This article is part of a series on Old Testament Christophanies. For important background information, see An Introduction to Old Testament Christophanies–with Justin Martyr.
The years continued to pass, and by Genesis 16 Abram’s wife Sarai had yet to bear him any children. So Sarai told her husband that the Lord had prevented her from having children and that he should go in to her maid, an Egyptian woman named Hagar. In this way Sarai reasoned that she could at least have a child under both her roof and authority. Abram agreed and took his wife up on her offer (vv. 1–2). Hagar became a sort of secondary wife to Abram, being of lesser prominence than Sarai. It would seem that all would be well. But once Hagar actually conceived a son, a hatred born out of jealously welled up within Sarai.
She complained to Abram, saying, “May the wrong done me be upon you. I gave my maid into your arms, but when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her sight. May the Lord judge between you and me.” (v. 5). Abram gave in to his wife; he told her that her maid was in her power and that she could do to her as she liked. Once Sarai had the freedom to treat Hagar harshly, she did so (v. 6). Hagar fled to a spring in the wilderness, and it was there where she was visited by the Angel of Yahweh, the Son of God (vv. 6–7). He asked her where she had come from and where she was going. After Hagar said that she was fleeing from Sarai, the Angel instructed her to return to her mistress and submit to her authority (vv. 8–9).
But the Angel didn’t show up just to tell Hagar to go home:
Moreover, the angel of the Lord said to her, “I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count.” The angel of the LORD said to her further,
“Behold, you are with child,
And you will bear a son;
And you shall call his name Ishmael,
Because the LORD has given heed to your affliction.
“He will be a wild donkey of a man,
His hand will be against everyone,
And everyone’s hand will be against him;
And he will live to the east of all his brothers.” (Gen 16:10–12)
It wasn’t only the great patriarchs that the Lord made generational promises to. Hagar may have been “just” a maid, but from her a mighty nation would spring forth. The Angel personally named her son “Ishmael,” which means “God hears.” Ishmael, and therefore the Ishmaelites, would be untamed and warlike. Unfortunately, this meant that they would be separated from their Israelite cousins. Even though the promise was a blessing, there were still consequences to Abram and Sarai’s sin.
Hagar then became the first, and arguably only person in the Bible to give the Lord a name. Specifically, she gave it to “the LORD who spoke to her,” calling him “a God who sees” (v. 13). Since it was the Angel that spoke to Hagar, then it is He who is said to be Yahweh. The divine Angel saw Hagar, and she was amazed that she remained alive even though she had also seen Him (v. 13). This is just what we should expect from a Christophany. Jesus is Yahweh, while at the same time representing Yahweh in a form that men and women can safely approach. Because of Hagar’s incredible encounter with the Angel, the spring became known as Beer-lahai-roi, meaning, the well of the living one who sees me (v. 14).
Years later, Sarah witnessed Ishmael mocking her newborn son. This was all the motivation she needed to have Abraham drive out Hagar and Ishmael, ensuring that he wouldn’t share in Isaac’s inheritance. God comforted the troubled Abraham by telling him to go ahead and listen to Sarah, for a nation would surely come from Ishmael. Knowing that the Lord would care for them, Abraham gave Hagar some provisions and sent her away with her son. Once her water ran dry, Hagar cried out, not wanting to see her only son die. God heard Ishmael crying and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, saying to her, “What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” At that moment, God opened Hagar’s eyes and she found herself before a well of water (Gen 21:9–19). The Lord had continued to personally care for Hagar and Ishmael. He did so when he visited Hagar at a well, and He did so again by leading her to one. The complementary nature of the accounts strongly suggest that the angel of God calling out to Hagar from heaven was the divine Angel of the Lord, who appeared to her those many years before.
To those more familiar with the New Testament, the Angel’s visit with Hagar at the well is reminiscent of Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well in John 4. She too was involved in an inappropriate relationship, having been previously married five times and then being with a man she wasn’t married to (John 4:16–18). Both women at the wells were blessed by the Messiah. One before He became a man, and one after. Hagar’s son became the father of a great nation because of her encounter with the Lord. Many Samaritans believed in Jesus after the woman became so excited over discovering the Messiah that she left her waterpot to tell others about Him (John 4:28–30, 39–42). Jesus heard and saw both women, just as He does all of His creation.
A barren wife offering her husband a concubine was a typical way to provide him with children in the patriarch’s time and culture. But even though Abram and Sarai saw this as a reasonable solution, the Lord didn’t (Gen 2:24; Matt 19:4–5). There are some notables parallels between their sin and Adam and Eve’s, including the wife leading her husband to disobedience. Fundamentally though, both couples doubted God’s word, their faithlessness leading to catastrophic and enduring consequences. Adam and Eve’s sin separated mankind from God, while Abram and Sarai’s brought division in the patriarch’s family. Thankfully, the historical parallels don’t end with sin’s victory. Just as the Word, the Son of God, stepped in to correct the damage wrought by Adam and Eve, so He did with Abram and Sarai.
This is the first mention of the Angel of the Lord, and it tells us so much. Even though the people He created caused their own problems, the Lord’s love moved Him to intervene. It is no wonder that countless Christians have come to recognize their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when reading of the Angel of the Lord. Included among them is John Gill. He wrote that this appearance and others are:
not to be understood of a created angel, but of a divine person, as appears from Genesis 16:10, the uncreated angel, the Logos or Son of God, called the Angel of God’s presence, and the Angel of the covenant, Isaiah 63:9 Malachi 3:1; who often appeared in an human form before his incarnation, being sent by his divine Father on one account or another; and hence called an angel, a messenger, or one sent, as in the fullness of time he was sent in human nature to be the Redeemer of his people . . .[1]
The Angel of the Lord is a God who hears, sees, loves, and redeems His people.
[1] Gill, Exposition, Gen 16:7.
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