WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:03.040 There's a woman in the Bible who did something Abraham 2 00:00:03.120 --> 00:00:08.839 never did, Moses never did, David Solomon, and every prophet 3 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:12.400 after her never did. She looked at God, and she 4 00:00:12.519 --> 00:00:16.120 gave him a name, not a title. Someone taught her 5 00:00:16.679 --> 00:00:20.160 a personal name she invented in the moment, born from 6 00:00:20.239 --> 00:00:24.039 her own encounter with the divine, and the Biblical authors 7 00:00:24.120 --> 00:00:28.719 preserved it for over three thousand years. Her name was Hagar. 8 00:00:29.359 --> 00:00:32.200 If you grew up in church, you probably heard her 9 00:00:32.280 --> 00:00:37.119 mentioned once the footnote in Abraham's story. So why did 10 00:00:37.159 --> 00:00:39.880 God choose her to be the first person in all 11 00:00:39.920 --> 00:00:44.679 of Scripture visited by an angel? That question changes the 12 00:00:44.719 --> 00:00:48.079 way you read the entire Bible. If you'd asked anyone 13 00:00:48.119 --> 00:00:52.280 in the ancient Near East about Hagar around two thousand BCE, 14 00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:57.359 they would have told you she was property, not a person. Property. 15 00:00:57.920 --> 00:01:00.439 She was an Egyptian slave in the house sold of 16 00:01:00.439 --> 00:01:05.280 a wealthy nomadic chieftain named Abram before God changed his 17 00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:10.519 name to Abraham, and his wife Sarah before she became Sarah. 18 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:15.680 Now here's something most English Bibles completely miss. The Hebrew 19 00:01:15.719 --> 00:01:18.519 word used for Hagar in the early chapters of her 20 00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:23.480 story is shipcha, and that word is specific It doesn't 21 00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:27.920 just mean servant or handmaid the way your translation probably 22 00:01:27.959 --> 00:01:33.079 renders it. Shipcha refers to a female slave who belongs 23 00:01:33.079 --> 00:01:36.840 to another woman, not to the household, not to the husband, 24 00:01:37.319 --> 00:01:42.480 to the wife. Specifically, Hagar was Sarah's personal property. That 25 00:01:42.560 --> 00:01:46.560 distinction matters enormously because it tells us something about the 26 00:01:46.640 --> 00:01:50.719 power dynamics that get ignored in nearly every sermon you'll 27 00:01:50.719 --> 00:01:55.920 hear on this passage. Sarah had total authority over Hagar. 28 00:01:56.680 --> 00:02:02.040 Abraham didn't own her. Sarah did, and the decisions Sarah 29 00:02:02.079 --> 00:02:06.560 made about Hagar's body, her future, and her children were 30 00:02:06.640 --> 00:02:11.360 legally and culturally within her rights. Think about what that 31 00:02:11.439 --> 00:02:14.560 means for a second. In the world Hagar lived in, 32 00:02:14.879 --> 00:02:18.840 she had no legal standing, no voice, no ability to 33 00:02:18.919 --> 00:02:22.360 refuse an order. If Sarah told her to do something, 34 00:02:22.800 --> 00:02:26.639 she did it. If Sarah decided her fate, that fate 35 00:02:26.759 --> 00:02:30.159 was sealed, and the ancient world was full of women 36 00:02:30.280 --> 00:02:36.759 like Hagar. Egypt, Mesopotamia, Canaan. Every civilization in the Fertile 37 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:41.960 Crescent ran on slave labor. We know from archaeological records 38 00:02:42.280 --> 00:02:45.960 from clay tablets found in places like Nutzi and Mari 39 00:02:46.520 --> 00:02:50.840 in modern day Iraq, that female slaves were routinely given 40 00:02:50.879 --> 00:02:55.319 to wives as part of marriage dowries. Their bodies were 41 00:02:55.360 --> 00:03:00.280 considered an extension of their mistress's household resources. So when 42 00:03:00.360 --> 00:03:05.120 Genesis chapter sixteen opens with Sarah unable to conceive a child, 43 00:03:05.520 --> 00:03:09.719 and she turns to Hagar and says, essentially, you will 44 00:03:09.759 --> 00:03:14.560 bear a child for me, that wasn't unusual, It wasn't scandalous. 45 00:03:15.080 --> 00:03:19.159 It was standard legal practice across the ancient Near East. 46 00:03:19.879 --> 00:03:23.560 The Nutzie tablets from roughly the same period described this 47 00:03:23.759 --> 00:03:28.080 exact arrangement. A barren wife could give her female slave 48 00:03:28.159 --> 00:03:31.599 to her husband, and the child born from that union 49 00:03:31.960 --> 00:03:36.159 would legally belong to the wife, not the slave. Hagar 50 00:03:36.280 --> 00:03:39.879 had no choice in this none, And this is where 51 00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:43.479 you have to resist the temptation to sanitize this story. 