Strong Women of the Bible: Hagar (1/6) - H

Hello beautiful people and welcome to my new series, Strong Women of the Bible! In reading through the Bible, have you ever thought, "Okay, but where are the women??" Well, my friends, over the next few weeks I will be bringing to your attention six underappreciated women of the Old Testament! Weeks of research and many resources have gone into this series, with remarkable results. I can't wait to share them with you! So let's begin, shall we? 😁

Hagar: The Invisible Woman

Genesis 16

Have you ever felt like nobody sees you? Like you're invisible? Well, you may be pleased to hear that you're not the only one. I myself have felt invisible a number of times, and another woman of God felt that way too. Her name is Hagar, and this is her story.

Hagar was the Egyptian slave of Sarah, Abraham's wife. If you don't know, Abraham was a man God called to go on the road in the book of Genesis. This was a looooong time ago, probably about two thousand years before Jesus was born, and four thousand years from modern day. Times were really different back then. Because of the culture, women were treated more as objects than as people. And slaves were no better than dirt. But to be both a slave and a woman? That was a tough life, friends. And Hagar was a foreigner to boot! This would only have added to her status as an outcast.

Because of her status, I'm sure Hagar felt invisible much of the time. She had been taken out of her home country of Egypt; her life purpose was to serve a rich elderly woman; and then one day, her mistress forced her to bear Abraham's child. (Note: in those days, the custom of using a maidservant as a surrogate mother if the wife was barren was viewed as normal, though this practice went outside of God's will for a marriage.) Thus Hagar became pregnant by her master, Abraham.

This is where the story gets interesting. Pride begins to creep into Hagar's heart. She knows that God has promised Abraham many children, and when she becomes pregnant, Hagar believes she is more highly favored by God than Sarah. This belief is untrue. We as humans tend to categorize things; we want to know which sin is "worse," which person is "better." But to God, we are all equal. We are all sinful and deserving of death, and He died on the cross for each of us.

Hagar starts to feel entitled, and she acts disrespectfully toward Sarah, her mistress. Now, this brings up the issue of slavery, but I won't go into that too much, because then we would be here forever. 😂 But the Bible does address slavery in Ephesians 6:5-7 . . .

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people . . .

Life is not fair. Sometimes things happen to us that are unjust or immoral . . . but if we are there, then God must have put us there. And if God put us there, it is because we have work to do for Him.

Okay, now that we have that out of the way, we can continue with the story. Back in that time period, the law allowed a master to mistreat the slave to a certain extent (again, this is human-made law, not God-made law) if the slave was misbehaving. And so it happened in our story. The Bible says Sarah "afflicted" Hagar--this could be anything from nagging her, to making her do more work in her delicate condition, to even outright slapping her. We don't exactly know, but whatever happened, Hagar ran away.

She ran out into the desert, heading in the direction of Egypt--her home. After walking for quite some time, she stopped next to a well for a drink of water. Imagine how she must have felt. She probably felt lower than she'd ever felt before. She probably felt used and mistreated. And coupled with the heat and the morning sickness, I would say Hagar was having one heck of a bad day.

And this is where God meets her. Isn't that interesting? God didn't meet her back in Egypt, or in Abraham's tent before she thought about running away. No, God waited until Hagar was at her lowest point. Until her hope was gone and she had nowhere else to turn. This is such a great message: if God brings you to a wilderness, be assured He will meet you there!

An angel of the Lord appeared to Hagar and started to talk to her. He called her "Hagar, slave of Sarai (Sarah)" to remind her to be humble. After all, pride was what started all this in the first place, remember? He asked her where she came from, and where she was going. (Please tell me I'm not the only one thinking of Cotton-Eyed Joe. 😂) Hagar confessed she was running away, back to her home in Egypt. The angel reminded her of the Christian environment she was leaving, and the pagan culture she was returning to. I think this made Hagar give her decision a second thought. After all, she had a child to think of now as well.

After telling Hagar to go back to Abraham's camp, the angel also told her of the Big Plans God had in store for her. He tells her she will have a healthy pregnancy and a healthy son, and that her son will go on to have many descendants. The angel then told Hagar to name her son "Ishmael," which means "God hears." One commentary I read pointed out that this further implies that God heard in the past, He hears in the present, and He will continue to hear in the future.

I believe this is where everything clicked for Hagar. She realized that she wasn't invisible. All those years she had felt alone and mistreated, God saw her. He heard her silent prayers and her quiet crying in the night. He was entirely aware of her the whole time. And He cared about her. Not only did He see her past, but He also saw her entire future, including that of her son! God promised Ishmael a bright future, which renewed hope in Hagar's heart that better times were coming.

Hagar repented. She returned to Abraham's camp and humbled herself to her masters. And the well where she encountered the angel became known as Beer Lahai Roi, which translates to "the well of the living God Who sees me."

Wow. What a testimony to God's grace and goodness! And before I continue, I just want to share a relevant quote that I stumbled across on Pinterest quite by accident. But as soon as I read it, I thought: that's Hagar!

"And maybe the most simple truth we can hold on to is that He sees us. In the midst of our muck and our mess, when we're laying awake at 3 AM crying to the point it hurts, when we wonder why it feels like nobody cares, He sees us.

