Genesis 16.7-8-Hagar's Encounter with the Angel of the Lord
Wednesday January 11, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 16:7-8-Hagar’s Encounter with the Angel of the Lord
Lesson # 80
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 16:1.
On Tuesday evening we studied Genesis 16:1-6, which records that against the will of the Lord, Abram agreed to his wife, Sarai’s scheme to have him sleep with her Egyptian maid, Hagar in order to have a child since Sarai was barren and now in menopause.
This bad decision by Abram and Sarai produce conflict in their home and also had historical repercussions since it resulted in the present day Arab/Israeli conflict since Ishmael, the son that Abram fathered with Hagar, was the father of the Arabs and Isaac who Abram fathered later on with Sarai, is the father of the Jews.
In this passage, we see Hagar fleeing from the presence of Sarai.
Genesis 16:1, “Now Sarai, Abram's wife had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar.”
Genesis 16:2, “So Sarai said to Abram, ‘Now behold, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Please go in to my maid; perhaps I will obtain children through her.’ And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.”
Genesis 16:3, “After Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Abram's wife Sarai took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife.”
Genesis 16:4, “He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she (Hagar) saw that she had conceived, her mistress (Sarai) was despised in her (Hagar’s) sight.”
Genesis 16:5, “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 16:6, “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 (Hagar) harshly, and she fled from her presence.”
This evening we will study Genesis 16:7-8, which records Hagar’s encounter with the preincarnate Christ.
Genesis 16:7, “Now the angel of the LORD found her (Hagar) by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur.”
Genesis 16:7 records the first reference in the Old Testament to the “Angel of the Lord.”
“The angel of the Lord” is the “preincarnate” Christ and therefore a “theophany,” or “Christophany,” which are technical theological terms used to refer to a visible or auditory manifestation of the Son of God before His incarnation in Bethlehem (Gen. 32:29-30; Ex. 3:2; 19:18-20; Josh. 5:13-15; Dan. 3:26).
The three-fold division of the Lord Jesus Christ’s career: (1) Pre-incarnate: Eternity past as the 2nd Person of the Trinity, the Son of God. (2) Incarnate: Virgin birth through the 1st Advent to the resurrection. (3) Glorified Incarnate: Resurrection and on into eternity future.
Genesis 16 records a visible and auditory appearance of the “preincarnate” Christ, which is confirmed by the context as we will note as we go further along in the chapter.
“Angel” is the noun mal’akh (Ea*l+m^) (mal-awk), which means, “messenger” is used in the Old Testament with reference to “elect” angels (Gen. 19:1; Ps. 91:11) and men (Deut. 2:26; Josh. 6:17) and of the “preincarnate” Christ (Gen. 22:11; Zech. 3:1).
The context indicates that mal’akh in Genesis 16:7 is a theophany, a visible and auditory appearance of the preincarnate Christ.
“Lord” is the proper noun Yahweh (hw *hy+), which is the personal name of God emphasizing the “immanency” and “sovereignty” of God meaning that He involves Himself in and concerns Himself with and intervenes in the affairs of men.
In Genesis 16:7, we see the Lord involving Himself in and concerning Himself with and intervening in the life of Hagar.
The sexual union of Abram and Hagar was not according to the will of God but the Lord permitted it to take place, and though this union was out of the will of God, the Lord would make a gracious promise to Hagar and her descendants.
The name “Shur” means “wall” and was a city on the borders of Egypt and Palestine and a comparison of Genesis 20:1, 25:18, 1 Samuel 15:7 and 27:8 indicates that it clearly lies near the northern border of Egypt in the Sinai peninsula in the modern Suez region.
In Roman times, the city was named “Pelusium” but was known by the Hebrews as “Sin.”
The whole desert extending from the southern borders of Palestine to the edges of the Egyptian northern border was called the “wilderness of Shur” (Ex. 15:22).
Therefore, it appears that Hagar who was an Egyptian was attempting to make her way back to Egypt.
The “wilderness” portrays the spiritually dry cosmic system of Satan and the “spring of water in the wilderness” portrays the Holy Spirit, who is given to those who thirst spiritually and believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
The unbeliever resides in the spiritually dry cosmic system of Satan and is thus spiritually dead meaning he has no relationship with God nor does he have the capacity to have one.
