Abram entered into friendship with God Himself, who confirmed the promise that his own offspring would inherit the land to which He had brought him. Years passed without any change, and Sarai thought that she could have children through Hagar her maidservant. She therefore offered her to her husband. Abram accepted, supposing that God would fulfill His promises through his offspring by Hagar. Yet because Sarai acted with purely human reasoning, outside the sphere of faith, she reaped bitterness and loss.
1. Sarai Gives Hagar to Her Husband
Genesis 16:1-5
1 Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. 2 And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. 3 And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. 4 And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. 5 And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the LORD judge between me and thee.
Sarai had lived with Abram in Canaan for ten years without bearing a child; she was barren. She resorted to purely human reasoning to bring about God's promises, asking her husband to go in to Hagar, her Egyptian maidservant. When Hagar conceived, she despised her mistress. Sarai then blamed Abram, who placed Hagar in her hands. Sarai humbled her until she fled. This action represents a person's reliance on himself, planning for himself without returning to God and seeking His counsel.
Saint John Chrysostom considers that Sarai thought the inability to have children was due to her husband. She therefore gave Hagar to him to test the matter. When she saw that Hagar had conceived, she was deeply grieved, realizing that the cause of barrenness lay in herself.
In any case, although Abram and Sarai walked by faith, God used even their weakness for the glory of His name. Sarai came to represent the Church of the Gentiles, the New Testament, formerly barren and without children. Hagar points to the Jews who brought forth slaves by rejecting adoption in Christ Jesus. In the fullness of time Sarai bore Isaac, bringing forth many children of God. Sarai bore her son not according to nature, since she was barren, but according to God's promise, and he came as a blessed son. Hagar bore according to nature, and her son came as a slave. The Apostle Paul clearly explained this to Christians who wished to return to Jewish thinking, the movement toward Judaizing:
Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. (Galatians 4:21-31)
Sarai, or Sarah, was barren, representing the Gentiles who had been unable to bring forth children of God. She bore Isaac, however, neither as the fruit of the law of nature nor through lawful marriage alone, for in her barrenness she was as one under the sentence of death. Rather, she bore a son through God's promise to her and to Abraham her husband, bringing forth a son in the Lord. As Saint John Chrysostom says:
“Isaac was born neither according to the law of nature, nor through lawful marriage, nor by the power of the flesh; nevertheless, he was truly his son. He came from two bodies that were dead; he came from a dead womb. His conception was not according to the flesh, nor was his birth from seed alone, for the womb was dead through old age and barrenness. Rather, the Word of God, the divine promise, formed him through the union of Abraham and Sarah as the fruit of the promise, while he was their son from their seed. It was not so with the son of the bondwoman, who came as the fruit of nature's laws and through union. Nevertheless, the one who was not according to the flesh was more honorable than the one born according to the flesh. [262]”
He also says:
“The Church was not only barren like Sarah; she also became, like her, the mother of many children. She conceived them in the same manner as Sarah: not through nature, but through the promise of God, who made Sarah a mother.”
“Who is this woman who was barren and desolate? She is the Church of the Gentiles, which had been deprived of the knowledge of God. And who is the woman who has a husband? She is the synagogue of the Jews. Yet the barren woman surpassed her in the number of children, gathering Greeks and barbarians, on sea and land and throughout the inhabited world.”
“Since we are children of the barren woman, we are free. But what freedom is this, if the Jews arrest and persecute believers? Let us not be troubled by this, for from the beginning the son of the bondwoman persecuted the son of the freewoman. [263]”
Saint Clement of Alexandria sees Hagar as representing temporal wisdom, and Sarai as representing divine wisdom or the knowledge of God. Sarai's giving Hagar to her husband signifies that the knowledge of God hands over temporal wisdom or culture as a young servant or maidservant to serve the human person. God's wisdom, however, we honor as a wife and companion. Sarai sent Hagar away for a time to discipline her until she submitted. This points to a person who rejects the wisdom of the world when it is not in the Lord.
Finally, Saint Augustine offers a defense of Abraham's conduct with Hagar, saying:
“Abraham was not guilty concerning the concubine, for he used her not to gratify lust, but only to obtain offspring; not to wrong his wife, but in obedience to her. She thought that by using her maidservant's fruitful womb in place of her own barren nature she could remove her barrenness. According to the law, the Apostle says, “And likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife” (1 Corinthians 7:4). As a wife, therefore, she used her husband to obtain offspring through another when she herself was unable to do so. Here there is no place for lust or base defilement. The maidservant was given to the husband by the wife for conception; neither wished to commit sin, but they sought increased fruitfulness. Thus, when the pregnant maidservant despised her barren mistress, and Sarah in her womanly jealousy blamed Abraham her husband, he showed no selfish attachment, but made clear that he sought a child while remaining free from lust. Although he had joined himself to Hagar, he had done so not at the expense of Sarah his wife, but in fulfillment of her will. He therefore said to her, “Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee” [6]. [264]”
In this way Saint Augustine defends the conduct of Abraham, the patriarch: he had not sought union with Hagar out of bodily lust, but to obtain offspring and at his wife's request. He showed the fullness of his love for his wife by leaving the maidservant in her hands to do with as she wished. Yet we cannot accept such conduct, especially under divine grace. If Abraham and Sarah acted in this manner to obtain offspring while awaiting the Savior's coming from their descendants, we do not now seek offspring or children according to the flesh in that way. Moreover, although the husband does not have authority over his body, but the wife does, she has no right to hand her husband's body over to another woman, whatever the motive. She has received her husband from the Lord, just as the husband receives his wife from the Lord, so that the two may live as one body in the Lord, without another body coming between them!
