Genesis 16 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Genesis 16:1-6

1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, ‘The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.’

Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.

When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 5 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.’

6 ‘Your slave is in your hands,’ Abram said. ‘Do with her whatever you think best.’ Then Sarai ill-treated Hagar; so she fled from her.

A. Find Out:

1. Who suggested they take action to have children? v.1,2b
2. What reason did Sarai give for not being able to have children? v.2a
3. How did Abram respond to the suggestion? v.2c
4. How did Hagar react when she realized she was pregnant? v.4
5. How did Sarai then react? v.5a
6. How did Abram respond to this? v.6a
7. So what did Sarai do? v.6b

B. Think:

  In this passage we see a list of wrong behavior – which always results when people try to fulfil God’s purposes through their own scheming.  

1. How did Abram do wrong? (see v.2,6)
2. How did Sarai do wrong? (see v.2,5,6)
3. How did Hagar do wrong? (see v.4)

C. Comment:

This is a sad passage of Scripture. Sarai & Abram decide to take matters into their own hands (v.1.2), the results of which live on in the world today (the Arab nations who are still against Israel come from the baby that Hagar was carrying here!) Abram fails as a husband to stand for what is right (v.2c,6a). Sarai fails as a wife who badgers her husband into a wrong course of action (v.2). God has said HE will ensure Abram has children, and what Abram has yet to learn is that God means through Abram and his wife, not through a slave girl!

The amazing thing about this is that God ALLOWED this to happen, KNOWING what the long-term outcome would be. Perhaps He will yet use it for His own purposes. Watch history! Again and again God amazingly allows us to exercise our free wills, foolishly!

D. Application?

1. Let’s not be silly and say, “God won’t allow me to do what is wrong”. He has given you responsibility for the free will He has also given you!
2. Thank Him that He will even use our failures or the wrongs of others to His purposes. (see Genesis 50:20 and Romans 8:28)

Passage: Genesis 16:7-16

7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 8 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.

9 Then the angel of the Lord told her, ‘Go back to your mistress and submit to her.’ 10 The angel added, ‘I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.’

11 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. [Ishmael means God hears.]
    for the Lord has heard of your misery.
12 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
    towards] all his brothers.’

13 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.’ 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

15 So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

A. Find Out:    

1. What did the angel command Hagar to do? v.9
2. What did he promise Hagar? v.10
3. What did he say she should call her son? v.11
4. What (from the margin) does that mean? v.11
5. What did she realize about the Lord? v.13
6. How old was Abram when all this happened? v.16

B. Think:

1. Hagar was not God’s choice of mother for the nation He was going to raise up from Abram’s descendants, but He does honour her. How?
2. Why do you think the Lord sent her back to Abram?
3. What sort of man does the angel tell her Ishmael is going to be?

C. Comment:

The first thing we note is that the Lord did not leave Hagar to wander but sent His angel after her (v.7), to first of all make her face up to what she is doing (v.8). God wants honesty in us, even in facing our failures. Facing our failures is the first step in allowing the Lord to bring new direction and blessing into our lives! Perhaps by sending her back to Abram & Sarai (v.9), the Lord wants them to live with the consequences of their actions, as we said previously, especially when you think of the sort of man Ishmael is going to be! Ishmael is still Abram’s son, so God is still going to bless him!

The fact that the angel tells her what sort of man her son will be (v.12) doesn’t mean that God will MAKE him be like that but just that He KNOWS he will be turn out like that. Hagar suddenly realizes that God sees her all the time (v.13) and her understanding of God is enlarged, so she returned to Abram, as she had been instructed

D. Application:

1. Remember again that we have to live with the consequences of our actions – but the Lord will be there with us working it for good, but He does want us to be honest about where we are with Him!
2. Thank Him that He will be with you wherever you are, and His grace is available to you to help you cope (2 Corinthians 12:9) and his wisdom is there (James 1:5) to show you HOW to act.