Ephesians 2:1, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.”
Ephesians 2:2, “in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.”
But the one who believes in Jesus Christ as their Savior receives the Holy Spirit who is described by the Lord Jesus Christ as “living water” in John 4:13-14 and 7:38-39.
During our Lord’s 1st Advent, He spoke with a Samaritan woman at a well and spoke of Himself as “Living water.”
John 4:13, “Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again.’”
John 4:14, “but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
John 7:38, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”
John 7:39, “But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
The apostle Paul also employed the metaphor of the Holy Spirit being living water and the believer drinking of Him when they believed in Christ as their Savior.
1 Corinthians 12:13, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”
Therefore, in Genesis 16:7, the fact that the preincarnate Christ found Hagar an unbeliever by a spring of water on the way to Shur portrays the Lord seeking out the unbeliever and giving him the gift of the Spirit when they believe in Him as their Savior.
Also, like the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, Hagar believes in Christ as her Savior after her conversation with the Lord in which He prophesies of her child and promises that her descendants would be innumerable.
The fact that the preincarnate Christ revealed Himself to Hagar by a spring of water in the wilderness in a time of adversity teaches us that the human soul encounters the Lord Jesus Christ not while enjoying the pleasures of this world but during times of adversity and despair.
The Lord demonstrates His unique divine love for Hagar in that He initiates a relationship between Himself and Hagar seeking her out first rather than Hagar seeking out the Lord.
1 John 4:10, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
1 John 4:19, “We love, because He first loved us.”
Genesis 16:8, “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.’”
Notice that the Lord addresses Hagar as “Sarai’s maid” thus indicating that the Lord did not approve or acknowledge the union between Hagar and Abram and that the Lord consider her to still be under the authority of Sarai.
Hagar is out of the geographical will of God for her life meaning that the place where God wanted her to be was with Abram and Sarai.
Just as Lot was in danger and without protection because he was out of the geographical will of God in Genesis 13 and 14, so Hagar in Genesis 16 is in danger and without protection because she is out of the geographical will of God.
H.C. Leupold commenting on this passage, writes, “No man should rashly abandon his place in life unless he has a distinct indication from the Lord to do so” (Exposition of Genesis volume 1, page 502).
Genesis 16:7-8 reveals that the Lord hears and sees distress and affliction in the human race and cares for each member of the human race.
Psalm 34:18, “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
Hagar is crushed and brokenhearted and yet the Lord saves her.
The Lord reaches out to Hagar who has been unjustly treated by Sarai and Abram, thus revealing the Lord hates injustice.
Deuteronomy 32:4, “The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is He.”
The Lord knew that Hagar ran away from Sarai since He is omniscient meaning He knows perfectly, eternally and simultaneously all that is knowable, both the actual and the possible and thus has all knowledge of every event in human and angel history.
The Lord did not ask these two questions of Hagar to solicit information regarding her situation but rather because He wanted to arouse in her an awareness that her flight has not altered her position or her duty, nor has her state of pregnancy caused any alteration or solved her problems but in fact created more problems for her.
Her flight has not changed a thing, she is still pregnant and not fulfilling her duty to Sarai.
Running away does not change relationships, nor does it remove responsibility.
Jonah, even in the belly of that fish, was still God’s prophet with a message for the Ninevites.
Hagar continued to be Sarai’s maid, and it remained her duty to serve her mistress.
Hagar is undoubtedly emotional at this point in the narrative and by asking these two questions, the Lord is attempting to bring her back to reality and also it shows that He cares.
The Lord asks Hagar two questions: (1) “Where have you come from?” (2) “Where are you going?”
Hagar answers the first question but does not answer the second because she wasn’t sure where she was going or if she should be leaving Abram and Sarai’s protection in the first place.
Even though she was heading in the direction of Egypt from where she was born, her conscience and the Holy Spirit were convicting her to go back to Abram and Sarai and fulfill her duty.
Also, she was not sure if she should be leaving Abram and Sarai in the first place because she was a pregnant woman alone in the desert without food and water.
Therefore, her failure to answer the second question indicates that not only was she not sure where she was going but she was having reservations as to if she should be going at all.