Just a little bit of an addition on that maid/wife thing. The Angel of the Lord calls her Sarai’s maid and just a verse or two before Abraham called her Sarah’s maid. And what I take from that is that Hagar never did anything to throw off that particular identification. She did not do anything honorable in this either. Sarai and Hagar are both vying for Abraham’s affection and they both make big mistakes. So, actually none of them come out of this story very well.
Like I said, this is the first mention of the Angel of the Lord, and as I have noted in other sermons, first mentions are often quite significant, very revealing, and they set the tone for a word’s or phrase’s later usage in Scripture. And here the first mention curiously occurs in a story about Hagar. You would think it would have occurred in a story of Noah or Shem or Abraham himself, but no, He appears to Hagar, an Egyptian woman, a Gentile, if you will, and with it is a prophecy about her unborn son Ishmael, who ultimately became one of Israel’s bitterest enemies. God did not make this first appearance as the Angel of the Lord to the good guys, as it were. He did this to Hagar before she bore Ishmael.
Another strange thing here, which is rare; it is actually a hapax legomenon. It means, it happens once in Scripture. And that is, a person, a human, gives God a name. This is the only time that it happens in Scripture. It is highly unusual circumstance, and like I said, she gave Him the name El Roi, and that means “God who sees.”
Now, perhaps the most significant thing that this first usage does is that it identifies the Angel of the Lord. And if you go through there, you could see the Angel of the Lord appeared, the Angel of the Lord said, the Angel of the Lord said, the Angel of the Lord said. It is getting this idea that this is all done by this superior Being. It leaves no doubt that this was no ordinary angel but the God of the Old Testament Himself. And as I mentioned, the only time in the Bible, Hagar gives Him a name that clearly identifies Him as God—El Roi. El meaning the generic name of deity. So in this passage not only is He called El, but He is also called Yahweh in verse 13. She called the name of Yahweh, who spoke to her, “You are the God [the El] who sees.” So it is very clear here in the way Moses wrote it, that this Angel of the Lord is El and He is also Yahweh.
Also, she also calls Him the “God who sees” and only God sees everything. He is omniscient! And in the name of the well, Beer Lahai Roi, the sense is, when you unpack the Hebrew, “The well of the Living One who sees me.” And so she essentially calls Him the Eternal, the Living One, the One who always lives.
And there is more. This passage shows the Angel of the Lord seeking Hagar specifically to give her a personal message. This is something God does. He seeks people, He seeks them out, and in this case, it was not as a calling necessarily like He calls us. But in this case, He sought her to give her a personal message and the personal message was a command to return to Sarai and submit. That was the main gist of the message. Now why would He do this? Why would He have to take personal action to seek this particular Egyptian woman in the wilderness?
Well, the first reason why He did is that He is rectifying Sarai’s abuse. Sarai’s abuse of Hagar drove her away, and that was not in the cards. That was not supposed to be. And so He had to go to her and basically appear as this great wonderful Being and say, “Hagar, go back. Get back to where you’re supposed to be.” Why? He wanted Ishmael born in Abraham’s house. He did not want Ishmael born in Egypt or out in the wilderness. He can go there later. But He wanted Ishmael born in Abraham’s house. And why He wants him born in Abraham’s house is because that activity or that act sets events in motion for the boy to fulfill the prophecy.
That is why He gives the prophecy. He says, “Hagar, go back because I’ve got a plan and it … . . .
