Hagar was Sarai’s slave, presumably purchased or retained as a child among the female slaves that Abram obtained when he and Sarai were in Egypt (Genesis 12:10, 16). About ten years later (16:3), Hagar would be a teenager, in the flower of young womanhood. Sarai, still childless, proposed that Hagar could serve as surrogate mother, bearing children who would count as Sarai’s.

What did Hagar think of this arrangement? At age 15 or so, did she want to become the bedmate of a man of 85? Hagar’s wishes in this matter do not appear to have been considered. From a cultural perspective, her opinions had three strikes against them: she was an (1) Egyptian (2) slave (3) girl. Why would anyone even bother to ask what she thought?

Then she conceived. Sarai complained to Abram that now that Hagar was pregnant she looked on Sarai with contempt (16:5). I can see that it could have felt like that to Sarai, but I don’t know if that was real. It’s worth asking whether motherhood had suddenly shifted from being an abstract idea for Hagar, and now had become an astonishing reality. Her voice may have been full of wondrous emotion when she told Sarai, “I’m pregnant!” – but Sarai could have misread Hagar’s emotion as gloating. Even if it was typical teenage sass on Hagar’s part, I would like to hope that Sarai, a mature woman of 75, could have responded to Hagar’s emotional outburst with grown-up wisdom. But it mostly looks like a case of drama between two teens.

To escape from Sarai’s wrath Hagar fled into the wilderness, and there she encountered the angel of the Lord. She discovered that God had a plan and purpose for her and her unborn son. “She called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me” (16:13).

Abram and Sarai would become Abraham and Sarah, God’s chosen ancestors of the people of Israel, while Hagar would be a mostly forgotten footnote. But Hagar’s encounter with the presence of God should not be disregarded. Abram and Sarai use and discard this Egyptian slave girl, but she has seen and heard God, who sees and looks after her even when no one else does.

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Jesus granted the request of a Canaanite woman who had asked Jesus for healing for her daughter, across the boundaries of heritage and culture: “O woman, great is your faith. Let it be done for you as you desire” (Matthew 15:22-28).

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Like Hagar, O Lord, we have all had people make us do something we didn’t want to do, and then been blamed when the results didn’t turn out the way they wanted. Let us feel your presence in the midst of hard times, O God, knowing that you are the one who sees us and sustains us.

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