Genesis 16:12
He will be a wild donkey of a man, and his hand will be against everyone, and everyone's hand against him; he will live in hostility toward all his brothers."
Sermons
The National Character of the Arabs ForetoldJ. Aldis.Genesis 16:12
God's Presence with His PeopleGenesis 16:7-12
Goodness of God in AfflictionGenesis 16:7-12
HagarCharles Jerdan, M. A. , LL. B.Genesis 16:7-12
Hagar in the WildernessW. S. Smith, B. D.Genesis 16:7-12
Hagar in the WildernessWashington Gladden, D. D.Genesis 16:7-12
LessonsG. Hughes, B. D.Genesis 16:7-12
Nature and Office of AngelsProf. J. G. Murphy.Genesis 16:7-12
Providence and the OutcastT. H. Leale.Genesis 16:7-12
Submission EnjoinedJ. Parker, D. D.Genesis 16:7-12
The Angel's Message to HagarJ. O. Dykes, D. D.Genesis 16:7-12
The Angel's QuestionsA. Fuller.Genesis 16:7-12
The Beautiful ManGenesis 16:7-12
Water in the DesertGenesis 16:7-12
Glimpses of the GodheadW. Roberts Genesis 16:7-13
HagarR.A. Redford Genesis 16














"Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go?" She knew not, cared not. Undisciplined, smarting under effects of her own willfulness (Ver. 4), she thought only of escaping pain - a type of those weary, yet unconverted (cf. Jeremiah 51:13; Jeremiah 5:3). But God saw her. The Shepherd sought her (cf. Genesis 3:9; Luke 15:9). Though not of the chosen race, and having no claim upon his care, of his own mercy he calls her (cf. Psalm 145:9; Ephesians 2:4; Titus 3:5). The angel of the Lord; in Ver. 13 called the Lord; the messenger of the covenant (Malachi 3:1) - sent to carry out the Father's purpose (cf. John 3:17; Luke 4:18). The same who speaks in the voice of awakened conscience, that he may give peace (cf. Matthew 11:28). "Hagar, Sarai's maid," expresses God's full knowledge of her (cf. Exodus 33:12; John 10:3). The name distinguishes the individual. She a stranger, a slave, a fugitive; yet God's eye upon her; all her life before him (cf. Psalm 139:1-4). A word for those following their own ways, feeling as if hidden in the multitude. Nothing glaring in their lives; men see nothing to find fault with; will God? (cf. Psalm 94:7). He knows thee altogether; thy whole life, the selfishness underlying a fair profession, the unconfessed motives, the little duplicities, the love of worldly things; or it may be thy spiritual pride and self-trusting. He sees thee through. But wilt thou seek to escape the thought of him? For what does he search thee out? Is it not to bring thee to peace? A word of comfort to him who is cast down because of weakness in faith, little progress, want of spirituality. He sees all (cf. Luke 19:5). Not as man - men see the failures; God Sees the battle, the longing desire for better things, the prayers (Psalm 28:1; Psalm 130:1), the searching of heart, the sorrow because of failure. Even in the wilderness he is present to help (Galatians 6:9).

I. "WHENCE CAMEST THOU?" Is the wilderness better than the home thou hast left? (cf. Isaiah 5:4). Thou hast left safety and plenty (cf. Numbers 21:5), impatient of God's discipline. A goodly possession was thine - the place of a child (1 John 3:1), the right always to pray (Luke 18:1; John 15:7; Hebrews 4:16; James 4:2), the promise of guidance (Psalm 32:8; Isaiah 30:21). For what hast thou given up all this? Is thy present lot better? In deepest love these questions are asked. God pleads by providence (Psalm 119:67), by the entering of the word (Psalm 119:130; Hebrews 4:12), by the "still small voice" of the Holy Spirit.

II. "WHITHER WILT THOU GO?" How many have never really considered. Hast thou renounced thy heavenly portion? God forbid. Then is thy life heavenward? Are thy sins blotted out? Hast thou accepted the free gift of salvation? I am not sure of that. And why not? Is it not that thou hast not cared enough to entertain the question as a practical one? (cf. Ezekiel 20:49; Ezekiel 33:32). Meanwhile thou art not standing still. The day of grace is passing away (cf. Jeremiah 8:20). Still Christ pleads (Revelation 3:20). But day by day the ear becomes more dull, and the aims and habits of life more hard to change. "Return," was the Lord's word to Hagar. Take again thy place in God's family (cf. Luke 15:20). Fear not to bear thy cross. There is a welcome and joy in heaven over every returning wanderer. - M.

He will be a wild man.
I. THESE WORDS CONTAIN NOT A MERE CONTINGENT PROMISE, BUT A SPECIFIC PREDICTION OF FUTURE EVENTS. A bare announcement of what would be the physical, moral, and social condition of the person or persons to whom the passage refers.

