Genesis Bible Study

Genesis 16

By Amy Gentry

Hagar was an Egyptian, probably one of the slaves Pharaoh gave to Abram when he and Sarai left Egypt (referred to in Genesis 12:16.) The name Hagar is the Hebrew word for “uncertain.”  Since the name Hagar is Hebrew and not Egyptian, she must have been renamed by Abram. 

Imagine if when you were born your parents named you, Uncertain Jones.  What kind of identity would you have?

“When she (Hagar) knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.  Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”  “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.” Vs. 4-6

Both Hagar and Sarai could be described as warring, bickering, spiteful, disrespectful and hateful.

The LORD looked for Hagar in the desert to find out what she was doing there, why she was leaving the family where He had put her.  Basically, in layman’s terms, He instructed her to go back to her family and work it out.  To put herself back into her proper roll inside of her family and THEN all would go well for her.  She would be ultimately blessed.

“She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.”” Vs. 13  Her eyes were opened to the truth, the Lord had seen her in her pride against Sarai for barring a child for the barren, and He had also seen her while she endured suffering at the hand of the same mistress.  

Uncertain Hagar found out who she was to the Lord.  She was not “Uncertain.”  He was certain to bless her and her descendants, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” Vs. 10

Application: Do you have family relationships that could be described as warring, bickering, spiteful, disrespectful, or hateful???  Or maybe not even to that extreme, but obviously a relationship that is not pleasing to the Lord? 

We hurt or become hurt by the ones the Lord has put in our very own families.  Maybe we are also supposed to put ourselves back into our proper roll inside of our families and THEN all will go well for us too.

For you to be more than someone else in your family, they have to become less than you.

They become “Uncertain.”