The God Who Sees in the Life of Hagar
Hagar, an Egyptian handmaid of Sarah, plays a significant role in the early narratives of Genesis, particularly through her encounter with God, which leads her to name Him "the God who sees me" [1, 2, 5]. Her story highlights themes of divine providence and recognition in the midst of human suffering and social marginalization.
Hagar's journey begins when Sarah, unable to conceive, gives Hagar to Abraham as a secondary wife to bear children [2, 5]. Upon conceiving, Hagar begins to despise Sarah, leading to Sarah's harsh treatment of her [5]. This mistreatment causes Hagar to flee into the wilderness, heading towards her native Egypt [2, 5]. She reaches the desert of Shur, where she encounters the Angel of the Lord by a spring of water [2, 11]. This Angel, often interpreted as the pre-incarnate Son of God, the "Angel of the covenant," instructs Hagar to return to Sarah and promises her countless descendants [10, 11].
It is during this encounter that Hagar gives the Lord a unique name: "You are the God who sees me" (Genesis 16:13 BSB) [1]. She exclaims, "Here I have seen the One who sees me!" [1]. This name, El Roi, signifies God's awareness and active observation of her plight [6]. The well where this encounter occurred was subsequently named Beer-lahai-roi, meaning "the well of the visible God" [2, 7]. Theologians like Keil and Delitzsch suggest that Hagar's exclamation reflects her astonishment at seeing God and remaining alive, a common biblical understanding that seeing God could be fatal [7]. John Calvin notes that Hagar's vision was initially unclear, but through the divine encounter, she gained a true sense of God's presence [9, 12]. Her response demonstrates faith and obedience, as she returns to Sarah as commanded [6, 12].
Years later, Hagar and her son Ishmael are again cast out, this time at Sarah's insistence, after Ishmael is seen mocking Isaac [3]. They wander in the wilderness of Beersheba, and when their water supply runs out, Hagar places Ishmael under a bush, expecting him to die, and sits a distance away, weeping [3]. In this moment of despair, "God heard the voice of the boy" [3]. The Angel of God calls to Hagar from heaven, reassuring her not to be afraid, for God has heard Ishmael's cry [3]. The Angel then directs her to a well, saving their lives and reiterating the promise that Ishmael would become the father of a great nation [3]. John Gill notes that Ishmael's cries, whether in prayer or distress, reached God's ears, prompting divine compassion and provision [8].
Hagar's story underscores the biblical theme of God's attentiveness to the marginalized and suffering. Despite her status as a slave and an outcast, God sees her, hears her, and intervenes directly in her life [1, 3, 6]. Her naming of God as "the God who sees me" is a profound theological statement, affirming God's personal and intimate knowledge of individuals, even those in dire circumstances. The name Hagar itself means "flight" or "stranger," or "one that fears," which aptly describes her experiences [2, 4, 5]. Her encounters with God demonstrate that divine care extends beyond the chosen lineage of Abraham to those on the periphery, establishing a precedent for God's universal concern.
Sources
- Genesis “Genesis 16:13 (BSB) — So Hagar gave this name to the LORD who had spoken to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen the One who sees me!””
- Easton's Bible Dictionary “Easton's Bible Dictionary: Hagar — Flight, or, according to others, stranger, an Egyptian, Sarah's handmaid (Gen. 16:1; 21:9, 10), whom she gave to Abraham (q.v.) as a secondary wife (16:2). When she was about to become a mother she fled from the cruelty of her mistress, intending apparently to return to her relatives in Egypt, through the desert of Shur, which lay between. Wearied and worn she had reached the place she distinguished by the name of Beer-lahai-roi ("the well of the visible God"), where the angel of the Lord appeared to her. In obedience to the heavenly visitor she returned to t”
- Genesis “God heard the voice of the boy. The angel of God called to Hagar out of the sky, and said to her, “What ails you, Hagar? Don’t be afraid. For God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. -- Genesis 21:17”
- Hitchcock's Bible Names “Hitchcock's Bible Names: Hagar — a stranger; one that fears”
- Smith's Bible Dictionary “Smith's Bible Dictionary: Hagar — (flight), an Egyptian woman, the handmaid or slave of Sarah, (Genesis 16:1) whom the latter gave as a concubine to Abraham, after he had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan and had no children by Sarah. ch (Genesis 16:2,3) (B.C. 1912.) When Hagar saw that she had conceived, "her mistress was despised in her eyes," v. 4, and Sarah, with the anger, we may suppose, of a free woman rather than of a wife, reproached Abraham for the results of her own act. Hagar fled, turning her steps toward her native land through the great wilderness traversed by the Egyptian r”
- Genesis (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on Genesis 16:13: 16:13 Hagar responded to God’s messages by faith, in her words and in her obedience. • the God who sees me: God knew Hagar’s plight and watched over her.”