I know how easy it is to listen to the lie that you're invisible and that nobody cares.

But he isn't surprised at the stuff we're going through or the way we feel. He sees and He cares. And He's walking with us in it, taking us by the hand. 'I love you and I am with you' is the song God's been singing over His children from the beginning."

That quote is from Joel Nobis. When I first read it, I assumed Joel must be some elderly pastor or leader of the faith, but to my surprise when I looked him up I found he is my age! Nineteen to be precise. That gave me a lot of hope, to realize that other people from my generation are standing up for Jesus, and are passionate about it too!

Genesis 21

Okay, so after this instance with Hagar happened in Genesis 16, we don't hear much about her for a few more chapters. Then she is brought back into the story in chapter 21. Let's set the stage: Hagar's son Ishmael is probably sixteen or seventeen, while Isaac (Sarah's son) is maybe two or three. Abraham's camp is having a party for little Isaac, who has just been weaned. Everything is fine and dandy, until Sarah sees Ishmael "mocking" Isaac. One translation I read said that Ishmael was "Isaacing," which implies he was imitating his younger brother derisively. Sarah the Mama Bear didn't like that, so she told her husband to throw out Hagar and Ishmael. Sarah said she didn't want Ishmael to have any claim to Isaac's inheritance, which (if you ask me) implies that Sarah still had some leftover jealousy and bitterness after everything that happened in Genesis 16.

Abraham didn't want to throw out Hagar and Ishmael. Ishmael was his son too, after all. But God came to him, most likely in a dream, and told him to do as Sarah said. It was all part of God's Big Plan for both Hagar and her son, as we will soon see. So the next morning Abraham got up early, gave Hagar and Ishmael some provisions, and sent them on their way.

For the second time in her life, Hagar was wandering in the desert. But for the first time in her life, she was the sole provider for both herself and her son. As a woman and a slave, she had probably never been independent a day in her life. Now she was not only responsible for her own well-being, but also that of Ishmael.

Imagine her horror when she realized she was lost. For days they wandered alone in the desert, hoping and praying to somehow find a familiar place to reorient themselves. But slowly the provisions ran out . . . and Ishmael grew weaker. Keep in mind that Ishmael has probably lived a very pampered life. His father Abraham was rich, and there was very likely always plenty of food and water to go around. With this lifestyle taken away from him, Ishmael probably weakened very rapidly, until he was close to death.

Hagar has watched her son slowly get weaker and weaker, until he cannot even walk anymore. There is no food or water with which to strengthen him. They are stranded in the desert; no hospitals or walk-in clinics around here, people. Hopeless, Hagar placed her son in the meager shade beneath a shrub and walked away so that she does not have to see her son die.

Hagar felt like she had failed, not only as a mother, but also in fulfilling God's promise. Before Ishmael was born, God promised that he would become a great nation, with many descendants. But Hagar did not manage to keep him alive to see God's promise brought to fruition. She felt even worse than she did when she ran away all those years ago. Again, she is at her lowest point. Without hope. Without a place to turn to.

Cue the angel of God again. He called down to Hagar from heaven and told her that, once again, God heard her cry. He reminded her that He had promised to make Ishmael into a great nation. He would do it, not Hagar. God picked Hagar up and set her on her feet again; He reminded her that He alone is Almighty, and that it is not all on her to bring the promise to fulfillment. Hagar's eyes were opened to see a well of water nearby.

Now, people speculate as to whether the well was there the whole time and Hagar simply didn't notice it until God showed her, or if God miraculously created the well once Hagar listened to God's voice. Whatever you believe, it just goes to show you that as much as we believe we are in control, God is the One who is really running the show. He is the author and maker of our days. He has a Big Plan for each of our lives, and He will bring it to fruition, regardless of how we mess up. 😊💕

Ishmael lived, and they made it out of the desert. God was with Ishmael, and he grew to become a powerful archer. And I like to think he was a little bit of a mama's boy. 😜 After all, it was just him and Hagar for much of his life. According to the Bible, he trusted his mother to pick him a good wife. As one commentary I read put it, "As great an archer as he was, he did not think he could take his aim well in the business of marriage if he proceeded without his mother's advice and consent." 😁 And he did go on to fulfill God's promise, having a big family and many descendants.

I like that Hagar got her happy ending. I like to think that after her recorded encounters with God, she continued to strive to follow His will in her life and to trust His promises. 😊 And there's no doubt in saying she was a strong woman! If you think being a single mom in today's day and age is tough, think of how hard it would have been for Hagar! You go, girl!

That's all for Hagar's part of the series.  I'm so grateful I got to discover more about this underappreciated Bible character. I've really come to relate to Hagar, especially with a lot of the stuff that's been happening in my life recently. It gives me hope . . . hope of a better future. And I pray it gives you hope too, or at least that you learned something new. 💘

Until next time,
much love and God bless!
H ✨💗

*Resources used for this blog post include The Bible Reader's Companion by Lawrence O. Richards, Young's Literal Translation by Robert Young, Matthew Henry's Unabridged Commentary on the Bible, and the New International and King James Versions of the Bible. Great insight; would definitely recommend checking them out!