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Let pick up the close of this story of Story of Abram, Sarai and Hagar in verse 13

Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, “Have I also here seen Him who sees me?” Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; observe, it is between Kadesh and Bered..

(Gen 16: 13-14) N.K.J.V.

Notice the text says it's the Lord who spoke to her. So, she not only will name the child as instructed but names the place this happens as Beer Lahai Roi Roy which is the indication that the Lord sees. God heard, God saw, and God cared and that’s the point of this passage. He heard her plea He saw her plight and he cared about her person. He sees and cares about everything that's going on in our life. He cared about Hagar, He even cared about Sarah who was perhaps relieved to get rid of her maid, but the Lord still wanted Hagar her back to where she was supposed to be. God cared about Hagar, even though some might say that she was a mere runaway slave guilty of pride. Think about that who cares about the lowest of the people in society and on top of that a very disobedient servant who ran away. Not a guiltlessly person but a guilty person. But the Lord cared about her. One commentator said[i].

“It is remarkable to say the least but the first occurrence of the appearance of Jehovah Angel, probably none other than the Lord Jesus himself, should not be to Abraham but Hagar. Not to the heir of all the promises but to the Egyptian fugitive slave not one seeking God but one fleeing towards [God and heading towards]  Egypt”.

(Cook C. C. H. Hearing voices in Christian scripture)

The Lord is always the friend of the friendless. If the Lord cares about a runaway slave, don’t you then think he might also care about you whom he's redeemed by the blood of his son. The passage concludes by telling us this;

“So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael”.

(Gen 16: 15-16)

Abraham was 86 years old when Hagar gave birth Ishmael. Abraham then returned to Hebron which is where Hagar bore him a son. Abraham obeyed the Lord's command and named the child Ishmael So, in the end, they both obey the Lord. 

I want to finish by making a couple of observations. The sum of this passage is this. When Abraham and Sarai didn't wait patiently on the Lord, conflict resulted. Hagar in her distress called on the Lord and God graciously heard and blessed her with a son who is to have in numerable descendants also. An interesting story and one of the strangest things in all of the Bible.

In Galatians chapter 4 Paul allegorizes this passage of scripture. That’s a very unusual and strange thing for Paul to do. But this is extremely important to understand what is going on when considering what it means to us today both within a New Testament context and for us as we live our lives today. Paul in the New Testament goes to great length to try and explain what this all means. I will try to explain what that means in the next episode because this is super important. 

[i] Cook CCH. Hearing Voices, Demonic and Divine: Scientific and Theological Perspectives. Oxon (UK): Routledge; 2019. Chapter 4, Hearing voices in Christian scripture: The New Testament.