The fascinating interplay between Sarai and Hagar in Genesis 16, with God’s timely intervention in the midst of female foibles, has been engaging my mind these past few days.

Sarai and Hagar: the ’Princess’ and the ‘Forsaken’, the Mistress and the Maidservant, the First Lady and the First Concubine.

Sarai- covenantally chosen; Hagar- possibly a peace offering from the Egyptian Pharaoh (to compensate for almost adding Sarai to his harem)?

Two women from contrasting backgrounds and inverse statuses; one old and barren, the other young and fertile- both unaware of their unique role in changing the course of prophetic history.

Culturally acceptable in those days, though distasteful to our modern sensibilities, Sarai offered Hagar to her 85 year old husband to impregnate as a surrogate mother. Apparently, she felt that God had lost the plot along the way and needed her help for His plan to succeed.

I doubt Hagar was overwhelmed at the prospect of bedding an old man, but out of respect and honor towards her mistress she acquiesced. After all, she was her maidservant and didn’t have much choice in the matter, now did she?

It was unfortunate her attitude changed drastically when she discovered her womb was with child. The Bible says, “when she saw she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress.” (Gen 16:4)

Dishonoring and disrespecting one’s elders was forbidden by God, and it certainly wasn’t going to sit well with an offended woman.

Anger, vengeance and meanness started surfacing in Sarai, and so she went to complain bitterly to her husband, but he just washed his hands off everything and told her to do as she wished. Sarai wished for her pregnant slave to disappear, so she harassed and persecuted Hagar until the poor woman was forced to flee.

A disgraceful debacle of injustice and jealousy was on full display by the Matriarch of 3 major religions. Sin does tend to layer up high when we want to take control and don’t trust God’s timing in fulfilling His promises.

God couldn’t have been pleased- either by her faithless impatience or her ensuing actions. But He watched and waited.

Abram should have rejected Sarai’s plan at the get go and encouraged her to trust and wait on the Lord first. Neither should he have returned Hagar to his angry wife.

Hagar should have repented and humbled herself for the sake of her baby at least. After all, it was her pride and contemptuous arrogance that had got her into this predicament in the first place. But she didn’t.

So, here she was, alone and destitute, walking by the stream of water which led to Shur, returning alone to her homeland Egypt, but carrying within her the seed of the man who had been called to the Promised Land.

God had to intervene and redirect her steps in the opposite direction. And so the Angel of the Lord, the preincarnate Jesus, came to her, “And He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭16‬:‭8‬ ‭

God knew Hagar by name. It didn’t matter that she didn’t know Him or care about Him. He knew her- and He had devised a wonderful plan to bless her and her progeny.

So, He laid out all the prophetic promises for her son’s future before her, but with one caveat (because none of them could be fulfilled until she did this) “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hand.” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭16‬:‭‭9‬ ‭

Return. Repent. Relent. Receive.

Return to the place of offense.
Repent sincerely.
Relent to the required discipline.
Receive restoration and reward.

Simple but powerful directives. In order to activate the fulfillment of God’s powerful promises, Hagar would need to do an about-turn and re-submit to authority.

Too many times we abort our prophetic destiny because we refuse to revisit and reset our points of failure, but just keep moving on instead. We will never walk in victory and freedom if we keep flitting around.

Kudos to Hagar for submitting to the Lord’s instruction. This timely encounter revealed to her the majesty and kindness of the True God Who was nothing like the inanimate weird animal gods of her own country. And so in a spontaneous outburst of delightful gratitude she christened the Lord with a new name, “El Roi.”

“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?” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭16‬:‭13‬

The rest is history.

Beloved, you are not only the apple of God’s eye, you are continually in His visual crosshairs. His gaze is perpetually fixed on you. There is nothing, and no one, hidden from His sight.

Every betrayal you’ve experienced, He has seen and felt. Every broken promise you’ve endured, He has seen and noted. Every weary tear you’ve shed, He has seen and collected. Every assault you were subjected to, He has seen and promised vengeance.

He is for you. Always and every time.

The question that now remains is this- how do you see God and by which name would you call Him?