is characterized as a donkey of a
man. But the picture is not of the
domesticated donkey to which we are accustomed.
This term describes the wild donkey that roamed the wilderness of that
area. The image is of a man who is
unruly and unkempt, wild and untamed.
A
MEMORIAL NAME
13 Then
she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, "Thou art 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. (Genesis 16:13-14).
Hagar
names the well at that place Beer‑lahai‑roi,
“the well of seeing.” The seeing had
been twofold. God had seen her and had
heard her cry and she had also seen the angel of the Lord and lived to tell
about it.
Notice the title that is given here for
God. He is called El Ra’iy,
“the God who sees.” It is a reminder
that God sees us in the midst of our afflictions and in the midst of our
wilderness.
THE
BIRTH OF ISHMAEL
15 So
Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore,
Ishmael. 16 And Abram was eighty‑six years old when Hagar
bore Ishmael to him. (Genesis 16:15-16).
Hagar
believed the promises of God. The name
she gives to Him is a recognition of His omnipresence
and His omniscience. He sees all things
and He knows all things. Hagar’s faith
was put into action as she returned to Sarai and Abram where she gave birth to
her son.
This
chapter ends as it started—with a contrast.
Both Hagar and Abram were given the promise of a seed from whom would come a great multitude. Both Abram and Hagar were told to reside in
the
Hagar’s
son would be at enmity with the world.
Every man’s hand would be against him and he would be against every
man. By contrast, the promise given to
Abram was that he and his seed would be a blessing to the world.
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Hagar’s Son |
Abram’s Heir |
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His descendants would be
innumerable. |
His descendants will be
innumerable. |
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He will be at enmity with
the world. |
He will be a blessing to
the world. |
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Every man’s hand will be
against him. |
Whoever blesses him will be
blessed and whoever curses him will be cursed. |
At
this point in the story, it might have looked to Abram that there was a
contradiction in these prophecies. This
is because it had not yet been revealed that Abram would have another son who
would be the promised heir. That will
not be clarified until Genesis 17. In
the interim, Abram had to trust the Lord without knowing all the facts.
That is often true for us,
too. We have promises from God and it is
not always clear how they shall be fulfilled.
It is not important for us to know all of the details; it is only
important that we trust Him to oversee them.
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