- Genesis (Lutheran) “Keil & Delitzsch on Genesis 16:13: In the angel, Hagar recognised God manifesting Himself to her, the presence of Jehovah, and called Him, "Thou art a God of seeing; for she said, Have I also seen here after seeing?" Believing that a man must die if he saw God (Exo 20:19; Exo 33:20), Hagar was astonished that she had seen God and remained alive, and called Jehovah, who had spoken to her, "God of seeing," i.e., who allows Himself to be seen, because here, on the spot where this sight was granted her, after seeing she still saw, i.e., remained alive. From this occurrence the well received the na”
- Genesis (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Genesis 21:16: And God heard the voice of the lad,.... By which it appears that he cried also; but whether it was in prayer to God, or through the distress and misery he was in, is not certain; and, be it which it will, his cries came up into the ears of the Lord, and he had compassion on him, and supplied his wants, and delivered him out of his miserable condition: and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven; not a created angel, but the eternal one, the Son of God, the Angel of the covenant, who appeared in the visible heavens, and called to Hagar from thence with an ar”
- CCEL (Reformed) “Calvin, Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1 (Gen 1-23), section 20.17: sense of this obscure interpretation. We may suppose Hagar to exclaim: ‘Have I indeed seen at last? yet, not till after the vision itself had passed away; so that when I saw it literally, I was mentally blind, and did not know what I was looking at.’ — Ed . According to these interpreters, the vision of Hagar was twofold: the former erroneous; since she perceived nothing celestial in the angel; but the other true, after she had been affected with a sense of the divine nature of the vision. To some it seems that a negative answer ”
- Genesis (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Genesis 16:7: And the angel of the Lord found her,.... This is the first time that mention is made of an angel in Scripture, but is not to be understood of a created angel, but of a divine Person, as appears from Gen 16:10, the uncreated angel, the Logos or Son of God, called the Angel of God's presence, and the Angel of the covenant, Isa 63:9 Mal 3:1; who often appeared in an human form before his incarnation, being sent by his divine Father on one account or another; and hence called an angel, a messenger, or one sent, as in the fulness of time he was sent in human nature to be ”
- Genesis (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on Genesis 16:7: Here is the first mention we have in scripture of an angel's appearance. Hagar was a type of the law, which was given by the disposition of angels; but the world to come is not put in subjection to them, Heb 2:5. Observe, I. How the angel arrested her in her flight, Heb 2:7. It should seem, she was making towards her own country; for she was in the way to Shur, which lay towards Egypt. It were well if our afflictions would make us think of our home, the better country. But Hagar was now out of her place, and out of the way of her duty, and going further astray, w”
- CCEL (Reformed) “Calvin, Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1 (Gen 1-23), section 20.19: mercy of God should be attested in time to come; and therefore she transmitted her testimony, as from hand to hand. Hence we infer how useful it is, that they who do not freely humble themselves, should be subdued by stripes. Hagar, who had always been wild and rebellious, and who had, at length, entirely shaken off the yoke; now, when the hardness of her heart was broken by afflictions, appears altogether another person. She was not, however, reduced to order by stripes only; but a celestial vision was also added, which thorough”