“You Are The God Who Sees!” Gen. 16:1-16. Hagar knew about the God of Abraham but she also had a pagan background pulling her back to Egypt, Mizraim. Ishmael I believe, knew and believed in the God of his father Abraham. He hunted with him, built altars with him, offered sacrifices with him, prayed with him and lived with him for 14 years before his first flight. His father’s love for him was strong but his biological mother’s influence over him was stronger and he finally took an Egyptian wife. As you look through Genesis you find some very interesting characters. From many we have learned some tremendous principles for prayer and I hope you are applying some of them to your prayer life.

From Adam, ‘The Garden Tiller’ we learned he knew, “The Place, the Voice, The Time and he came, Bare-Naked.” From Enoch, ‘The God-Pleaser’ we learned, “Faith, Believing, and Persistence,”  and that without faith it’s impossible to please God but without risk faith is impossible. From Noah, ‘The Ship Builder,’ we learned, “Grace, Righteousness and Integrity,” ethically, judicially and theocratically. Abraham, ‘The Family Altar Builder,’ gave us, “Prayer, Sacrifice and Worship.” Then Mt. Moriah explained the, ‘Prayer of Faith’ in a new and living way: The test of true faith – ‘Total Surrender,’ I Surrender All; The fruit of true faith – Total Obedience – Trust and Obey; The result of true faith was – Total Provision – Jehovah-Jireh; The lesson seen on Mt. Moriah was that prayer spoken on, “Faith Based Initiative” 🙂 opens our spiritual eyes to see God’s provision. However, Abraham is not the first one to show us this, Ishmael was.

Now we come to a woman, an Egyptian woman, a pagan woman, the possession or property of Abraham’s wife Sarah, ‘Hagar the Handmaid!’ The name Hagar is of Semitic origin not Egyptian. Maybe she was given this name after she ran, in fact the three letter Hebrew root (hey, gimmel, resh) means ‘to flee’ and is also found in the Arabic name for Mohammed’s famous flight, ‘The Hegira.’ Her name which means flight is found three times in the Bible; Gen. 16:1-16, ‘Pregnant and running from God;’ Gen. 21:9-21, ‘Pathetic and running into God;’ Gal. 4:21-31, ‘Prophetic and running for God,’ You can preach that! Genesis 16 is a short chapter with only 16 verses and it breaks down into three equal parts; Sarah’s Stupidity, vv.1-5; Hagar’s Haste, vv. 6-10; and Ishmael’s Influence, vv. 12-16.

Sarah is about 75, barren, and childless. Abraham is about 85. They have been married almost 60 years and she is getting a little desperate and beginning to distrust God and His promises to her husband, so she gave him Hagar, her handmaid whom she picked up in Egypt, as a wife until she bore a child. This was legal in that time and culture and still practiced today in some cultures. The ancient Rabbis teach that Hagar comes back as Keturah in Gen. 25: after Sarah dies and bears Abraham six more sons. Anyway Abraham consents unto Sarah’s wish and has relations with Hagar, dummy, and she conceives! Sounds like Gen. 3:12, “Want a bite?” Remember I Tim. 2:14-15 says, ‘Adam was not deceived only Eve, Adam knew what he was doing.’ So did Abraham, and Israel’s trouble starts here, with the expansion of the Arab nations. Joktan the son of Eber was the founder of Arabia, Mohammed and that whole lineage.

Sarah wants sons for two reasons: One – because of social pressure in the ‘Far East.’ Many sons equaled honor, influence and strength. (Every father wants a son, but needs a daughter) Two – It is every Jewish mother’s dream to bear Israel’s Messiah; Gen. 3:15; Ezra 9:2; Isa. 7:14; Mal. 2:15. The problem is, she has to be and remain a virgin until she delivers the child Isa. 7:14 and the moment she conceives, in fact has sexual relations she is no longer a virgin. Abraham was told three times that he would have a son and the last time he was told that his heir would be his son. Hagar is only his wife until she conceives.  This is still a practice today in some far eastern countries. They are surrogate mothers, and Hagar’s child would legally be Sarah’s. Legend also says that Hagar was one of Pharaoh’s daughter’s, making Ishmael half Egyptian and half Jewish. Oh, how the plot thickens.

Hagar conceives in v.4 and immediately Sarah is despised in her eyes or lightly esteemed or of little account. So Sarah immediately passes the buck back to Abraham in v.5, “My wrong be upon thee…the LORD judge between me and thee.” You got a problem, blame your spouse! It worked for Adam in the garden, “The woman You gave me!”  So, Sarah thought she would give it a shot here. However, Abraham read the same book and hands it, “Right back at you,” in v.6 “Behold, (there’s our railroad sign) (hin-ne) thy maid is in thy hand, do to her as it pleaseth thee.” Now be careful here, the phrase,”as it pleaseth thee” in Hebrew is (ayin tov) an idiom for ‘a good eye, a generous eye,’ not a ‘stingy eye’ (ayin ra’ah) Be kind, be generous, be benevolent to Hagar. Now look at Matt. 6:19-23 in light of this principle, the context is your treasures in heaven in regards to giving. The evil eye in Matt. 6:23 is a stingy eye or person, the healthy eye or good eye is a generous person. But what does Sarah do, she beats Hagar, afflicts her, oppresses her, and bruises her. Hagar is treated badly by a child of Jehovah; not good! So what did Hagar do? She fled, ran for her life!  Remember, Hagar means flight, and she was on the first flight to, Shur! The wilderness of Shur, that is.

Hagar runs from her situation right into the, ‘Angel of the LORD.’ The ‘Messenger of Jehovah’ a Theophany or Christophany. A visible manifestation of the invisible God.  Sounds like Heb. 1:3. By the way this never happens in the Newer Testament, never! The Angel of the LORD is none other than ‘Jesus, The Christ’ appearing to mankind in a physical form, vv. 7,9,10,11, four times in one chapter, WOW! The first time is here Gen. 16:7 to Hagar; Second time Mt Moriah Gen. 22:11 to Abraham; Third time Ex. 3:2 to Moses in the Burning Bush. Now we are looking for ‘Prayer Principles.’ “And the angel of the LORD found Hagar by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.” Meditate on that verse until the next time we meet, ‘And the angel of the LORD found her by the fountain.’  “Between The Lines”

“Father, help us as we meditate upon these words to draw from your fountain, water that will refresh our sin parched, thirsty souls. Renew a right spirit within us. O, God, establish our ways, set our feet upon a rock and guide us in the way everlasting.” In ha Shem Yeshua’s name. Amen!

“Portraits of Prayer in Genesis”  (Hagar – Part # 1)