People find it easy to criticize Sarai and Abram for their impatience in waiting for the son God promised them, but our insight is simply nothing more than hindsight. We aren’t any smarter or more faithful to God than they were.
Apostle Paul used as illustrations the two women, Sarai and Hagar, and the covenants God made with their sons, Isaac and Ishmael. Once you transgress a covenant, you have no hope, unless Someone better than you steps in with a second, better covenant.
A common perception of an “angel” is a cute winged chubby baby, something as innocuous as a fairy, or a passive messenger. “The angel of the LORD” — Malakh YHWH in Hebrew — is a quite different figure that shows up throughout the Bible with massive power and authority. Who is he?
This chapter is our introduction to Hagar, Sarai’s Egyptian maidservant. We see how Hagar was exalted and then brought down. When Hagar fled and was at her lowest point, we discover God had His eyes on Hagar and had a purpose for her and her unborn son.