This chapter includes the account of Abram, Sarai, Hagar and Ishmael’s birth – since Sarai is unable to have children, she gives her slave to Abram so he may have heirs through her. There is another topic I’d like to discuss, so I’ll summarize this section as an example of impatience and taking matters into our own hands, rather than waiting on the Lord to fulfill His promise in His timing.
“The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And 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. Then the angel of the Lord told her, ‘Go back to your mistress and submit to her.’ The angel added, ‘I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.’ ” (v7-10)
This is the first of nine appearances of “the Angel of the Lord” in the OT. This Angel of the Lord, from multiple scriptural contexts, is the pre-incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ. Nowhere else in scripture (that I can find) does a regular angel appear as anything other than a super-human messenger or warrior – this “Angel of the Lord” has a unique title and the power to multiply Hagar’s descendants, which would indicate He is more than a normal angel, He is God.
The pre-incarnate Jesus asks Hagar a very important question – “where have you come from, and where are you going?” Okay, doesn’t Jesus know everything? He is God after all. The question is not for His benefit, however, but for Hagar’s – this is like when God asked Adam the same type of questions “Where are you?” and “Who told you that you were naked?” (Gen 3:9,11) God doesn’t ask questions because He doesn’t know the answers, He asks questions because He wants the person to think through their actions and motivations, and God desires relationship with us so He strikes up conversation.
It’s also important to note that when Jesus “finds” Hagar, she is pregnant and alone on a road in the middle of nowhere – geographically, this is a barren wasteland of a place, and in all likelihood Hagar probably would have died if God didn’t send her back to Sarai, so He also saved her life and the life of her unborn child.
I’m not sure what my takeaway is today, other than I long to learn scripture better; I desire to learn the finer details of who God is, and why He asks us rhetorical questions; and I want to figure out “where have I come from and where I am going.”
Go in peace, knowing that no matter how far you try to run away from your problems, Jesus will “find” you, and gently guide you back to the path He has for you. If you’re not like Abram, Hagar and I, and never try to avoid/ignore God’s will for your life, then you can have even more peace and joy in knowing you are already on the path.
~ Conqueror in Training