Gen 16 | TNotes | STEP | Summary for Gen 16:1-16: 16:1-16 While waiting for their promised son to be born, Abram and Sarai attempted an alternate plan that was not in keeping with faith. Summary for Gen 16:1-3: 16:1-3 Abram and Sarai faced the tension of her being barren and beyond childbearing years. By custom, a barren woman could give her servant to her husband as a slave-wife; the child born to that union was considered the wife’s child and could be adopted as the heir. Sarai’s suggestion, unobjectionable by custom, set a problematic human plan in motion. God’s promises would be fulfilled by faith.

Summary for Gen 16:1-16: 16:1-16 ^a While waiting for their promised son to be born, Abram and Sarai attempted an alternate plan that was not in keeping with faith.
Summary for Gen 16:1-3: 16:1-3 ^b Abram and Sarai faced the tension of her being barren and beyond childbearing years. By custom, a barren woman could give her servant to her husband as a slave-wife; the child born to that union was considered the wife’s child and could be adopted as the heir. Sarai’s suggestion, unobjectionable by custom, set a problematic human plan in motion. God’s promises would be fulfilled by faith.
Summary for Gen 16:4-6: 16:4-6 ^c Perhaps Hagar expected to become the favored wife instead of Sarai (cp. Prov 30:21-23 ^d).
16:7 ^e The angel of the Lord was the Lord himself (16:13 ^f; 21:17 ^g; 22:11-12 ^h; 31:11-13 ⁱ; 48:16 ^j; Exod 3:2 ^k; 32:34 ^l; Judg 6:11 ^m, 16 ⁿ, 22 ^o; 13:22-23 ^p; Zech 3:1-2 ^q) but was also distinct from the Lord (Gen 24:7 ^r; 2 Sam 24:16 ^s; Zech 1:12 ^t). The angel of the Lord was probably a theophany (a manifestation of God) or a Christophany (an appearance of the pre-incarnate Messiah; see Gen 18:1-2 ^u; 19:1 ^v; Num 22:22 ^w; Judg 2:1-4 ^x; 5:23 ^y; Zech 12:8 ^z), speaking with the authority of the Lord himself.
Summary for Gen 16:8-12: 16:8-12 ^aa The angel’s rhetorical questions encouraged Hagar to pour out her heart to God. When she did, God commanded her to return and submit (16:9 ^ab), promising that her son would have innumerable descendants. The angel of the Lord never referred to Hagar as Abram’s wife, only as Sarai’s servant. She would have Abram’s child, but Ishmael was not central to God’s covenant with Abram.
Summary for Gen 16:10-12: 16:10-12 ^ac Hagar’s son would become the father of a great but wild and hostile nation living in the Arabian Desert as perennial enemies of Israel (cp. 25:18 ^ad). God blessed Ishmael as Abram’s descendant, but not as the line chosen to carry on the covenant. That blessing was reserved for Abram’s chosen heir.
16:11 ^ae Names in Genesis often capture the message of a passage and aid the remembrance of the events and their significance in the history of the faith. The name Ishmael, which means “God hears,” commemorates that the Lord ... heard Hagar’s cry of distress (see also study note on 16:14-15). This name would have greatly comforted Hagar; God listened to her prayers and acknowledged her complaint.
16:13 ^af Hagar responded to God’s messages by faith, in her words and in her obedience.

• the God who sees me: God knew Hagar’s plight and watched over her.
Summary for Gen 16:14-15: 16:14-15 ^ag The names Beer-lahai-roi, which means “well of the Living One who sees me,” and Ishmael (see 16:11 ^ah) were a message and a rebuke for Abram and Sarai. God sees affliction and hears the cries of those in need. Sarai and Abram should have prayed rather than taking the fulfillment of the promise into their own hands by following social custom (cp. 25:21 ^ai). Giving children to the barren woman is God’s work (Ps 113:9 ^aj; cp. 1 Sam 1:1-28 ^ak; Luke 1:1-25 ^al); impossible difficulties cannot be resolved by human intervention. The Lord hears the afflicted, sees them in their need, and will miraculously provide for them.