52 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:47.319 A lot of Bible commentaries treat this moment as Abraham 53 00:03:47.360 --> 00:03:52.240 and Sarah making a reasonable decision within their cultural context, 54 00:03:52.879 --> 00:03:58.280 and culturally, yes, it was normal, But the text itself 55 00:03:58.400 --> 00:04:01.680 is doing something far more in interesting than just reporting 56 00:04:01.800 --> 00:04:06.439 cultural norms. The text is setting up a collision between 57 00:04:06.599 --> 00:04:10.120 human systems of power and God's habit of showing up 58 00:04:10.159 --> 00:04:14.919 exactly where human systems say he shouldn't, because here's the 59 00:04:14.960 --> 00:04:19.199 pattern that runs through the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. 60 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:23.639 God consistently shows up for the person at the bottom, 61 00:04:24.040 --> 00:04:27.800 the overlooked one, the discarded one, the one with no 62 00:04:28.040 --> 00:04:32.720 legal standing, no social power, no voice. And Hagar is 63 00:04:32.759 --> 00:04:36.279 the first time we see that pattern play out. Now, 64 00:04:36.600 --> 00:04:41.480 Sarah's plan works, at least on the surface. Hagar conceives 65 00:04:42.120 --> 00:04:47.319 she's carrying Abraham's child, and something shifts in the household dynamic. 66 00:04:48.240 --> 00:04:51.879 Genesis sixteen, verse four says that when Hagar knew she 67 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:56.680 was pregnant, her mistress was despised in her eyes. The 68 00:04:56.759 --> 00:05:01.120 Hebrew here is fascinating. The word is cut lal, and 69 00:05:01.199 --> 00:05:04.439 it can mean to despise, but it can also mean 70 00:05:04.480 --> 00:05:09.079 to become light, to become diminished. Some scholars read this 71 00:05:09.199 --> 00:05:14.000 not as Hagar actively disrespecting Sarah, but as Sarah losing weight, 72 00:05:14.439 --> 00:05:19.439 losing significance. In Hagar's perception. The power dynamic has shifted. 73 00:05:19.920 --> 00:05:24.519 Hagar is carrying the air Sarah isn't, and Sarah feels 74 00:05:24.560 --> 00:05:30.319 it immediately. What comes next is brutal. Genesis sixteen, verse 75 00:05:30.360 --> 00:05:34.680 six says Abraham tells Sarah, your slave is in your hands, 76 00:05:35.120 --> 00:05:38.120 do with her as you please. The Hebrew word for 77 00:05:38.160 --> 00:05:42.800 what Sarah does to Hagar is anna. Remember that word 78 00:05:42.839 --> 00:05:45.560 because it's going to come back later in the most 79 00:05:45.720 --> 00:05:51.839 unexpected way. Anna means to afflict, to oppress, to deal 80 00:05:51.920 --> 00:05:56.560 harshly with. It's the exact same word used in Exodus 81 00:05:56.839 --> 00:06:00.279 to describe what Egypt did to the Israelites June during 82 00:06:00.279 --> 00:06:05.759 their slavery. The irony is staggering. Sarah, the future mother 83 00:06:05.879 --> 00:06:09.000 of the nation that will be enslaved in Egypt, is 84 00:06:09.120 --> 00:06:14.720 using Egyptian level oppression against her own Egyptian slave. The 85 00:06:14.759 --> 00:06:18.800 text is drawing a direct linguistic line between Sarah's treatment 86 00:06:18.879 --> 00:06:24.040 of Hagar and Pharaoh's treatment of Israel. Nobody in Sunday 87 00:06:24.079 --> 00:06:28.279 School ever, mentions that and this is where Hagar does 88 00:06:28.319 --> 00:06:33.360 something extraordinary, something that in the ancient world was almost 89 00:06:33.480 --> 00:06:39.240 suicidal for a pregnant slave. She runs. Genesis sixteen, verse 90 00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:43.120 six says she fled from her face. She fled from 91 00:06:43.240 --> 00:06:48.720 Sarah's presence, a pregnant slave alone, heading south through the 92 00:06:48.759 --> 00:06:52.199 Negev Desert toward the road to Shur, which was the 93 00:06:52.279 --> 00:06:55.959 ancient trade route back to Egypt. She was trying to 94 00:06:56.040 --> 00:06:58.959 go home, back to a country she may have been 95 00:06:59.040 --> 00:07:02.160 taken from as an girl, back to the only other 96 00:07:02.240 --> 00:07:06.720 life she'd ever known. Think about the desperation required to 97 00:07:06.759 --> 00:07:11.199 make that decision. She's pregnant, She's in the desert. She 98 00:07:11.319 --> 00:07:15.639 has no water, no food, no protection. The Negev in 99 00:07:15.720 --> 00:07:20.120 that era was wild territory, full of bandits and predators. 