People of Promise
Hagar
606 words
A Surprising Promise
Hagar:
Unlikely Mother of Multitudes
Genesis 16:9-10
An infamous sojourn into Egypt netted Abraham and Sarah an abundance of
property, both human and animal (Gen. 12:16, 20). Sarah’s eventual maidservant, an
Egyptian woman named Hagar, was likely brought with them out of Egypt on that trip
(16:1). In spite of difficult circumstances, Hagar became an unlikely player on the stage
of human history--once she believed a promise from Abraham’s God.
Abraham and Sarah left Egypt with cattle and chattel, Hagar being named among
the latter. Just as the cattle were paired up to reproduce and increase Abraham’s herds, so
Hagar found herself paired up with Abraham himself. Because Sarah had been barren all
her life, Hagar was given to Abraham in order to produce a son, an heir to his growing
wealth. But it wasn’t just an heir for property that Abraham needed; it was an heir to a
promise as well. The word among the servants was that Abraham’s God had promised
Abraham he would become the head of a great nation. But nations do not grow in dry and
barren wombs, so Hagar was pressed into service for the sake of a promise.
Bad ideas usually produce bad fruit, and this one was no exception. When Hagar
conceived a child by Abraham, Sarah grew jealous and began to mistreat her, adding
insult to her already impoverished dignity. An alien slave in a foreign land, pregnant with
her owner’s child, mistreated and abused by her mistress--Hagar did what anyone might
be justified in doing: She ran for her life. She fled on “the road to Shur” (Gen. 16:7), Shur
being a settlement on the border of Egypt and Canaan. Was she running for Egypt, for
home? Perhaps--but the road to Shur also led her into the arms of God’s watchful care
(“Shur” being also a Hebrew verb for “notice, regard or observe”). Sure enough, God just
happened to observe the helpless Hagar on the road to Shur.
Remember: this was the God who made the promise to Hagar’s master that the
master’s wife thought Hagar could fulfill. This God was probably not high on Hagar’s
“most admired” list. A person in desperate straits (like Hagar; like you?) might see God
as the source of his or her problems. But Hagar was about to discover that, by trusting in
this God’s promises, her life would take on a meaning she had never imagined it could.
Sometimes we’re like Hagar, running from something but not to anything (16:8b). Like
aliens and strangers in a foreign land (Heb. 11:13; 1 Pet. 2:11), we get frustrated,
confused, and impregnated with the world’s priorities. We feel like running “home”--
wherever that is. What we need is a promise from God to restore our confidence in his
plan.
That’s what Hagar got: A promise that the child she carried would become the
father of an innumerable people, which he did in due time (Gen. 16:10; God told
Abraham, too, so Sarah stopped mistreating Hagar; 17:20). Hagar returned to Sarah and
became the grandmother of twelve sons whose seed fill the Middle East to this day
(25:13-18).
The next time you feel like running “home” because life as an alien and stranger
has gotten rough, think of Hagar:
•How wise is it to return to the place from which God has brought you?
•Can’t God bring blessing out of bitterness for you like he did for Hagar?
•Have you forgotten that God observes you in all your distress?
Next time you need a promise from God, say, “Shur, Lord, I know you can meet
me on my road of distress. I am listening for your promise.”