II. THESE WORDS ARE INTENDED TO APPLY, NOT MERELY TO THE PERSONAL HISTORY AND CHARACTER OF ISHMAEL, BUT TO THE HISTORY AND CHARACTER OF HIS OFFSPRING. Some of the terms employed and some of the things affirmed are not only unintelligible, but absurd, if they are to be understood of Ishmael rather than of his offspring; for in what sense can it be affirmed, that "his hand was against every man, and every man's hand against him"? Individually, that strife at all events would very soon be brought to an end. How, either, could it be affirmed that he should "dwell in the presence of all his brethren," if a single dwelling, and that a tent in the wilderness, were the only thing intended to be set forth?

III. THE ARABIANS ARE THE DESCENDANTS OF ISHMAEL.

IV. THE ARABIANS HAVE EXEMPLIFIED IN THEIR WHOLE HISTORY AND CHARACTER ALL THE PECULIARITIES MENTIONED IN THIS PASSAGE. The term here employed is singularly strong in relation to the first part of the subject. That subject is divided into three particulars: the first, declarative of their freedom; the second, of their hostile dispositions; the third, of their numbers and their power.

1. Here, I say, you have a declaration concerning their freedom: "He will be a wild man." The language is peculiarly strong; and literally, the affirmation is, that Ishmael should be the same as the animal described in the thirty-ninth chapter of the Book of Job. There the word is literally rendered "the wild ass": and we read, "Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who has loosed the hands of the wild ass? whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings; he scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver; the range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth after every green thing." No terms could have been employed, more fitly or more vividly describing the roaming liberty, or, if you will, licentiousness of the entire Arab nation, whether you regard their internal condition or their external relation.

2. Secondly, we are assured not only of their freedom, but also of the singular hostility of their disposition: "His hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him." During the lapse of three thousand years, they have by turns assaulted all their neighbours, and been assaulted by them. At this present moment they seek not the alliance of the great or the small, the rich or the poor; they care not who wins or who loses in the strife of the world, if they can remain — the hated of the whole family of mankind besides. What is sacrificed or what is gained is to them matter of perfect indifference if still they may frown upon a world they deem their foe. This has been the case, while all other nations have passed through the phases of slavery and of freedom, of poverty and of wealth, of luxury and of hardihood, of disaster and of danger. Still the Arab is the same.

3. Thirdly, these words exhibit to us their numbers and their power. "I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren." Not an easy thing this, to affirm concerning any individual, in the early period of time to which reference is made. Few, indeed, could ever have attained to such distinction, because there are but few nations who ever arrive to any great degree of honour; much less to such a state of renown, as to secure observation in the pages of inspired truth, or in the general history of the world. Yet if you have been called upon, at all events, to point out those individuals, perhaps the very last you would have fixed upon would have been the son of that poor outcast slave, without a father, without a friend, without a prospect excepting the wilderness for his home. Yet these wanderers in the desert and amongst the rocks were the objects and the sources of surprise and of terror to their early neighbours. It was they who first gave to commerce its gold, its spices, its gems. It was they who furnished to the navies of Tyre that for which they were renowned. It was they who gave to monarchs that by which they decorated their halls and their palaces. It was they who gave to arms honour and renown, while with one hand they seized on the fertile plains of Egypt and with the other laid hold on the mountains of Assyria. Thus during successive ages did they continue dwelling in the presence of all their brethren; whether the Babylonian or the Macedonian, whether the Persian or the Roman swayed the destinies of the world, the Arab occupied the same position, and exerted to a great extent the same power. In later days, however, they came forth under another form, and their course was followed by far deadlier consequences. They lifted up in one hand the Koran, which they regarded as at once the product and the instrument of their great prophet, who said he came from God; with the other they brandished the sword, while nations trembled and fell. They passed off to the east — rushed through the turbid and impetuous waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris — and laid prostrate the millions of India, even to the walls of China. They passed to the north, swept the sacred shrines and hollow mummeries of Palestine; laid prostrate the cities and temples and towers of Greece — rushed through the Bosphorus — reared the tokens of their power, and at length became consolidated into a mighty empire, in the eastern part of Europe. They passed to the west — overflowed the plains of Egypt with more resistlessness than the waters of the Nile — dashed along the coast of Barbary — rolled away to Central and Western Africa — overleaped the pillars of Hercules and the barriers of Spain — planted the crescent on the walls of Grenada — illumined darkened Europe with a ray of science — and then returned, leaving the marks of their science and their power in arithmetical characters, used in every one of our schools. And so their history, so unique and so marvellous, has been interwoven with the history of all people, to gather from them all some increasing attestation of the truth of this book, the pillar on which our hopes rest; and resting where we can defy the dashing of every wave, assured that we are in the truth of Him, "in whose hand our breath is, and whose are all our ways."

(J. Aldis.)