100 00:07:20.680 --> 00:07:24.360 A woman alone on that road was almost certainly walking 101 00:07:24.399 --> 00:07:28.399 toward death. And this is the moment when something happens 102 00:07:28.399 --> 00:07:32.160 that had never happened before in the entire Biblical narrative. 103 00:07:32.920 --> 00:07:36.480 An angel shows up. Now we need to stop and 104 00:07:36.639 --> 00:07:40.519 understand something about what's happening here, because the text is 105 00:07:40.600 --> 00:07:45.240 doing something that the original audience would have found absolutely shocking. 106 00:07:46.160 --> 00:07:49.800 Up to this point in Genesis, God has spoken directly 107 00:07:49.839 --> 00:07:54.279 to Adam, to Eve, to Cain, to Noah, to Abraham. 108 00:07:54.879 --> 00:07:58.439 But every single one of those conversations followed a pattern. 109 00:07:59.079 --> 00:08:03.040 God spoke to people who had standing, people with names 110 00:08:03.079 --> 00:08:06.480 that carried weight, people who mattered in the social order, 111 00:08:07.040 --> 00:08:13.120 And in every case God spoke directly, no intermediary, no messenger. 112 00:08:13.800 --> 00:08:17.480 What happens here is different. For the very first time 113 00:08:17.519 --> 00:08:21.160 in the entire Bible, a figure called the Angel of 114 00:08:21.199 --> 00:08:26.639 the Lord appears. The Hebrew is Malach Yakwai, and this figure, 115 00:08:26.959 --> 00:08:30.399 this divine messenger, who will show up again and again 116 00:08:30.839 --> 00:08:35.279 throughout scripture, makes his first appearance, not to a patriarch, 117 00:08:35.720 --> 00:08:39.559 not to a priest, not to a king. He appears 118 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:43.000 to a pregnant runaway slave sitting by a spring in 119 00:08:43.039 --> 00:08:46.440 the middle of the desert. The Angel of the Lord 120 00:08:46.759 --> 00:08:49.440 finds her at a spring of water in the wilderness 121 00:08:49.960 --> 00:08:54.200 near the spring on the road to Shur, and the 122 00:08:54.279 --> 00:08:59.840 Angel asks her two questions, Hagar, servant of Sarai, where 123 00:08:59.840 --> 00:09:03.279 have you come from? And where are you going? Pay 124 00:09:03.320 --> 00:09:08.360 attention to what the angel calls her, Hagar, servant of Sarah. 125 00:09:09.320 --> 00:09:13.360 The angel uses her name. In the ancient world, slaves 126 00:09:13.399 --> 00:09:19.279 often weren't addressed by name. They were addressed by function. Girl, slave, 127 00:09:20.080 --> 00:09:23.120 you there, But the Angel calls her by her name 128 00:09:23.600 --> 00:09:27.799 and then identifies her relationship, not to diminish her, but 129 00:09:27.879 --> 00:09:30.919 to show that God knows exactly who she is and 130 00:09:31.080 --> 00:09:36.759 exactly what situation she's in. And Hagar answers, honestly, I'm 131 00:09:36.840 --> 00:09:40.679 running away from my mistress Sarah. She doesn't dress it up, 132 00:09:41.039 --> 00:09:45.600 doesn't make excuses, doesn't try to spin the situation she's 133 00:09:45.720 --> 00:09:49.840 fleeing abuse, and she says so directly. What the angel 134 00:09:49.919 --> 00:09:53.320 says next is complicated and we need to sit with 135 00:09:53.360 --> 00:09:56.120 it for a moment. The Angel tells her to go 136 00:09:56.200 --> 00:09:59.159 back and submit to Sarah, and I know that's hard 137 00:09:59.159 --> 00:10:02.519 to hear. It sounds like God is telling an abused 138 00:10:02.559 --> 00:10:07.240 woman to return to her abuser. And honestly, scholars have 139 00:10:07.320 --> 00:10:11.600 wrestled with this passage for centuries. But look at the context. 140 00:10:12.159 --> 00:10:16.440 Hagar is pregnant, alone in the desert, heading toward a 141 00:10:16.519 --> 00:10:21.120 journey of hundreds of miles through hostile territory. The likelihood 142 00:10:21.120 --> 00:10:24.879 of her surviving that trip and reaching Egypt was close 143 00:10:24.919 --> 00:10:29.440 to zero. And the Angel doesn't just say go back. 144 00:10:30.320 --> 00:10:33.600 The Angel gives her something nobody else in her world 145 00:10:33.639 --> 00:10:39.279 had given her, a promise. I will multiply your descendants 146 00:10:39.559 --> 00:10:44.159 so that they cannot be counted for multitude. Stop and 147 00:10:44.279 --> 00:10:48.000 think about who's receiving this promise. This is the same 148 00:10:48.120 --> 00:10:51.960 kind of promise God made to Abraham in Genesis fifteen. 