And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son’s name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael.
Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian slave, bore a son to Abram, and Abram gave him the name Ishmael. His birth came from Abram and Sarai trying by a human plan to bring about God's promise because they distrusted it and thought it needed their help. He was born after the flesh through the natural course, not the promised son through whom the covenant and the Seed would come, who still had to be born through Sarah by faith by God's power. Hagar the bondwoman and Sarah the freewoman with their sons, read with Galatians 4:21-30, represent the two covenants, bondage under the covenant from Mount Sinai answering to Jerusalem which now is, and freedom by promise by the Spirit belonging to Jerusalem which is above. The contrast teaches that justification and salvation come through God's promises in Jesus Christ and not through human effort and works, while the taking of Hagar stands as a violation of the marriage institution showing the unhappiness of polygamy.
Setting and Plain Sense
Hagar bore a son to Abram, and Abram called the name of his son whom Hagar bore Ishmael. This is part of the account of Abraham's two sons, the one by the bondwoman and the one by the freewoman, which Paul uses in Galatians 4 to illustrate the contrast between the son born by the handmaid and the son born by the freewoman, supplying the historical event behind the later reference to the two sons as figures of the two covenants. The verse belongs to God's call to Abram and his sojourn and trials of faith, with constant evidences of God's overruling providence. It falls within God's progressive and providential dealings with Abraham's family, the family chosen as progenitor of the Seed, and is to be read with the Promised Seed in mind. Abraham did not come at once to fullness of faith but learned the lesson over and over, pressing the question whether readers are children of Abraham. In order these events come after Abram's sojourn in Egypt, his return to Bethel and Ai, his separation from Lot, the promise of land and seed as innumerable as the dust of the earth, the rescue of Lot, the meeting with Melchizedek, and the covenant concerning his literal seed and possession of the land, and they lead directly to the covenant lesson that follows. The chapter containing the verse gives the account of Ishmael's birth, Sarai's jealousy, and the sending away of Hagar and her son. The birth belongs to an account in which God sees Hagar in the wilderness and supplies her need, and God's seeing her is comfort and care, not condemnation. Hagar was Sarah's Egyptian handmaid and slave, so Ishmael was born into bondage and not as a free-born son. Before he was born God had told Abraham that Eliezer, though a servant in his household, would not be his heir. Ishmael was born through human scheming to obtain the promised heir, and Abraham for a time regarded him as the promised seed until God corrected him and promised that Sarah would bear Isaac, an experience marked by doubting God.
Covenant Meaning and Doctrine
Ishmael was born because Abram and Sarai tried to bring about God's promise by a human plan, thinking the promise needed their help, and that arrangement came from unbelief and distrust and human weakness and temporary lack of faith. Abram took Hagar after accepting Sarai's plan, and the promised child still had to be born afterward through Sarah by faith. The birth through the natural course was reliance on human planning and effort to accomplish what God had promised to do.
That human arrangement brought trouble, seen when Hagar's pregnancy led to contempt for Sarai followed by Sarai driving her out. The same history includes Sarai's jealousy and the sending away of Hagar and her son. Later Abram sent Ishmael away to wander in the wilderness when God required it, and the separation grieved him and tested his faith.
Ishmael was the son of that human arrangement, born after the flesh through a course different from what God purposed, and not the son through whom God's promised seed and covenant would come. His birth contrasts with Isaac's birth to Sarah by God's promise and power, and Ishmael showed a hostile spirit toward the son who was the child of promise. He was therefore presented as a figure of bondage rather than the heir through whom the covenant seed would be called.
The account of Abraham's two sons is where the study of the two covenants begins, and it must be read together with Galatians 4:21-30, beginning with Genesis 15:18 and continuing through Genesis 16, 17, and 21. Hagar the bondwoman and Sarah the freewoman represent the two covenants, and their sons represent the children of those covenants. The two sons serve as figures in an allegory about two systems and about literal and true Israel, contrasting the son born by the handmaid with the son born by the freewoman.
In that allegory Hagar is the covenant from Mount Sinai which genders to bondage and answers to Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children. Opposite to this stands Isaac's birth by the free woman, which was by promise and by the Spirit and belongs to Jerusalem which is above, which is free and the mother of all. As the one born after the flesh Ishmael persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, and the rule of Scripture is that the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman, so the bondwoman and her son must be cast out and believers are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.
