Hagar(agar)
“Flight or stranger”
Summary
Hagar was Sarah's Egyptian handmaid who became Abraham's concubine and mother of Ishmael, later cast out but preserved by God, and who serves in Paul's allegory as a type of the old covenant of bondage.
☩Given to Abraham
Hagar was an Egyptian servant of Sarah, perhaps acquired during Abraham's sojourn in Egypt. After Sarah's long barrenness, she suggested that Abraham take Hagar as a secondary wife to produce an heir—a practice not uncommon in the East. When Hagar conceived, however, she began to despise her mistress, and Sarah complained to Abraham. Left to deal with Hagar as she pleased, Sarah treated her harshly, and Hagar fled toward Egypt.
☩The Angel's Appearance
Sitting by a fountain in the wilderness on the way to Shur, Hagar was found by the angel of the LORD. He remonstrated kindly with her and commanded her to return and submit to her mistress. He promised that her son Ishmael would become a great nation, though wild and contentious in character. Hagar called the LORD 'Thou God seest me,' marveling that she had seen God and lived. The well was named Beer-lahai-roi, 'the well of the living One who sees me.'
☩The Expulsion
Fourteen years later, at the feast celebrating Isaac's weaning, Ishmael mocked the young heir. Sarah demanded the expulsion of both Hagar and Ishmael. Though grievous to Abraham, God confirmed Sarah's demand. Abraham sent them away with bread and water; when these were exhausted in the wilderness of Beersheba, Hagar laid Ishmael under a bush to die. Her weeping brought the angel of God, who opened her eyes to see a well and renewed the promise of Ishmael's future greatness.
☩Paul's Allegory
Paul treats Hagar's story as an allegory in Galatians 4. Hagar the bondwoman represents the covenant from Sinai producing bondage—'this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia.' Sarah the freewoman represents the covenant of promise and the Jerusalem which is above, which is free. As Ishmael persecuted Isaac, so the natural seed persecutes the spiritual. The conclusion for believers: 'We are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free'—not under law but under grace.
Related Verses15 mentions
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Hagar," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. IV (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.F. N. Peloubet & M. A. Peloubet (ed.), "Hagar," in Smith's Bible Dictionary (Porter & Coates, 1884).
- 3.George Morrish, "Hagar," in Morrish's Concise Bible Dictionary (George Morrish, 1898).
- 4.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Hagar," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).