149 00:10:52.879 --> 00:10:57.360 Look at the stars, so shall your offspring be. And 150 00:10:57.440 --> 00:11:01.039 now God is making an almost idea dentical promise to 151 00:11:01.120 --> 00:11:05.879 Abraham's Egyptian slave, a woman who in her society had 152 00:11:05.919 --> 00:11:10.399 no right to own property, make decisions, or claim descendants 153 00:11:10.399 --> 00:11:13.799 of her own. God is treating her like a matriarch. 154 00:11:14.480 --> 00:11:19.519 The angel continues, you are pregnant and will bear a son. 155 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:23.480 You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has 156 00:11:23.559 --> 00:11:29.120 heard your affliction. The name Ishmael in Hebrew, it's ishmah El. 157 00:11:29.840 --> 00:11:35.799 Y ishma means he hears, l means God. Ishmael literally 158 00:11:35.840 --> 00:11:39.639 translates to God hears, and look at what God heard. 159 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:43.639 He heard her affliction, and the word used for affliction 160 00:11:43.759 --> 00:11:47.360 here is on Ye, which comes from the same route 161 00:11:47.360 --> 00:11:51.240 as Anna, the word used to describe what Sarah did 162 00:11:51.279 --> 00:11:57.279 to her. The circle closes perfectly. Sarah afflicted Hagar. God 163 00:11:57.399 --> 00:12:00.519 heard the affliction, and the child's name will be a 164 00:12:00.559 --> 00:12:04.000 permanent reminder that when a slave cried out in pain, 165 00:12:04.559 --> 00:12:08.360 the God of Abraham was listening. This is the part 166 00:12:08.440 --> 00:12:12.320 of the story where most commentaries move on. They note 167 00:12:12.440 --> 00:12:18.039 the angel's appearance, summarize the promise, and get back to Abraham. 168 00:12:18.200 --> 00:12:21.720 But the text has one more moment, and it's arguably 169 00:12:21.799 --> 00:12:27.919 the most theologically significant verse in the entire chapter. Genesis sixteenth, 170 00:12:28.360 --> 00:12:32.120 verse thirteen. She gave this name to the Lord who 171 00:12:32.159 --> 00:12:36.000 spoke to her. You are el roy, for she said, 172 00:12:36.679 --> 00:12:40.440 I have now seen the one who sees me. Read 173 00:12:40.480 --> 00:12:44.840 that again slowly. She gave a name to God. In 174 00:12:44.960 --> 00:12:49.159 the ancient Near East, naming something meant you had authority 175 00:12:49.200 --> 00:12:52.320 over it, or at the very least, a relationship with 176 00:12:52.360 --> 00:12:56.559 it profound enough to define it. Adam named the animals, 177 00:12:57.240 --> 00:13:02.840 parents named children, conquer as renamed conquered cities. Naming was 178 00:13:02.879 --> 00:13:07.120 an act of power, of identity, of intimate knowledge, and 179 00:13:07.200 --> 00:13:12.159 a runaway Egyptian slave looks at the divine presence and says, 180 00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:17.879 you are el Roi. The Hebrew is dense with meaning 181 00:13:18.919 --> 00:13:23.480 l is God. Roi comes from the root ra' ah, 182 00:13:23.519 --> 00:13:27.720 which means to see. But Roi specifically can mean the 183 00:13:27.759 --> 00:13:30.799 one who sees me, or the God of my seeing, 184 00:13:31.279 --> 00:13:35.080 or even the God whom I have seen. The phrase 185 00:13:35.120 --> 00:13:41.080 works in multiple directions. Simultaneously, God sees her, she sees God. 186 00:13:41.639 --> 00:13:44.919 The seeing is mutual. No one else in the Bible 187 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:50.360 does this. Abraham didn't name God. Moses received God's name 188 00:13:50.440 --> 00:13:54.039 at the Burning Bush, but he didn't generate one. David 189 00:13:54.120 --> 00:13:57.360 praised God with many titles, but didn't coin a new 190 00:13:57.440 --> 00:14:02.279 name from personal experience. Hagar stands alone in all of 191 00:14:02.279 --> 00:14:06.320 Scripture as the only person who encountered the divine and 192 00:14:06.480 --> 00:14:11.480 responded by naming what she experienced and the name she chose. 193 00:14:12.200 --> 00:14:16.759 It wasn't about power, It wasn't about creation or judgment 194 00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:21.879 or sovereignty. It was about being seen. You are the 195 00:14:22.039 --> 00:14:25.799 God who sees me. Now, I want you to think 196 00:14:25.840 --> 00:14:29.759 about why that specific name, out of all possible names, 197 00:14:30.279 --> 00:14:33.519 was the one she chose. She could have said El Shadai, 198 00:14:33.960 --> 00:14:37.799 God Almighty if she was impressed by his power. She 199 00:14:37.879 --> 00:14:42.799 could have called him el Elion, God Most High if 200 00:14:42.919 --> 00:14:47.240 she was overwhelmed by his majesty. But she didn't