As the child of the bondwoman Ishmael represents bondage and reliance on human works and effort, including the old covenant at Sinai, which cannot save and leads to bondage rather than making people children of promise. He represents those who seek justification by the law and try to earn it themselves, in contrast to Isaac, who came through God's promise and power and represents freedom. The contrast teaches that justification and salvation come through God's promises in Jesus Christ, not through human effort, and obedience follows receiving life and salvation rather than earning them.
Fleshly descent from Abraham does not decide who is Israel and who is entitled to the promises. Though the Arabs descended from Ishmael are lineal descendants of Abraham according to the flesh, they are not reckoned as Israel entitled to the promises, any more than the descendants of Abraham by Keturah or the Edomites descended from Esau, proving that some other principle besides lineal descent decides. Ishmael is also identified as the line through which the Abyssinians are said to descend from Abraham.
Moral Lessons and Application
The taking of Hagar recorded in Genesis 16 is a plain violation of the marriage institution by a patriarch. Abraham's household stands as an instance of the unhappiness caused by polygamy. That practice is evil and wrong and is not an acceptable arrangement.
Such violation does not lessen or destroy the sacred character of marriage. Marriage was made for humanity before the Fall, and its sanctity is not derived from the Decalogue but existed before the law was given. The seventh commandment guards the sacredness of marriage just as the fourth commandment guards the sacredness of the Sabbath, and the same principle that applies to marriage applies to the Sabbath.
The birth of Ishmael shows the Sabbath was in existence and was kept at least a month before the covenant made at Horeb. The Sabbath was therefore binding before that covenant was made. The obligation of the Sabbath did not originate with the covenant at Horeb.
Abram took Hagar as wife because he distrusted God's promise and tried to bring about its fulfillment himself. He did not come at once to fullness of faith but learned the lesson over and over amid constant evidences of God's overruling providence. Later, when God required it, he sent Ishmael away to wander in the wilderness, and the separation grieved him and tested his faith. The account presses the question whether readers are children of Abraham.
Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian slave, bore a son to Abram, and Abram gave him the name Ishmael. His birth came from Abram and Sarai trying by a human plan to bring about God's promise because they distrusted it and thought it needed their help. He was born after the flesh through the natural course, not the promised son through whom the covenant and the Seed would come, who still had to be born through Sarah by faith by God's power. Hagar the bondwoman and Sarah the freewoman with their sons, read with Galatians 4:21-30, represent the two covenants, bondage under the covenant from Mount Sinai answering to Jerusalem which now is, and freedom by promise by the Spirit belonging to Jerusalem which is above. The contrast teaches that justification and salvation come through God's promises in Jesus Christ and not through human effort and works, while the taking of Hagar stands as a violation of the marriage institution showing the unhappiness of polygamy.
Setting and Plain Sense
Hagar bore a son to Abram, and Abram called the name of his son whom Hagar bore Ishmael. This is part of the account of Abraham's two sons, the one by the bondwoman and the one by the freewoman, which Paul uses in Galatians 4 to illustrate the contrast between the son born by the handmaid and the son born by the freewoman, supplying the historical event behind the later reference to the two sons as figures of the two covenants.
The verse belongs to God's call to Abram and his sojourn and trials of faith, with constant evidences of God's overruling providence. It falls within God's progressive and providential dealings with Abraham's family, the family chosen as progenitor of the Seed, and is to be read with the Promised Seed in mind. Abraham did not come at once to fullness of faith but learned the lesson over and over, pressing the question whether readers are children of Abraham.
In order these events come after Abram's sojourn in Egypt, his return to Bethel and Ai, his separation from Lot, the promise of land and seed as innumerable as the dust of the earth, the rescue of Lot, the meeting with Melchizedek, and the covenant concerning his literal seed and possession of the land, and they lead directly to the covenant lesson that follows. The chapter containing the verse gives the account of Ishmael's birth, Sarai's jealousy, and the sending away of Hagar and her son. The birth belongs to an account in which God sees Hagar in the wilderness and supplies her need, and God's seeing her is comfort and care, not condemnation.
