The text in the Genesis account is brief and often vague. We have come to the point, where Sarai offered her handmaid, Hagar, to Abram for his concubine. This was decided in an effort to produce a child, the heir of the promises. There seems to have been a misunderstanding, in which Sarai believed Abram had betrayed her, after he had taken Hagar as his wife and not his concubine. However, after she was told that Hagar was still under her authority, Sarai over reacted and abused Hagar, who, rather than take the abuse of her mistress, fled both her and Abram.
Perhaps, Hagar believed she had become Abram’s second wife, or perhaps she understood her real place but boasted her position over Sarai, believing she was in a position to get whatever she desired, because she was pregnant with the master’s child. Nevertheless, no matter what the circumstances or the meaning behind them, Hagar fled Abram and Sarai, probably intending to return to Egypt.
At this point, the Angel of the Lord, who appears in the text some sixty-eight times in sixty-four verses, appears for the first time in Genesis 16:7. It doesn’t appear that this particular figure is an angelic being. His title, angel (malak; H4397) means messenger or ambassador. It refers to the office of a prophet in Haggai 1:13, and the office of a priest in Malachi 2:1. It may also refer to a messenger from one man to another (Genesis 32:3, 6). The word is also translated ambassador and refers to the king’s princes in Isaiah 30:4. So, simply because this figure in the text is called the Angel of the Lord, does not make him an angelic being. The Hebrew word, itself, sometimes refers to a prophet, a prince and a priest, which are titles used to describe Jesus in the New Covenant scriptures. In fact, this is how I understand the Angel of the Lord in the Old Covenant text, vis-à-vis he is the one who became Jesus, the Word of God made flesh (John 1:14).
The Angel of the Lord found Hagar near a fountain on the way to Shur in the wilderness on the Sanai peninsula, which seems to indicate she intended to return to Egypt (Genesis 16:7). He spoke with Hagar, asking where she had come from, and where she intended to go, but all Hagar told him was, she fled her mistress, Sarai. The Angel of the Lord then told her to return to Sarai and submit herself to her authority (Genesis 16:8-9).
Moreover, at this point, the Angel promised Hagar that she would bear a son and be very fruitful. In fact, the Angel named her son Ishmael, which means “God heard,” implying Hagar had prayed to the God of Abram. However, the Angel’s blessing seems very strange for how we might understand the word, blessing. Ishmael was to become a “wild man” and his hand would be against all men and the hand of all men would be against him. Nevertheless, in spite of it all, he would dwell in the presence of his brethren (Genesis 16:10-12).
Hagar was encouraged by the word of the Angel of the Lord and named the well after him, calling it The Well of Him that Lives and Sees (Beer-La-Hai-Roi). Moreover, she wondered about the idea of seeing him, who sees her (Genesis 16:13-14). So, Hagar returned to Sarai and bore Abram’s son, calling his name Ishmael, and Abram was eighty-six years old, when his son was born (Genesis 16:15-16).
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