reach 201 00:14:47.320 --> 00:14:51.559 for power words. She reached for intimacy. The thing that 202 00:14:51.720 --> 00:14:55.519 mattered most to Hagar, the thing that defined her experience 203 00:14:55.600 --> 00:15:00.240 of the divine, was that she had been seen by someone, 204 00:15:00.679 --> 00:15:04.879 by any one. After a life of being invisible, of 205 00:15:04.960 --> 00:15:09.399 being property, of being a body used for someone else's purposes, 206 00:15:09.960 --> 00:15:13.600 the most radical thing God could do was simply look 207 00:15:13.639 --> 00:15:18.240 at her, and she recognized it immediately. There's something here 208 00:15:18.279 --> 00:15:23.240 that goes beyond theology and ancient history, something that's probably 209 00:15:23.360 --> 00:15:26.960 hitting closer to home than you expected. Because if you've 210 00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:30.519 ever felt invisible. If you've ever been in a situation 211 00:15:30.879 --> 00:15:34.440 where nobody sees the real you, where you're just a function, 212 00:15:34.679 --> 00:15:37.559 just a role, just a means to someone else's end, 213 00:15:38.200 --> 00:15:43.159 then Hagar's name for God isn't academic. It's personal. Elroy, 214 00:15:43.759 --> 00:15:47.480 the God who sees me, not the collective me, not 215 00:15:47.720 --> 00:15:53.600 the generic humanity, me specifically individually, with all my mess, 216 00:15:53.840 --> 00:15:57.960 all my running, all my desperation. That's the God Hagar 217 00:15:58.120 --> 00:16:02.039 discovered in the desert, and she marks the spot. She 218 00:16:02.200 --> 00:16:07.000 names the well bier Lahiroi, which translates to the well 219 00:16:07.080 --> 00:16:10.559 of the living One who sees me. This well becomes 220 00:16:10.600 --> 00:16:15.240 a real geographical landmark in the biblical narrative. It shows 221 00:16:15.320 --> 00:16:20.639 up again later, and who eventually chooses to live near 222 00:16:20.720 --> 00:16:26.200 this well Isaac, Abraham's other son, the son of the 223 00:16:26.279 --> 00:16:29.840 very woman who drove Hagar into the desert. Isaac makes 224 00:16:29.879 --> 00:16:33.159 his home at the well that Hagar named. The text 225 00:16:33.360 --> 00:16:38.080 never explains why Isaac chose that location, but the symbolism 226 00:16:38.279 --> 00:16:41.799 is extraordinary. The son of the promise settles at the 227 00:16:41.799 --> 00:16:45.759 place where the rejected woman met God. Pay attention to 228 00:16:45.840 --> 00:16:50.279 this next detail because it explains everything about what comes later. 229 00:16:50.879 --> 00:16:55.559 Hagar goes back She returns to Abraham's household and gives 230 00:16:55.600 --> 00:17:00.120 birth to Ishmael, and for about thirteen years everything is 231 00:17:00.159 --> 00:17:05.240 relatively calm. Ishmael grows up as Abraham's first born son. 232 00:17:05.799 --> 00:17:10.400 Abraham loves him. Genesis seventeen makes that clear when Abraham 233 00:17:10.440 --> 00:17:14.599 pleads with God, if only Ishmael might live under your blessing, 234 00:17:15.160 --> 00:17:20.039 Abraham isn't just tolerating this child. He loves him. But 235 00:17:20.160 --> 00:17:25.279 during those thirteen years, something changes in Hagar's status that 236 00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:31.720 the original Hebrew tracts but our translations completely miss. Remember 237 00:17:31.759 --> 00:17:34.720 when I said to pay attention to the word shipcha. 238 00:17:35.519 --> 00:17:39.240 In the early part of the story, Hagar is called Shipcha, 239 00:17:39.799 --> 00:17:44.400 a female slave belonging to Sarah. But after Ishmael is born, 240 00:17:44.720 --> 00:17:50.000 the text starts shifting. In certain passages, Hagar is referred 241 00:17:50.039 --> 00:17:55.240 to as Ama instead. Amah is a different word entirely. 242 00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:00.400 While Shipcha means a slave who is property, Ama carries 243 00:18:00.440 --> 00:18:04.839 connotations of a secondary wife, a woman with some legal standing, 244 00:18:05.279 --> 00:18:10.559 someone whose children have inheritance rights. The shift from ship 245 00:18:10.799 --> 00:18:17.039 Char to Armah tracks Hagar's changing position in the household. 246 00:18:17.799 --> 00:18:22.119 She's still subordinate to Sarah, but she's no longer just property. 247 00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:26.359 She's the mother of Abraham's son, and in the ancient 248 00:18:26.559 --> 00:18:30.480 Near East, that came with a degree of protection and status. 