Genesis 16:1-16 - Conflict Child

Genesis 16:1-16

Hagar and Ishmael

1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. 3 Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. 4 So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes.

5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The LORD judge between you and me.”

6 So Abram said to Sarai, “Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please.” And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence.

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?”

She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.”

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.

The son of Abram born to a slave woman (or maidservant) was named Ishmael, meaning God hears since God heard his rejection and that of his mother by Sarai.  This child was to be a child of constant conflict with the world  as we see even today among the Arab peoples who are his descendants.  Ishmael and his descendants continue the heritage of a wild child set opposed to others in constant strife with those they dwell among.  Sarai had wanted a child so badly that she told her husband to take this Hagar as a wife and bear children through her as their inheritance and her heart’s desire.  Unfortunately, when the child was conceived she was immediately jealous and hateful of Hagar who despised Sarai even more than she hated Hagar and she seemed not to care for the child of her husband by her because Ishmael still would not be her own son.  When she complained to Abram of the way Hagar looked at her and treated her, he told her that it was up to her to take measures to deal with Hagar since she was her maid.  She had told Abram, “The LORD judge between you and me,” and that was the impetus for him to hand over Hagar to her judgment to do right in the sight of God.  He passed the decision to her and she seems to have beaten or at least harshly mistreated the woman and the maid then fled the scene in a run for her life.   The LORD intervened with Hagar when she stopped by a well on her way to the region of Shur, “a place southwest of Palestine on the eastern border or within the border of Egypt; the Israelites passed through the wilderness of Shur after crossing the Red Sea (Strongs).”  She was basically heading into the desert to die because she had nowhere to turn.  The LORD told her to go back to her mistress and submit to her authority over her and God would make her fruitful and multiply in number by many descendants.  He told her to name the child Ishmael as her answer for a son because God heard her suffering and answered with him.  However, this son would be a wild child, set against everyone in conflict and with everyone against him and his descendants also.  He would still love among God’s people, just not inherit the blessing which was reserved for the true son of promise in the lineage of the Messiah to Abram (Genesis 17:19-20, 21) in fourteen years (Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born and one hundred when Isaac came as Genesis 21:5 tells us).  When God told Hagar that Ishmael was her answer to prayer heard by Him, she called the place where He told her about him, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees as a reminder of God’s grace to see her plight and answered in His might on her and her son’s behalf.  She would have a legacy of nations, just not the legacy of promise for God’s spiritual nation of His people (Galatians 4:22-24) as Isaac was (Galatians 4:28-29, 30-31) chosen and promised to and through Abraham to Christ the Messiah as our heritage and inheritance of faith.  For God sees and hears the faith of Abraham echoing through time to we who trust His work in Christ as God’s true and only Son who accepts us by grace in His calling of that promise.  We still deal with the conflict child’s children who oppose those who are of the New Covenant of grace (Galatians 4:28-29), yet we are safe and secure in our inheritance as chosen children (Galatians 3:18, Romans 4:18, 20-22, 23-24) of faith.