1-4 But Sarai and Abram had no children. So Sarai took her maid, an Egyptian girl named Hagar, and gave her to Abram to be his second wife.
“Since the Lord has given me no children,” Sarai said, “you may sleep with my servant girl, and her children shall be mine.”
And Abram agreed. (This took place ten years after Abram had first arrived in the land of Canaan.)
4-6 So he slept with Hagar, and she conceived; and when she realized she was pregnant, she became very proud and arrogant toward her mistress Sarai.
Then Sarai said to Abram, “It’s all your fault. For now this servant girl of mine despises me, though I myself gave her the privilege of being your wife. May the Lord judge you for doing this to me!”
“You have my permission to punish the girl as you see fit,” Abram replied. So Sarai beat her and she ran away.
Poor Hagar! Hagar is only an Egyptian servant girl with no rights and no social standing, totally dependent on any orders from Abram or Sarai. Perhaps Hagar has joined Abram and Sarai’s household during their sojourn in Egypt. Now Sarai, who is barren, insists on Abram sleeping with Hagar, so that Sarai might claim Hagar’s children as hers. Abram is eighty-six years old while Hagar is likely 50 or 60 years younger. Not only is Hagar being forced to have sex with an old man with a withered body, but her mistress intends to claim any children Hagar bears. What a horrible situation! And to make matters worse, when Hagar becomes pregnant, she is foolish enough to be proud and arrogant to the one person who has absolute power over her. Given Hagar’s precarious situation as a young household servant separated from her country, this attitude is the height of stupidity.
Immediately, Sarai blames Abram, even though she is the one who has proposed the union between Abram and Hagar. Furious at Hagar’s taunts, Sarai bears her severely, and she runs out into the wilderness. What will this young pregnant woman do without food or water? Who will protect her?
Genesis 16:7 The Angel of the Lord found her beside a desert spring along the road to Shur.
8 The Angel: “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
Hagar: “I am running away from my mistress.”
9-12 The Angel: “Return to your mistress and act as you should, for I will make you into a great nation. Yes, you are pregnant and your baby will be a son, and you are to name him Ishmael (‘God hears’), because God has heard your woes. This son of yours will be a wild one—free and untamed as a wild ass! He will be against everyone, and everyone will feel the same toward him. But he will live near the rest of his kin.”
13 Thereafter Hagar spoke of Jehovah—for it was he who appeared to her—as “the God who looked upon me,” for she thought, “I saw God and lived to tell it.”
14-16 Later that well was named “The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.” It lies between Kadesh and Bered.
So Hagar gave Abram a son, and Abram named him Ishmael. (Abram was eighty-six years old at this time.)
When the angel of God finds Hagar beside a desert spring, he mildly reproves her (“act as you should”) and then gives her comforting advice. This frightened Egyptian girl realizes that she has encountered her master’s God Jehovah, “the God who looked upon me.” Later, that well is named “The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.”
This is a short story, but an important one. Hagar is not related to Abram or Sarai at all, but is an Egyptian. As a servant, Hagar must obey every order, even distasteful ones. And Hagar is a victim of Sarai’s failure to trust God. While Abram has been meeting with God, Sarai has to depend on Abram’s accounts for her knowledge of God and His will. Second-hand faith is very weak. Since Sarai is barren, she seeks a solution common to many well-off barren women of that time:
“In the ancient Near East, it was common for a barren wife to offer her maidservant to her husband in order to produce an heir. Legal documents from Mesopotamia, such as the Code of Hammurabi (c. 1754 B.C.E.), confirm that this practice was widespread. However, the fact that a practice was legally or culturally accepted does not necessarily mean it was divinely approved. The biblical record indicates that Jehovah’s original design for marriage was monogamous—one man and one woman joined in a lifelong union. Genesis 2:24 states, “That is why a man will leave his father and his mother and he will stick to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” https://uasvbible.org/2025/03/29/was-it-appropriate-for-sarai-to-offer-her-maidservant-hagar-as-a-secondary-wife-to-abram/
Lacking faith in God’s promises, Sarai is bound to get results any way possible. Abram seems to be neutral but compliant, and after all, when Hagar becomes pregnant, the pregnancy validates Abram’s sexual prowess.
There are all kinds of ways to approach these verses; however, look at the way God handles Hagar, comforting her. God meets Hagar directly, something that has happened rarely throughout history. Then God refuses to blame Hagar for Sarai’s machinations; after all, Hagar is powerless in this situation. Sadly, Sarai cares nothing for Hagar apart from Hagar’s fertility. If Hagar fails to get pregnant, Sarai might try the same thing with another maid servant. And God promises that Hagar will safely deliver a son who will become a leader, although free and untamed.
Hagar’s story should encourage us. Many times, we may find ourselves caught in untenable situations, at the mercy of powerful people who care little for us as individuals. But God is still there, the God who looks upon us, the Living God who sees us. And God will not forget us, no matter who misuses us nor how precarious our position might be.
Psalm 62:7-9 tells us, “My protection and success come from God alone. He is my refuge, a Rock where no enemy can reach me. O my people, trust him all the time. Pour out your longings before him, for he can help! The greatest of men or the lowest—both alike are nothing in his sight. They weigh less than air on scales.” As we enter this new year, let us remember the God who comforted a poor servant girl lost in the wilderness. That same God will still comfort us.
PRAYER Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to trust You and to wait for Your perfect Will to be worked in our lives. Thank You for being the God of all comfort. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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