249 00:18:31.480 --> 00:18:36.960 English bibles translate both words as servant or slave or handmaid. 250 00:18:37.559 --> 00:18:41.359 You lose the entire arc. You lose the fact that 251 00:18:41.400 --> 00:18:45.599 the text itself is tracking Hagar's slow ascent from object 252 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:49.559 to person. The Hebrew writers were doing something deliberate here, 253 00:18:49.960 --> 00:18:54.640 and our translations flatten it completely. Then God drops a 254 00:18:54.720 --> 00:19:00.519 bombshell Genesis seventeen. God tells Abraham that Sarah will bear 255 00:19:00.559 --> 00:19:04.680 a son. His name will be Isaac, and the Covenant, 256 00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:08.440 the promise God made to Abraham about becoming a great nation, 257 00:19:08.960 --> 00:19:14.160 will pass through Isaac, not Ishmael. Abraham is ninety nine 258 00:19:14.279 --> 00:19:19.480 years old, Sarah is ninety and Abraham laughs. The text 259 00:19:19.519 --> 00:19:23.160 says he fell on his face and laughed. The Hebrew 260 00:19:23.200 --> 00:19:26.279 word for laught is t sachak, and it's going to 261 00:19:26.319 --> 00:19:31.720 become important because Isaac's name yet Shakh, comes from the 262 00:19:31.759 --> 00:19:37.480 same route. Isaac literally means he laughs. The laughter is 263 00:19:37.519 --> 00:19:42.759 baked into his identity. Isaac is born, and the celebration 264 00:19:42.960 --> 00:19:46.480 is massive. Abraham throws a great feast on the day 265 00:19:46.559 --> 00:19:50.079 Isaac is weaned, which in the ancient Near East, could 266 00:19:50.119 --> 00:19:52.680 have been when the child was two or three years old. 267 00:19:53.359 --> 00:19:57.119 This was a big deal. The heir of the promise 268 00:19:57.359 --> 00:20:02.559 has arrived. The impossible has happen. And then Sarah sees 269 00:20:02.599 --> 00:20:09.160 something that reignites the entire conflict. Genesis twenty one, verse nine, 270 00:20:09.200 --> 00:20:14.240 Sarah sees Ishmael metzachk that word again. The route is 271 00:20:14.480 --> 00:20:20.559 sachak to laugh. Sarah sees Ishmael laughing or playing or mocking. 272 00:20:20.960 --> 00:20:24.839 The Hebrew is deliberately ambiguous, and translators have fought over 273 00:20:24.880 --> 00:20:30.039 it for centuries. Some translations say Ishmael was mocking Isaac, 274 00:20:30.599 --> 00:20:34.240 Others say he was playing with Isaac. Others say he 275 00:20:34.400 --> 00:20:39.440 was simply laughing. The Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of 276 00:20:39.480 --> 00:20:44.200 the Hebrew Bible, adds with her son Isaac, making it 277 00:20:44.279 --> 00:20:47.519 sound like the two boys were playing together. But the 278 00:20:47.640 --> 00:20:53.359 ambiguity is the point. Sarah's reaction is disproportionate, regardless of 279 00:20:53.359 --> 00:20:57.880 what Ishmael was actually doing. Because what Sarah says next 280 00:20:58.240 --> 00:21:02.400 is devastating us. Doubt this slave woman and her son, 281 00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:05.559 For the son of this slave woman shall not be 282 00:21:05.759 --> 00:21:11.160 heir with my son Isaac. Notice the language Sarah doesn't 283 00:21:11.160 --> 00:21:16.160 say Hagar's name. She says this slave woman. She strips 284 00:21:16.200 --> 00:21:19.960 Hagar of her identity and reduces her back to her function. 285 00:21:20.559 --> 00:21:24.960 And she doesn't say Ishmael. She says the son of 286 00:21:25.039 --> 00:21:29.440 this slave woman. She won't even name them. She's dehumanizing 287 00:21:29.480 --> 00:21:33.680 them in language before she dehumanizes them in action. And 288 00:21:33.799 --> 00:21:38.519 look at what's driving Sarah here. It's not theology, it's 289 00:21:38.599 --> 00:21:43.839 not faith, it's inheritance law. She's terrified that Ishmael will 290 00:21:43.880 --> 00:21:48.079 claim a share of Abraham's wealth alongside Isaac. This is 291 00:21:48.119 --> 00:21:52.559 a property dispute dressed up as a family conflict. Now 292 00:21:52.839 --> 00:21:57.640 Abraham is distraught. Genesis twenty one, verse eleven says the 293 00:21:57.640 --> 00:22:01.480 matter was very grievous in a Abraham's sight because of 294 00:22:01.519 --> 00:22:05.839 his son, not because of his slave, because of his son. 295 00:22:06.480 --> 00:22:10.599 Abraham loves Ishmael. He doesn't want to do this, but 296 00:22:10.799 --> 00:22:15.079 God tells Abraham to listen to Sarah. And the reason 297 00:22:15.160 --> 00:22:20.359 God gives is important. Through Isaac, shall your offspring be named, 298 00:22:20.960 --> 00:22:23.119 But I will also make a nation of the