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9 The Angel of the Lord said to her, "Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand." 10 Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, "I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude." 11 And the Angel of the Lord said to her: "Behold, you are with child, And you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, Because the Lord has heard your affliction. 12 He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man, And every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren." 13 Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, "Have I also here seen Him who sees me?" 14 Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; observe, it is between Kadesh and Bered. 15 So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram. ~ Genesis 16:5-16
Today, we continue our study of Genesis 16 where we have been learning through the back door that faith and patience always go together in the development of us learning to walk with the Lord and being led by His Spirit. When we walk in the flesh, we will be defined by impatience, scheming and blaming others as we see in this chapter. But, in order to walk in His Spirit, we must trust Him not only for His provision but also for His timing. This is where Abram and Sarai erred.
In v.9 of today's passage we read, "The Angel of the Lord said to her, 'Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand.'"
The only way to realize God's grace and blessing in our lives is through the avenue of submission. Had Hagar continued to wander into the wilderness, it would have been disastrous. Both she and the child in her womb probably would have died. When God finds us wandering, this is always what He says, "Return and submit!" So Hagar returned to the authority that God had placed in her life.
In v.10 of today's passage we read, "Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, 'I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.'"
With God's commands come His promises. In God's economy God's blessing often follows our obedience. The blessing that God gave to Hagar came in the form of a prophecy. The phrase, "I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude" is better translated, "I will give you more descendants than you can count."
In v.11-12 of today's passage we read, "11 And the Angel of the Lord said to her: 'Behold, you are with child, And you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, Because the Lord has heard your affliction. 12 He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man, And every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.'"
Wild donkeys in Hagar’s ancient world were free to move as they desired. So, this image that God gave to Hagar was more like the image of wild mustangs running free in the old West. He was not conveying the image that we typically draw from this metaphor: a braying, stubborn, wild, ugly donkey. God was promising Hagar that her son would never be a slave. He would be free, like the beautiful wild donkeys that roamed the desert in her world. God was promising that He would bless Ishmael and his descendants and they would become nomadic and free.
The phrase, "He shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren," means "independent of" or "apart from" his brethren. This meant Ishmael and his descendants would remain independent of the peoples around them who would like to subjugate them. This promise to Hagar was one of hope, a message of liberation and freedom for her son and his descendants. And this is how Hagar understood it because she responded in hope and went back to Sarai.
Juxtapositioned in this story is the civil war that we all wrestle with: to feed the flesh or to feed the Spirit. The spiritual significance of this is explained in Galatians 4 where the Apostle Paul presents Hagar as a picture of the Law and Ishmael, her son, as a picture of those who try to establish favor in God's sight through their religious activity. Of the descendants of Ishmael, in general, Paul wrote in Romans 8:8, "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God."
In v.13 of today's passage we read, "Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, 'Have I also here seen Him who sees me?'"
I find it most instructive that Hagar did not contribute her ills upon Satan and she saw that God was the One who brings good out of the bad that we has come into her life. Hagar addressed God as "the God who sees." Since the Lord told Hagar what her son’s name would be and then explained all that would come to pass from his generations, she responded by saying, "I have seen what you intend." This was an exclamation of God's sovereignty and transcendence over time. Hagar understood correctly that He was the God who sees, not just now, but into the future and through all things.
In v.14-16 of today's passage we read, "14 Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; observe, it is between Kadesh and Bered. 15 So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram."
This well was located between Kadesh and Bered. Kadesh means "holiness" and Bered means "judgment." Hagar was at the well of grace, which was between holiness and judgment. When we begin to stray from the place of God's blessing toward the certainty of judgment, God meets us on the way, at the well of grace. His desire is not to bring or allow trials or afflictions or heartaches into our lives. Of course, when He does His goal is to make us listen to Him and to His wisdom.
It was now 11 years since Abram had entered the Promised Land and the year was 2095 BC. Abram finally had a son at the age of 86. For thirteen years following this part of the narrative, we read nothing of Abram. The next chapter will open with the 99 year old Abram. This means that for thirteen years, strife, disagreement, bitterness, jealousy, and heartache characterized that home of Abram in the land of Canaan. This was God's way of teaching Abram that apart from Him, Abram could do nothing of eternal significance. It does not depend on us, it all depends on God. We need constantly to reassert our utter dependence upon the God who knows us, who knows our circumstances, who knows our problems, and who is completely able to work through us to accomplish all that he desires.
When we seek the Lord, He promises us that we will find Him. And He doesn’t make it hard for us to do so. He is always right there waiting for the lurches of our hearts toward Him. He has even given us His word which reveals Him to us. This is what it means to have personal relationship with God. It isn’t only about knowing that our sins are forgiven and we are right before Him, it is just as much about us increasingly knowing Him. He is always available to the soul who seeks to know Him and who desires to be defined by Him.
