Genesis 16:7-12 And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.… 1. In the story of Hagar and her slave-wifehood we have an emblem of the Mosaic Dispensation, which God interposed parenthetically during the long waiting of His Church for the coming of Christ (Romans 5:20; Galatians 3:19). 2. "Hagar is a symbol of the expedients we make use of to win for ourselves what God seems unwilling to bestow — expedients not always glaringly sinful, but, though customary, yet not the best possible. And this episode warns us that from a Hagar can at best spring an Ishmael" (Dods). 3. This narrative solemnly calls us to guard against two apparently opposite sins which Abram and Sarai committed in the matter of Hagar, and which often meet still as temptations to the believer — the sin of distrust, and that of presumption. 4. In the appearance of the Angel of Jehovah to Hagar we have a beautiful example of God's tenderness towards the erring, and of His gracious readiness to forgive. 5. From Hagar's subsequent submission to her mistress we learn that while it is not in nature to rejoice in trial and persecution on their own account, yet so soon as we become persuaded that it is the Lord's will that we drink of this cup, and that there will be an abundant recompense hereafter, it does become possible for us to "glory in tribulations also." 6. Let us write upon our hearts this name of the Lord: "Thou God seest me." To do this is the sum of all religion, the centre of all security, and the source of all happiness. The God who sees us, and who permits us to look upon Himself, is the Angel of the Covenant, our Divine and Human Redeemer. May our eyes meet His every day! (Charles Jerdan, M. A. , LL. B.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. |
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