Hagar was Sarah's Egyptian handmaid and slave, so Ishmael was born into bondage and not as a free-born son. Before he was born God had told Abraham that Eliezer, though a servant in his household, would not be his heir. Ishmael was born through human scheming to obtain the promised heir, and Abraham for a time regarded him as the promised seed until God corrected him and promised that Sarah would bear Isaac, an experience marked by doubting God.
Covenant Meaning and Doctrine
Ishmael was born because Abram and Sarai tried to bring about God's promise by a human plan, thinking the promise needed their help, and that arrangement came from unbelief and distrust and human weakness and temporary lack of faith. Abram took Hagar after accepting Sarai's plan, and the promised child still had to be born afterward through Sarah by faith. The birth through the natural course was reliance on human planning and effort to accomplish what God had promised to do.
That human arrangement brought trouble, seen when Hagar's pregnancy led to contempt for Sarai followed by Sarai driving her out. The same history includes Sarai's jealousy and the sending away of Hagar and her son. Later Abram sent Ishmael away to wander in the wilderness when God required it, and the separation grieved him and tested his faith.
Ishmael was the son of that human arrangement, born after the flesh through a course different from what God purposed, and not the son through whom God's promised seed and covenant would come. His birth contrasts with Isaac's birth to Sarah by God's promise and power, and Ishmael showed a hostile spirit toward the son who was the child of promise. He was therefore presented as a figure of bondage rather than the heir through whom the covenant seed would be called.
The account of Abraham's two sons is where the study of the two covenants begins, and it must be read together with Galatians 4:21-30, beginning with Genesis 15:18 and continuing through Genesis 16, 17, and 21. Hagar the bondwoman and Sarah the freewoman represent the two covenants, and their sons represent the children of those covenants. The two sons serve as figures in an allegory about two systems and about literal and true Israel, contrasting the son born by the handmaid with the son born by the freewoman.
In that allegory Hagar is the covenant from Mount Sinai which genders to bondage and answers to Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children. Opposite to this stands Isaac's birth by the free woman, which was by promise and by the Spirit and belongs to Jerusalem which is above, which is free and the mother of all. As the one born after the flesh Ishmael persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, and the rule of Scripture is that the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman, so the bondwoman and her son must be cast out and believers are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.
As the child of the bondwoman Ishmael represents bondage and reliance on human works and effort, including the old covenant at Sinai, which cannot save and leads to bondage rather than making people children of promise. He represents those who seek justification by the law and try to earn it themselves, in contrast to Isaac, who came through God's promise and power and represents freedom. The contrast teaches that justification and salvation come through God's promises in Jesus Christ, not through human effort, and obedience follows receiving life and salvation rather than earning them.
Fleshly descent from Abraham does not decide who is Israel and who is entitled to the promises. Though the Arabs descended from Ishmael are lineal descendants of Abraham according to the flesh, they are not reckoned as Israel entitled to the promises, any more than the descendants of Abraham by Keturah or the Edomites descended from Esau, proving that some other principle besides lineal descent decides. Ishmael is also identified as the line through which the Abyssinians are said to descend from Abraham.
Moral Lessons and Application
The taking of Hagar recorded in Genesis 16 is a plain violation of the marriage institution by a patriarch. Abraham's household stands as an instance of the unhappiness caused by polygamy. That practice is evil and wrong and is not an acceptable arrangement.
Such violation does not lessen or destroy the sacred character of marriage. Marriage was made for humanity before the Fall, and its sanctity is not derived from the Decalogue but existed before the law was given. The seventh commandment guards the sacredness of marriage just as the fourth commandment guards the sacredness of the Sabbath, and the same principle that applies to marriage applies to the Sabbath.
The birth of Ishmael shows the Sabbath was in existence and was kept at least a month before the covenant made at Horeb. The Sabbath was therefore binding before that covenant was made. The obligation of the Sabbath did not originate with the covenant at Horeb.
Abram took Hagar as wife because he distrusted God's promise and tried to bring about its fulfillment himself. He did not come at once to fullness of faith but learned the lesson over and over amid constant evidences of God's overruling providence. Later, when God required it, he sent Ishmael away to wander in the wilderness, and the separation grieved him and tested his faith. The account presses the question whether readers are children of Abraham.