son 299 00:22:23.200 --> 00:22:29.240 of the slave woman, because he is your offspring. God 300 00:22:29.279 --> 00:22:34.880 acknowledges two things simultaneously. Isaac carries the covenant line and 301 00:22:35.039 --> 00:22:39.519 Ishmael is still Abraham's son and still entitled to a 302 00:22:39.559 --> 00:22:44.160 divine promise of his own. God doesn't throw Ishmael away. 303 00:22:44.799 --> 00:22:48.799 God extends a separate promise to him. This isn't God 304 00:22:48.880 --> 00:22:52.680 choosing one and rejecting the other. It's God creating two 305 00:22:52.799 --> 00:22:56.400 paths from one family. And this is where the story 306 00:22:56.559 --> 00:23:01.119 enters its darkest chapter. Abraham gets up early in the morning. 307 00:23:01.680 --> 00:23:04.720 He takes bread and a skin of water. He puts 308 00:23:04.759 --> 00:23:07.920 them on Hagar's shoulder, and he gives her the child 309 00:23:08.240 --> 00:23:12.920 and sends them away. Read that scene carefully. Bread and 310 00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:17.039 a skin of water. That's it for a journey into 311 00:23:17.079 --> 00:23:21.599 the wilderness of Beersheba. Abraham, one of the wealthiest men 312 00:23:21.680 --> 00:23:25.240 in Canaan, a man who had hundreds of servants and 313 00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:28.920 vast herds of livestock, sends the mother of his first 314 00:23:29.000 --> 00:23:32.400 born son into the desert with bread and a canteen. 315 00:23:33.400 --> 00:23:37.880 Was he being cruel? Was he following God's instruction precisely? 316 00:23:37.920 --> 00:23:42.359 And no further? Was he afraid of Sarah? The text 317 00:23:42.599 --> 00:23:45.680 doesn't tell us what Abraham was feeling in that moment 318 00:23:45.799 --> 00:23:50.079 beyond grief, but the meagerness of what he provides is striking. 319 00:23:50.839 --> 00:23:53.640 He gives her enough to survive a day or two, 320 00:23:53.920 --> 00:23:58.599 not enough to build a life, and Hagar walks into 321 00:23:58.640 --> 00:24:03.119 the desert again for the second time in her story. 322 00:24:03.519 --> 00:24:07.480 She's in the wilderness, but this time is different. The 323 00:24:07.519 --> 00:24:11.440 first time she ran by choice. She was fleeing abuse, 324 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:15.799 and she still had agency. She chose to leave, She 325 00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:20.359 chose the direction. She chose the road to Egypt. This time, 326 00:24:20.599 --> 00:24:24.640 she's been expelled. She didn't choose to leave. She was 327 00:24:24.720 --> 00:24:28.599 cast out. The Hebrew word is garash, and it's a 328 00:24:28.680 --> 00:24:33.599 legal term. It means to drive out, to divorce, to banish. 329 00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:37.200 It's the same word used when God banished Adam and 330 00:24:37.240 --> 00:24:40.960 Eve from the Garden of Eden, the same word used 331 00:24:40.960 --> 00:24:45.920 when nations drive out their enemies. Hagar isn't running this time. 332 00:24:46.319 --> 00:24:51.319 She's been thrown away the wilderness of Beersheba. If you've 333 00:24:51.319 --> 00:24:54.759 ever seen photos of the Negev Desert in southern Israel, 334 00:24:55.240 --> 00:24:59.039 you know what this landscape looks like. Dry river beds 335 00:24:59.160 --> 00:25:04.200 called wadis that haven't seen water in months, Rocky terrain 336 00:25:04.839 --> 00:25:08.759 stretching to the horizon, heat that turns the air into 337 00:25:08.880 --> 00:25:14.160 visible waves, and silence, the kind of silence that makes 338 00:25:14.160 --> 00:25:18.519 you hear your own heart beat. Hagar wanders in this wilderness. 339 00:25:19.079 --> 00:25:22.160 The text says, the water in the skin ran out, 340 00:25:22.559 --> 00:25:25.319 and she places her son under one of the desert 341 00:25:25.400 --> 00:25:30.240 shrubs for shade. Now there's a detail here that scholars debate. 