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Genesis 16 — A runaway slave names God and nobody's ready for it
5 min read
nocap.bible editorialGod had made a massive — descendants as numerous as the stars. But years kept passing, and still had no children. Ten whole years in , and the nursery was still empty. At some point, waiting on God starts to feel like God forgot about you.
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So Sarai came up with a plan. And honestly? It made sense by the standards of the time. Culturally, this was a recognized workaround. But just because something is normalized doesn't mean it's God's plan — and this chapter is proof that taking shortcuts on God's promises creates chaos nobody is ready for.
had an servant named , and after a decade of nothing happening on the baby front, Sarai decided to take matters into her own hands:
"Look, the Lord has kept me from having kids. Go be with my servant — maybe I can build a family through her."
And ? He just... went along with it. No pushback, no "maybe we should pray about this," no waiting for clarification from the God who literally promised him this. He just said bet.
(Quick context: In the ancient Near East, a wife giving her servant to her husband for children was a recognized legal practice. It wasn't scandalous — it was strategic. But "culturally acceptable" and "God's plan" aren't always the same thing.) 🧠
got pregnant. And the second she realized it, the whole dynamic shifted. She started looking at with contempt — like, "I did what you couldn't." And Sarai was NOT having it:
"This is YOUR fault! I gave you my servant, and now she looks at me like I'm nothing. May the Lord judge between you and me!"
That's Sarai going full scorched earth on . And his response? Possibly the worst thing he could've said:
"She's your servant. Do whatever you want with her."
Abram completely fumbled here. He didn't protect Hagar, he didn't take responsibility, he just stepped back and let the situation implode. Sarai treated Hagar so harshly that Hagar did the only thing she could — she ran. Into the wilderness. Pregnant. Alone. This whole scene is lowkey heartbreaking. Nobody comes out looking good. 💔
Here's where this story takes a turn nobody expected. was out in the wilderness by a spring on the road to Shur — heading back toward , probably trying to get home. And that's where the of the Lord found her.
Not . Not . Not anyone with power or status. God showed up for the pregnant runaway servant that everyone else had either used or discarded.
"Hagar, servant of Sarai — where have you come from and where are you going?"
"I'm running from my mistress Sarai."
"Go back to your mistress and submit to her. But hear this — I will multiply your offspring so much they won't even be countable."
Real talk: the command to go back is hard to read. But God wasn't sending her back empty-handed. He was sending her back with a promise that changed everything — she wasn't just a servant anymore. She was the mother of a nation. ✨
The kept going, and what He said next was :
"You're pregnant, and you're going to have a son. Name him Ishmael — because the Lord has heard your pain. He's going to be wild and independent, living in conflict with everyone around him, and he'll hold his own against all his relatives."
The name literally means "God hears." Let that sink in. In a story where had zero voice, zero power, and zero status — God named her son after the fact that He was listening the whole time. Nobody else heard her cry. God did. No cap. 🫶
And then did something remarkable. She gave God a name — the only person in the entire Bible to do this:
"You are El Roi — the God who sees me."
She said, "I have actually seen the one who sees me." This woman — a foreign servant, pregnant, alone in the desert, completely powerless by every human measure — had a personal encounter with the living God. And her response wasn't fear. It was awe. She felt seen.
The well where this happened got named Beer-lahai-roi, which means "the well of the Living One who sees me." That place became a permanent marker: God doesn't just see the main characters. He sees everyone. 💯
went back, and she had her son. named him — just like the said. Abram was eighty-six years old.
The promised child — — wouldn't come for another fourteen years. This wasn't God's Plan A. But even in the middle of humanity's impatience and mess, God met a woman in the desert and made sure she knew: you are not invisible, and your son is not an accident. That's even in the detour. 🙏