She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.” The Angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand.” Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, “I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.”
There are many good scholars, that every time they see the phrase, "The Angel of the Lord.", that automatically say, it is an Old Testament appearing of Y'shua, Jesus. However, if you are well adjusted student of the Word of God, one that gets back to the original Hebrew, you will find that the words, "Now the..." are not even in the original scriptures. This is an incidence where the translators try to make the text clearer to the reader, without knowingly, or maybe knowingly, change the scriptures to match their agenda, whatever that may be. However, you and I will continue to get back to original scriptures and let the Spirit of God teach us.
With that said, here, a messenger from God, finds Hagar, by the spring, on the way to Shur. Shur means "wall". To give you perspective, Shur is a place southwest of Palestine on the eastern border or within the border of Egypt; the Israelites passed through the wilderness of Shur after crossing the Red Sea. See the map below:
Abram and Sarai is presently living somewhere near Beer-Sheba, near the southern shores of the Dead Sea. The pregnant Hagar had traveled a long way. She was definitely on her way back to her birth home, Egypt.
The angel, that stops her, asks the question, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?” First of all, he says her name, her rightful position, then asks two questions, to which, he already knows the answer. Most non-believers jump on this and similar verses and say, "See....This is another inconsistency, within the Bible." or "See....This shows that God is not omniscient and doesn't really know everything, as the Bible tells us." However, it really shows their ignorance concerning local cultural idioms. Let me give an example.
When you were young and your mother, seeing that you were doing wrong, says, "What do you think you are doing?" or "What are your doing, young man?" Does it show that your mother was an idiot and didn't really know what was going on? Absolutely not. No one, in their right mind, would say that. The only ones, that would say that, are those who are not looking for the truth and have a personal agenda. Anyway, the angel is doing the same thing that your mother was doing....Getting your attention and setting your mind's eye on the truth of what you are doing. This always followed by a correction, as we see here. The angel is telling Hagar to turn around and go back to Sarai and do as she says.
You see, there were two wrongs here. Hagar shouldn't have taunted Sarai and Sarai shouldn't have treated Hagar, the way that she did. In the end, Ishmael have to be born and raised, within the house of Abraham, for God's plan to play out.
And the Angel of the Lord said to her:
“Behold, you are with child,
And you shall bear a son.
You shall call his name Ishmael,
Because the Lord has heard your affliction.
He shall be a wild man;
His hand shall be against every man,
And every man’s hand against him.
And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.”
As this prophecy turns out, Ishmael will be the father of the Philistines and others up to the modern Islamic State. However, we will talk about that, when we discussed Ishmael's descendants, in a future post.
Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, “Have I also here seen Him who sees me?” Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; observe, it is between Kadesh and Bered. So Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
This backs up the implied idiom, we just discussed. Hagar recognized it, testifying that God sees all. She even name a nearby well, Beer Lahai Roi, which means, well of the living One that sees me. Obediently, she does what she is told. She bares Ishmael and goes back to Sarai and Abram and sets God's plan, back on track.
Now, a parallel lineage has been set into motion to mimic the true Messianic line. It will so closely resemble the Messianic line, that it will lead many astray. However, those, who are True Believers, ones the walk with God, on a daily basis, will be able to differentiate between the two lines. Which one are you?
It doesn't matter how many times I read the scriptures, it still amazes me how God, even though he allows man to live their lives, according to their own will, still is in control of the outcome. He is a masterful strategists, who has foreseen every outcome and has set into motion his plan for the salvation of man, even man has his own sovereignty. Again, it is amazing.
Foreseeing Israel's and the worlds disobedience throughout history, God is setting up an end time scenario to corral mankind into seeing God's handiwork and move them back to God. Here, he is setting up a seed of Abram to both punish and preserve his remnant in the future mankind.