2. Hagar Flees from Sarai
Genesis 16:6-7
6 But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face. 7 And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.
Saint Augustine sees “Hagar,” or “stranger,” as pointing to the alien soul that has no citizenship among God's people, representing every thought foreign to faith. Hagar conceived and despised her mistress; she therefore deserved discipline so that, when she submitted inwardly, she might return to her. [265]
How much Hagar there is in our inner life! How many thoughts foreign to faith despise their mistress, the thinking of faith or the knowledge of God! Let us drive Hagar away from us, that is, every alien thought, and humble it until it is disciplined and returns in submission to a life of faith and godliness.
Hagar fled, and “the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur” [7]. Perhaps she was heading toward Egypt, her original homeland, and went down to the wilderness of Paran. There the angel of the Lord met her at a spring, perhaps the “Springs of Moses” near Suez, on the road to Shur, meaning “wall,” a caravan route through the wilderness.
Hagar could not have returned to Sarai and Abram and brought forth a son unless she had met the angel of the Lord at a spring on the way to Shur. If the angel of the Lord points to the Lord Christ, He has come down to us in our utterly barren wilderness to meet us at the waters of baptism and become a wall, “Shur,” for us. He turns us back from the road toward Egypt, that is, the love of the world, toward the heavenly Canaan. We were driven from Canaan, that is, Paradise, because of our sins, and came to live in bitterness and isolation in the wilderness of this world. Yet the Lord does not abandon us; He restores us to Himself by renewing us in baptism. As Saint Jacob of Serugh says in his homily on baptism:
“Baptism is a gate that brings us back to Paradise; in it the human person enters into God's presence to be with Him. Baptism is a new ship carrying the dead; through it they rise and cross over to the land of the immortals. Baptism was established in the new world; in it the human person crosses from among the dead to the land of life. [266]”
3. Hagar Returns to Sarai
Genesis 16:8-14
8 And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai. 9 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands. 10 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude. 11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction. 12 And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. 13 And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me? 14 Wherefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.
The angel of the Lord asked Hagar to return to Sarai her mistress. She thus seems to signify temporal wisdom which, when sanctified, serves faith by submitting to it. She represents temporal philosophies: if the believer receives them in a spirit of godliness and with the mind of faith, they become his servants in the Lord instead of destroying his faith through pride and arrogance.
Hagar may also point to the carnal person. If he despises the spirit, Sarai, he destroys himself. But if he is sanctified in the waters of baptism, accepts the Holy Spirit's work within him, and returns to Sarai in submission to the spirit, he becomes a servant of the Lord. Saint Augustine says of this:
““Return to thy mistress,” O carnal soul, like an arrogant maidservant. If you have endured some hardship, it was for discipline; why then do you rebel? Return to your mistress and enjoy the peace of the Church. [267]”
The angel of the Lord required her to submit and obey her mistress [9]. It seems that her mistress had not wronged her by sending her away; rather, Hagar had been violent in her contempt for her mistress. In return for this submission, He promised her numerous descendants. Yet her son would be a wild man, never ceasing to oppose his brethren, while they in turn would oppose him.
Hagar saw “the angel of the LORD,” which many interpreters regard as one of the appearances of the Son of God. Hagar called Him “El Roi,” meaning “God of vision,” or “God who sees”: the Lord who appeared to her and saw her distress. As for the well where she stopped, she called it “Beer-lahai-roi,” meaning the well where she saw the living God.
4. The Birth of Ishmael
Genesis 16:15-16
15 And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son's name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael. 16 And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.
Hagar bore her son and called him “Ishmael,” also written “Ismail,” as the angel of the Lord had said. It means “God has heard.” Abram called him by the same name, thinking that God had heard him and given him a son to inherit from him (Genesis 17:18). He had not imagined that Sarah would bear him a son.
Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael, and he was 100 when Isaac was born. Ishmael was therefore about 14 years older than Isaac.
Notes and References
[262] In Gol. hom. 4:23. (Bibliographic wording retained from the source; a homily on Galatians.)
[263] Church of the Virgin Mary, al-Faggala: Epistle to the Galatians, chapter 4.
[264] City of God 16:25.
[265] On Psalm 83.
[266] Manuscript at the Monastery of Saint Antony, copied in the year 1488 A.M. (Coptic Era of the Martyrs).
[267] On the Epistle of Saint John, homily 10:10.