People
Abram, Bered, Hagar, Ishmael, Sarai
Places
Beer-lahai-roi, Bered, Canaan, Egypt, Kadesh-barnea, Shur Desert
Topics
Ass, Brethren, Brothers, Donkey, Dwell, Dwelleth, East, Everyone's, Face, Hostility, Kinsmen, Man's, Mountain, One's, Opposite, Presence, Wild, Wild-ass
Outline
1. Sarai, being barren, gives Hagar to Abram.
4. Hagar, being afflicted for despising her mistress, runs away.
7. An angel commands her to return and submit herself,
10. promises her a numerous posterity,
12. and shows their character and condition.
13. Hagar names the place, and returns to Sarai.
15. Ishmael is born.
16. The age of Abram.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Genesis 16:12

     4633   donkey

Genesis 16:7-13

     1454   theophany

Genesis 16:9-12

     5661   brothers

Genesis 16:11-13

     1511   Trinity, relationships in

Library
Omniscience
Remember that, ye sons of men, ye are not unregarded; ye do not pass through this world in unseen obscurity. In darkest shades of night eyes glare on you through the gloom. In the brightness of the day angels are spectators of your labours. From heaven there look down upon you spirits who see all that finite beings are capable of beholding. But if we think that thought worth treasuring up, there is one which sums up that and drowns it, even as a drop is lost in the ocean; it is the thought, "Thou
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856

The Angel of the Lord in the Pentateuch, and the Book of Joshua.
The New Testament distinguishes between the hidden God and the revealed God--the Son or Logos--who is connected with the former by oneness of nature, and who from everlasting, and even at the creation itself, filled up the immeasurable distance between the Creator and the creation;--who has been the Mediator in all God's relations to the world;--who at all times, and even before He became man in Christ, has been the light of [Pg 116] the world,--and to whom, specially, was committed the direction
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

"Thou, God, Seest Me. " --Gen. xvi. 13
"Thou, God, seest me."--Gen. xvi. 13. O God, unseen, but not unknown, Thine eye is ever fix'd on me; I dwell beneath Thy secret throne, Encompass'd by Thy Deity. Throughout this universe of space, To nothing am I long allied, For flight of time and change of place, My strongest, dearest bonds divide. Parents I had, but where are they? Friends whom I knew, I know no more; Companions, once that cheer'd my way, Have dropp'd behind or gone before. Now I am one amidst a crowd Of life and action hurrying
James Montgomery—Sacred Poems and Hymns

The Pioneer's Influence Upon a Nation's Ideals.
ABRAHAM, THE TRADITIONAL FATHER OF HIS RACE.--Gen. 12:1-8; 13:1-13; 16; 18, 19; 21:7; 22:1-19. Parallel Readings. Hist. Bible I, 73-94. Prin of Pol., 160-175. Jehovah said to Abraham, Go forth from thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, to the land that I will show thee, that I may make of thee a great nation; and I will surely bless thee, and make thy name great, so that thou shalt be a blessing, I will also bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will
Charles Foster Kent—The Making of a Nation

The Incarnation.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that hath been made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not. There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for witness, that he might bear witness of the light, that all might believe through him. He was
Marcus Dods—The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. I

Appendix ii. Philo of Alexandria and Rabbinic Theology.
(Ad. vol. i. p. 42, note 4.) In comparing the allegorical Canons of Philo with those of Jewish traditionalism, we think first of all of the seven exegetical canons which are ascribed to Hillel. These bear chiefly the character of logical deductions, and as such were largely applied in the Halakhah. These seven canons were next expanded by R. Ishmael (in the first century) into thirteen, by the analysis of one of them (the 5th) into six, and the addition of this sound exegetical rule, that where two
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

The Doctrine of God
I. THE EXISTENCE OF GOD: (Vs. Atheism). 1. ASSUMED BY THE SCRIPTURES. 2. PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. a) Universal belief in the Existence of God. b) Cosmological:--Argument from Cause. c) Teleological:--Argument from Design. d) Ontological:--Argument from Being. e) Anthropological:--Moral Argument. f) Argument from Congruity. g) Argument from Scripture. II. THE NATURE OF GOD: (Vs. Agnosticism) 1. THE SPIRITUALITY OF GOD: (Vs. Materialism). 2. THE PERSONALITY OF GOD: (Vs. Pantheism). 3. THE UNITY
Rev. William Evans—The Great Doctrines of the Bible

Genesis
The Old Testament opens very impressively. In measured and dignified language it introduces the story of Israel's origin and settlement upon the land of Canaan (Gen.--Josh.) by the story of creation, i.-ii. 4a, and thus suggests, at the very beginning, the far-reaching purpose and the world-wide significance of the people and religion of Israel. The narrative has not travelled far till it becomes apparent that its dominant interests are to be religious and moral; for, after a pictorial sketch of
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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