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Let me remind you of where we finished last time. The text told us in verse 6 that after Abram had slept with his concubine, on Sarai prompting. Then this happens.

.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so, she fled from her.

(Gen 16: 6b)

What a mess, I don't know any other way to say it. Sarai failed as a wife, Hagar failed as a maid and Abraham failed as a husband and a man. That summarizes it and best describes the situation. At this point Hagar flees the scene. The next part of this passage we are looking at today describes the intervention of God. Because if this mess is going to get cleaned up God has got to be involved. Look at the next few verses.

The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.

(Gen 16:7-8)

I think the question the angel of the Lord asks he already knew the answer to. The Lord didn't ask her to seek information he is asking in order to bring her to a point of self-awareness. She says, “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai.” By the way, she's an Egyptian and the fact she is on the road to Shur means she's headed back to Egypt. We will talk more about that later

I want to take a moment to comment about the Angel of the Lord. I am of the opinion and so are the vast majority of commentators that the little phrase Angel of the Lord is referring to the pre-incarnate Christ and it seems Hager also recognized this because later in verse 13 we shall see she says to Him 

“You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.”

(Gen. 16:13).

You see Hagar knew she was speaking to the Lord. Clearly the Angel of the Lord in this passage hasn't appeared as Jesus yet so theologians call this a case of the preincarnate Christ, or a Christophine. This phrase “Angel of the Lord” appears 48 times in the Bible. On some occasions it is just referring to a Messenger from God and we know that because the term “Angel” just means a messenger. However, there are many passages where it is generally agreed that something more is going on and this is recognized that this is one of those passages and here it is the pre-incarnate Christ being talked about. The angel of the Lord on this occasion the gives Hagar some instructions. He begins in verse 9 

Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” The angel of the Lord also said to her: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”

(Gen 16: 9-12) 

Now I want to talk about some of these details that's what brings this passage into the 21st century. In the 1st place he said go back to your mistress, that's the will of God for you that's what I want you to do go do it now. In the meantime, I'm going to tell you that you're pregnant will lead to the birth of a son. This is before ultrasound, so she had no way of knowing that at this point. You're going to have a son the Lord said, and I'm telling you to name him Ishmael. That name Ishmael means God hears. I want you to name your name son in a way that you won't forget what I have said today but that son is going to be a bit wild, like an untamed animal. He's going to wreak havoc everywhere he goes. Everybody's going to be against him and he's going to be against them. Who is Ishmael the father of today? The answer is the Arab Nations. Now don’t be concerned, I am not as a Christian making a unsubstantiated claim here. in fact, the Arab world also claims on Biblical and Qur’anic authority that they are the children of Ishmael. You know the conflict in the Middle East between the Jews and the Arabs well it all started approximately 4000 years ago when Sarai came up with this bright idea Abraham spent one night in a tent with another woman. So, the next time you read the newspaper and the Jews in the Arabs are going at it you remember Genesis 16 and it all that happened because Abraham spent one night in a tent with the wrong woman. We will pick up the story at this point next time.