342 00:25:30.960 --> 00:25:34.839 Ishmael at this point should be around sixteen or seventeen 343 00:25:34.960 --> 00:25:39.039 years old, given the timeline in Genesis, he was born 344 00:25:39.119 --> 00:25:42.920 when Abraham was eighty six, and Abraham was one hundred 345 00:25:42.960 --> 00:25:47.519 when Isaac was born. Isaac's weaning feast happened two or 346 00:25:47.559 --> 00:25:52.160 three years later. So Ishmael is a teenager that the 347 00:25:52.200 --> 00:25:56.319 Hebrew text in Genesis twenty one describes him almost as 348 00:25:56.319 --> 00:25:59.920 if he's a small child. Hagar casts him under the 349 00:26:01.119 --> 00:26:04.680 She sits down a bow shot away because she doesn't 350 00:26:04.759 --> 00:26:08.000 want to watch him die. Some scholars think this is 351 00:26:08.039 --> 00:26:12.400 a narrative compression, the author treating Ishmael's age loosely to 352 00:26:12.519 --> 00:26:17.000 heighten the emotional impact. Others think the Hebrew verbs suggest 353 00:26:17.000 --> 00:26:22.000 a teenager who has collapsed from dehydration, and Hagar positions 354 00:26:22.119 --> 00:26:26.240 him in the best shade she can find before backing away. 355 00:26:27.119 --> 00:26:32.440 Either reading works, The emotional core is the same. Hagar 356 00:26:32.640 --> 00:26:36.160 sits down about one hundred yards away, and she lifts 357 00:26:36.160 --> 00:26:40.079 her voice and weeps. The Hebrew word here is baka. 358 00:26:40.920 --> 00:26:45.079 It means to weep openly, loudly, with full body grief. 359 00:26:46.079 --> 00:26:49.279 This isn't silent tears. This is the sound of a 360 00:26:49.359 --> 00:26:52.039 mother who has accepted that her child is going to 361 00:26:52.119 --> 00:26:56.119 die and she cannot stop it. She's been here before, 362 00:26:56.880 --> 00:27:00.000 fourteen or fifteen years ago. She sat by a way 363 00:27:00.119 --> 00:27:04.000 well in this same kind of wilderness, pregnant and alone 364 00:27:04.039 --> 00:27:09.559 and running. And God showed up. God spoke, God made promises. 365 00:27:10.119 --> 00:27:13.799 God saw her. But this time she doesn't call out 366 00:27:13.799 --> 00:27:18.319 to God. She doesn't pray, she doesn't invoke el Roy, 367 00:27:18.920 --> 00:27:22.960 the name she herself gave to the divine. She just cries. 368 00:27:23.640 --> 00:27:27.920 And the text does something unexpected. Instead of saying that 369 00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:32.920 God heard Hagar's weeping, Genesis twenty one, verse seventeen says 370 00:27:33.599 --> 00:27:38.359 God heard the voice of the boy Ishmael. God hears. 371 00:27:39.400 --> 00:27:42.680 The boy whose very name means God hears, is the 372 00:27:42.720 --> 00:27:46.359 one whose voice God responds to in this moment. The 373 00:27:46.440 --> 00:27:50.400 name Hagar was given back in chapter sixteen. The name 374 00:27:50.440 --> 00:27:55.160 that encodes God's attention to suffering activates here in the wilderness, 375 00:27:55.680 --> 00:28:00.440 like a stored promise finally being cashed in and God's speaks, 376 00:28:01.079 --> 00:28:04.759 but not to Hagar directly. This time, the Angel of 377 00:28:04.799 --> 00:28:09.119 God calls from heaven and says, what is the matter, Hagar, 378 00:28:09.880 --> 00:28:13.440 Do not be afraid. God has heard the boy crying 379 00:28:13.480 --> 00:28:16.480 as he lies there. Lift the boy up and take 380 00:28:16.559 --> 00:28:19.599 him by the hand, for I will make him into 381 00:28:19.640 --> 00:28:24.680 a great nation. Two things to notice. First, the Angel 382 00:28:24.759 --> 00:28:28.359 calls her by name again, just like the first encounter, 383 00:28:28.960 --> 00:28:32.400 in a world where she's been reduced to that slave woman, 384 00:28:32.920 --> 00:28:37.599 God's messenger uses her name. Second, the promise from chapter 385 00:28:37.720 --> 00:28:42.799 sixteen is repeated, I will make him into a great nation. 386 00:28:43.920 --> 00:28:47.880 The promise didn't expire when she was expelled, it didn't 387 00:28:47.880 --> 00:28:52.720 get revoked when Sarah demanded her removal. It's still active. 388 00:28:53.400 --> 00:28:57.599 And then comes verse nineteen, one of the most quietly 389 00:28:57.720 --> 00:29:02.279 devastating verses in the Hebrew by Bble. Then God opened 390 00:29:02.279 --> 00:29:07.519 her eyes and she saw a well of water. The 391 00:29:07.559 --> 00:29:10.880 well was already there. It was there the whole time. 392 00:29:11.440 --> 00:29:15.519 Hagar was sitting in the desert, dying of thirst, weeping 393 00:29:15.559 --> 00:29:18.559 over her child, and there was a well within sight 394 00:29:18.640 --> 00:29:22.359 the whole time. She just couldn't see it. The Hebrew 395 00:29:22.440 --> 00:29:27.119 verb is pakatch, which means to open, specifically to open 396 00:29:27.160 --> 00:29:30.960 eyes that were closed or blinded. It's the same word 397 00:29:31.079 --> 00:29:34.559 used when God opens the eyes of Elisha's servant to 398 00:29:34.640 --> 00:29:38.519 see the armies of Heaven in Second Kings. It's the 399 00:29:38.559 --> 00:29:43.559 word for removing a veil, for shifting perception, for revealing 400 00:29:43.599 --> 00:29:47.920 what was present but hidden. The well was already there. 401 00:29:48.759 --> 00:29:52.119